WHITCHURCH WATERWAY TRUST

SUMMER NEWSLETTER

Dear Member

The boat rally is on 18th and 19th September and we would like you to come along and support it if you can. If you have an hour or two to spare would you come along and sell some raffle tickets, or give Rod and Doris a break on the bric-a-brac stall. If you are feeling fit you could help with the bridge wind for a while or shake a bucket for donations from passing boaters and pedestrians. There are many ways you could help if you want to.

If you don't have the time, or inclination, for that do come along and look at the boats and stalls. Mike will cook you a delicious bacon sandwich if you give him some money. Visit the café for a cup of tea and a piece of home made cake and say hello. I do like to meet the members and put a face to a name. Bring your dog along for the fun dog show on Sunday afternoon. Registration is from 12pm at the Trust stand on Sunday. Tom Leonard will be judging again. There are lots of classes and prizes. Any contributions for the bric-a-brac stall, or a raffle prize or a cake for the cake stall would be welcome and can be delivered to Chemistry Farm any time.

Josephine Richardson has resigned from the rally committee as she and Andrew are moving to Spain. The committee thank her for her hard work and commitment to the boat rally. We will miss her very much.

We have decided not to have a plant stall this year as they don't seem to sell well at this time of year. We thought we would have a plant sale in May instead, here at Chemistry Farm. If you enjoy growing plants and taking cuttings why not bring them along for sale. Half of the plant price to you and half to the Trust. Or if you have lots of plants you could sell them yourself and contribute by paying f,5.00 for a table. If you have other better ideas let me know.

There is steady progress on the new basin. Some quotes have been obtained for drilling soil samples and more are awaited. Permission from Shropshire Council is waiting on confirmation of health and safety issues.

Four volunteers have been busy draining the towpath on the offside of the canal as it is quite wet. Three of them then dug holes for French drains, filled the holes with large gravel and then laid a stone topping. They have used a dumper truck to move the stones from the delivery site to the end of the canal and then wheel-burrowed it along the towpath. Very tiring work for those entitled to a bus pass. After that they removed the soil build-up by Chemistry Bridge and put grass turfs down and a new wide pathway to the offside. They were able to build the pathway due to the generous donation of large paving slabs from Alison and Gary (and I can tell you they were extremely heavy - I don't just sit in front of a computer you know). We are awaiting delivery of a gate which will be erected for better protection of the boats on the long-term moorings. We didn't have any luck with the contractor who was going to remove the dredging from the end of the canal so it is back to rakes. The leaves may be going to the allotment society to be made into leaf mould. That is what I do with it. Anyone who wants some, bring a sack and a shovel and help yourself.

We could really do with some help with other issues to do with the running of the Trust.

We need someone to produce and edit a magazine.

We need a membership secretary.

We need a person/people who are good at publicity and marketing.

We need more people to help with the maintenance of the arm and canal; e.g. some grass mowing and strimming, getting the leaves out and other jobs as they occur.

You don't need to be on a committee to help but we need more committee members as well.

If you have the necessary skills, have a few hours to spare and would like to help please get in touch.

For those of you who don't live too far away I am enclosing a small version of our super rally poster. If you could put it in your window we might get loads more visitors. We are able to use the grass area adjacent to Chemistry car park for extra parking this year so many thanks to Shropshire Council.