Spring Newsletter 02 March 2014
We acknowledge that many of our valued members do not have access to the internet or our website and blog, so we welcome this opportunity to produce our Spring 2014 Newsletter a little early.
Of recent past activities our Sea Shanty Evening held at the Newark Rowing Club on the 27th September was a real success with all tickets sold and full attendance and participation. Our thanks to Liam Robinson and his team. The meat was donated by member Brendan Minihane, James Wilkinson provided the superb venue and bar facilities, and the committee was hard at work behind the scenes. We look forward to the next Sea Shanty Evening being planned now – we will keep you posted on developments.
The Rayburn wood burner we so desperately needed to upgrade the heating in time for the AGM was installed in time thanks to the concerted efforts of Les Reid and Dave Turner. The donation from County Councillor Tony Roberts on the occasion of our 60th anniversary was utilised to purchase and install the wood burner.
Talks and Visits. These include Sutton Bonnington Historical Society, Rotary Club of Bingham, East Midlands Industrial Archaeology Conference, Newark Probus Club, Bingham Arthritis Club. In September, Glenn Stones who works for Whitakers tankers came from Hull with his father Tom and uncles Dennis and Brian. Les spent a lot of time as a lad on board their tankers Coledale and Brocodale.He also brought Harry Bogg and Harry Ledger, also retired boatmen. All sorts of old memories and stories came out -some repeatable , some not! Thank you all for joining as members.
Margi and Hes again produced a stunning Christmas Tree with our Leicester Trader model for the presentation in the St Mary Magdalene Church, thanks to all who also helped with this project.
Les and Hester attended conferences at Nottingham and Leicester Universities in connection with and to publicise our workshops on Trade and Transport on the Trent, and we continue hosting these workshops, all welcome to attend. The next scheduled workshops are Saturday 8th March on board, Saturday 5th April, venue to be confirmed, Saturday 26th April North Muskham Village Hall 9am – 5 pm (final workshop). Please let Hes know well in advance if you wish to attend for catering purposes.
The Commercial Barge Operators Association held their January Committee Meeting aboard on the 16th January, well attended.Their secretary David Lowe is one of our life members and Les is a member.
The main future activity at this time we are planning for is the lifting of the Leicester Trader from the water to be cleaned for a hull inspection and survey. We still need this to cost the necessary repairs as determined from the survey to apply for the necessary funds. We will be taking up the offer made by Land and Water Limited to lift Leicester Trader at the same time they are lifting another boat meaning considerable cost savings to ourselves for which we are grateful. Leading up to this at the end of March we will need help to clear and prepare the boat, please contact Les if you can help. Hopefully health and safety restrictions will allow those of us wishing to witness this spectacular event to do so. Please contact Les towards the end of March for specific timings and venue.