Features

CHARACTERS of the Cut: Christine Wood, Traditional Canalware

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May 13, 2025

Alice Elgie reports… IT SEEMS like Christine Wood was blessed with the right name for her trade, busy as she is painting not only traditional canalware but also restoring interesting, unusual and antique pieces of furniture. She shared with me: “When I was 14 I saved my pocket money and bought a wood turning lathe…
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NAVIGATION DREAM edges closer with £20,000 boost

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April 26, 2025

A RESEARCH project which aims to uncover the history of the Melton and Oakham waterways – and ultimately reopen it to boats – can continue its work thanks to a £20,000 grant from the National Lottery. The Melton & Oakham Waterways Society (MOWS) will use the money to finance an 18-month project for further research…
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CHARACTERS OF THE CUT: Marcelo Duarte – from Sao Paulo to the Kennet & Avon

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April 25, 2025

Alice Elgie reports… WHEN Marcelo Duarte moved to the UK from Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, where he had been born and raised alongside more than 22 million people, he had no idea he was heading towards an entirely new – and somewhat quieter – life, living on the canals of England. He explained: “My…
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FREIGHT on the waterways update

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April 23, 2025

Jonathan Mosse’s monthly look at freight development on the inland waterways.BLEATING away on a monthly basis in a waterways magazine about the discrepancies in recognition of modal freight paths in the UK might, on the face of it, appear to be a fairly fruitless and therefore soul-destroying occupation. But is it? Let’s start by saying…
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FLOATING MUSUEM gets TV spot

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April 9, 2025

The restoration of a 1923-built keel into a piece of living history has been featured on primetime TV. THE Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society’s (HKSPS) ongoing work on Comrade was featured on the March 2 episode of the BBC’s flagship Sunday teatime programme Countryfile. The episode focused on the Humber Estuary, and how nature…
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BOATING BREAKS get top marks

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March 26, 2025

NEW research reveals that 87% of people who took a quintessentially British holiday on the nation’s historic navigable canals and rivers would definitely recommend it to others. Of the domestic holidaymakers and those from all over the globe who were questioned, an impressive 92% felt their holiday was value for money and overall satisfaction with…
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FEED THE BIRDS… but with the right food

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March 13, 2025

Lucy Wood reports… NORTH East Lincolnshire-based James (Jim) Elliott, known as the Canoe River Cleaner, regularly takes to his local waterways in a canoe to clear litter and fly-tipping, conduct wildlife surveys and more, all the while promoting the well-being benefits of being outdoors. Among the environmental issues he highlights, he campaigns heavily about using…
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THE WEST is silent

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February 18, 2025

Tim Coghlan looks at the remarkable life of Timothy West CBE both on stage and on the water – ‘a man who in his time played many parts’. TIMOTHY West, who died in November last year, was born in Bradford in 1934 into an acting family and spent his wartime boyhood in the Bristol Blitz. He later…
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BEHIND THE SCENES at Leeds River Lock 1

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February 15, 2025

The Canal & River Trust’s winter maintenance programme is imperative to the upkeep of Britain’s canal network. Sally Clifford gets a glimpse behind the scenes at one of the charity’s repair and restoration projects. STEPPING down into a drained lock is a rare opportunity and certainly, a sight to behold. Concealed beneath the natural flow…
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RIVER CANAL RESCUE: maintenance course dates

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January 15, 2025

River Canal Rescue is now taking bookings for its two-day maintenance courses, running at its Stafford HQ on: 18/19 February, 4/5 and 26/27 March, 10/11 and 23/24 April, 7/8 and 21/22 May and 11/12 and 25/26 June. The boat and engine maintenance course covers how to maintain diesel engines and the systems within a narrowboat,…
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ARTS BARGE ‘built with kindness’ takes shape

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January 14, 2025

Plans to transform a former grain barge into an arts venue are well under way. Sally Clifford popped by to check progress on the historic Selby Tony. Body text: THE deluge from the previous days’ downpours has to be dealt with before tools can be turned to the jobs in hand. Removing water from the…
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MUSEUM FOCUS: Essex quayside historic steam tug

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January 13, 2025

Nicola Lisle visits the 80-year-old steam tug Brent, currently moored on the River Blackwater in Maldon, Essex, and finds out about ambitious restoration plans… MALDON’S quay, The Hythe, was once a busy industrial port, home to thriving boatyards and a fleet of barges transporting goods to Chelmsford and London. Today the remaining barges are an…
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FREIGHT DEVELOPMENTS on inland waterways

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December 10, 2024

Jonathan Mosse’s monthly look at freight development on the inland waterways. IT IS my unshakeable belief that the fact that we still have a functional commercial inland waterways system is largely down to individuals and not to the people who are entrusted with running them – the navigation authorities. Wood, Hall & Heward (WHH: a…
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EXPLORING your canal ancestry

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December 9, 2024

In the latest in her family history series, Nicola Lisle looks at how you can trace ancestors who fell foul of the law… IF YOU’VE hit a brick wall with any of your ancestors – such as names suddenly disappearing from census returns – it’s possible they had strayed from the straight and narrow. Crime…
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