Our apologies for the lateness in the publication as we are short of a newsletter editor, and Secretary, we would welcome any assistance from members old and new.

Activities to date include:

Sconce and Devon Park 100 year celebration amidst glorious weather a lot of interest in our project was generated. We were visited by Newark and Sherwood District Councillor Dennis Jones.

Newark Festival in mid-June where we berthed in full view next to Newark Town Bridge was a dual event being the Leicester Trader’s 60th anniversary and the Festival. Visitors included Notts County Councillor Tony Roberts  who gave a  cheque for £500.00 towards our restoration project, also Newark Town Mayor Bryan Richardson. Our badge maker was christened as a Father’s Day attraction, we participated in the Newark Carnival procession around Newark with our model of Leicester Trader made by member Peter Smith, and sold out on our tombola! The interest shown by the public with visits over the Festival were encouraging to say the least. We estimate we had in excess of 300 visitors.

On our Open Day 4^th August at Newark Wharf we towed LT to Newark Town Wharf. Although the day was quiet  it  was  a berth we have not tried before, and we welcomed the opportunity to test the site for future use. Many thanks to Frank Dyson of Castle Barge Pub for his help and support on the day.

Recent visitors  have included Lincoln Mazda 5 Sports Car Club , Collingham Local History Society, Nottinghamshire Country Link, and Nottingham branch Inland Waterways Association.

Our future activities include:

Trade & Transport workshop Day (part 3) Sat 7^th September to be held  on board from 12:30 to 4 pm. Barge will be open from mid-morning.  Best to contact to Les in advance as soon as possible in order we can ascertain our catering needs.

27^th September Sea Shanty Evening. Please see pamphlet attached, our major fund raising event –please support!

Les’s talks continue to be of interest with 1 scheduled in September and 4 in  October. The monies generated from these talks contribute significantly to our operating costs and any members wishing to attend are very welcome.

The Converted community Barge Sobriety operating from the Yorkshire Waterways Museum at Goole called alongside Leicester Trader on en route to Nottingham.

Member Frank Major came to stay on his narrow boat Pride of Holderness and during his visit by painting coamings, weatherboard and decks.

Open days will be the 14^th and 15^th September to coincide with Heritage Open Days. On the 15^th we anticipate a reunion with a group of retired boatmen from Hull who Les has known from his school days!

Some 20 members in their respective vehicles visited the Leicester Trader today, met by Les and Marion. Les made his presentation on board below decks, and the visitors then enjoyed their self prepared lunch above decks to maximise the brief spell of sun! Our thanks and appreciation for your visit, we hope enjoyed yourselves.

The visitors assemble

Our most exciting news is that we have been successful in our application to register as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and we look forward to the future this holds for us. More on this as we progress…….

More news is our Diamond Jubilee (50th birthday celebrations) coinciding with the Newark Festival this year click here to find out more.

On other matters the Day School Transport and Trade on the Trent 1850-1970 held at the Newark Academy on the 18th May 2013 was a memorable and very worthwhile event – a full report and photo galleries to follow.

Mannekin of Fulbeck, Lincolnshire have kindly lent The Friends of Newark Heritage Barge two models to display the recently created barge worker clothes by volunteers Dorothy Britten and Margi Catley.  The reproduction clothes have been hand sewn for education workshops for primary school visitors to the barge.  For more information about Mannakin please visit their website http://www.mannakin.co.uk/ or call them on 01400 272219. Look out for our ‘Name the Mannequins competition’ which we’ll be running over the Newark Festival weekend 14th – 16th June.

Matt meets Les

Our Open Day held from 12 noon to 4:00 pm on Sunday 5th May attracted a  number of interesting visitors old and new, all in all a good day’s activities.Our photo shows visitor Matt Richards with project leader Les Reid sharing experiences and reviewing some of our artefacts.

Committee members Margi and Duncan got the new badgemaker working with badges and key rings, and we look forward to our next project, in all probability the Newark Festival in June – we will confirm this with a posting later.

Finally thank you to our visitors – we enjoyed your visit, and hope you did too!

Our next Open Day will be Sunday 7th June 2013 – please come and see us, we’d love to see you.

This superb giclee print is now available as a print or framed, and all proceeds from sales go to the restoration of ‘Leicester Trader’ –  for more details please see our sales page, or click on the image.

Long standing friend Bill Middleton and one of the last remaining regular barge skippers to run to Newark is 91 today. As he is staying with a relative in Knottingley I had a run up there to have a yarn and a pint with him. I collected member and also a former tanker skipper Frank Major and we called at the Waterways Museum at Goole, then went to the former Harkers shipyard and then on to see Bill.  Left to right, Frank Major, Les and Bill–birthday treat sausage and mash and a lager.

It is with sadness I have to tell you that my friend for many years Geoff Wheat passed away yesterday. He had been suffering from long and painful cancer treatment and it was hoped he would make a good recovery but unfortunately not to be.                       He was better known in recent years for skippering the Trent gravel barge Fusedale for Humber Barges Ltd. mainly on the Collingham to Whitwood run. He spent most of his working life either campaigning for commercial carrying or hands on reviving operations and has worked just about every navigation and every sort of carying craft,–too many to go into here. Unwittingley at the time, he was partly responsible for starting our project by asking me if I knew the name of a laid up barge at Knottingley when I went mate with him for a few trips back in 2005. When we had purchased what we finally found out was Leicester Trader he towed us from Knottingley to Cromwell on our journey home.

Geoff Wheat loading sand at Collingham, Feb 2005

Farndon Riverside pub true to the name.

Trip boat Newark Crusader seen accross the pub car park. Hope it stops rising before it gets to year 2000 level –there was a concern the pontoon would come off the top of its mooring piles. At one time this water seemed more predictable–we got it a week after the snow melt in Derbyshire.