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September 2008

The Magazine of theWest Riding Branch

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Contents

The Chairman’s Musings.........................................................................3The Rise and Fall of the Northumbria Branch of IWA...........................7News from the Ouse/Ure Corridor Section...........................................10My link to the ROTHERY family of Bargees.......................................12Our First Ever Sighting of an in the Buff Male Bank Strutter, not quitein breeding condition.............................................................................15A Warm Welcome!................................................................................16The Mile Post.........................................................................................16Joint Meeting.........................................................................................17Letters....................................................................................................17Committee Members 2008 / 2009.........................................................19Programme of Events for 2008/2009....................................................20

IWA Headquarters .Postal Address - PO Box 114, Rickmansworth, WD3 1ZY.Location of Building - 3, Norfolk Court, Rickmansworth, WD3 1LT.Telephone - 01923 711114. www.waterways.org.uk

NOTE: The views expressed in this publication are not necessarilythose of The Inland Waterways Association or of The West RidingBranch. They are, however, published as being of interest to our mem-bers and readers.

Front cover.Steam Boat President passes close to the West RidingBranch stand, at the IWA National Festival at AutherleyJunction.

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THE CHAIRMAN’S MUSINGS

Welcome to the members of IWA Northumbria Branch whochose to join us when their branch decided to wind up. It’s along way to Leeds for meetings, so MilePost will be the bestway to keep in touch. Members may prefer to be in a branchcovering their favourite waterways instead of the one closestto home; that could affect how best IWA is organised, and weneed some data to help the discussion …

1068 members, about 9%, responded to the membershipsurvey in the February Waterways magazine; the organiserssay this is a good enough sample to conclude: 65% of us areretired, 43% are over 65 yrs old and 84% over 55 years; and60% of us are boat owners.

With only a two-year wait for my bus pass, it’s good to thinkI’m still relatively young: but our collective age profile meanswe probably have less money to give to the waterways, anddeclining energies to give to the Association. We need ourCouncil to be concerned for the recruitment of the nextgeneration of Members. Maybe we need IWA to reach outbetter, to become once more THE voice of the waterways,instead of one of many fragmented organisations each withever-more specialised interests (and usually smaller mem-bership fees).

It needs vision and leadership to justify our annual subscrip-tion and keep us in the forefront of our campaign for the nextfifteen years towards our 75th anniversary. Council hasagreed that internal organisation changes are needed: but

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even with the benefit of three years of discussions it hasn’tagreed how to achieve them, and the AGM ‘special’ resolu-tion this year just does some minor tidying-up. The votingprocedures for those absent from Daventry on 27th Septem-ber are in the latest Waterways and there is a form to appointa proxy to carry your views to the meeting.

Once we have the organisation we need for the future – andthe longer we take to achieve it, the less time and energythere is for the waterways – we will find there continues to beno shortage of waterways issues to be sorted out. I feel aspeech coming on …

BW Chief Executive Robin Evans has been holding a seriesof meetings around the country, recognising that until nowBW has “talked too much, listened too little”; judging from themeeting I attended at Mexborough, lots of people have lots tosay. Questioned about volunteers on the waterways, Robinsaid that BW were good in pockets, but overall poor atwelcoming volunteers, thanking them, and fully appreciatingtheir contribution. There had been 8000 volunteer-days lastyear and in aiming for a 50% increase, BW needs to speakwith volunteers differently from how it speaks to contractorsand its own people, while still maintaining a safe workingenvironment.

He was relaxed about failing to dredge the commercialwaterways to their working depth: if Government fails to willthe means (grant the money) then some statutory duties willbe wanting; with declining commercial use, this is the leastpainful; so when new commercial traffic needs more depth,the total cost to BW exceeds the extra income. I wasn’tconvinced, but it was an innovative line of argument.

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This led to discussion of the overall safety of structures;having described the classification system succinctly to theparliamentary select committee, Robin is well rehearsed atexplaining this. All BW assets (structures) have a mainte-nance classification of 1(best) to 5(worst) and a separateconsequence-of-failure assessment of A (fatalities) to D(“mayinconvenience a swan”). All 5A, “serious risks to public safe-ty” have been resolved, and the level of government fundingdetermines how long other structures remain in a poor state.

Government seeks a measure of what it is getting for its BWmoney, and this is to be calibrated in a ‘Stewardship score’taking account of the state of the assets and other measuresof BW performance. I asked whether “availability of naviga-tion” featured in this score. If the choices for use of moneyinclude restrictions or closures to navigation, what are thebenefits internally to BW to adopt the keep-it-open coursecompared to the closure. For example, to help checks onlicence evasion, BW propose to close locks at either end ofthe Kennet and Avon overnight: this can deny eight hours ofcruising to those who enjoy these enchanted hours of lateevening and early morning light. He said there isn’t currentlya open-to-navigation element to the score, and they ‘wrote itdown’ as an issue.

Among many other specific issues, Robin picked out firtlingfor comment. BW maintenance people do a lot of this: it’swhen they make-do-and-mend both to tools and equipment,and to locks and structures. There comes a time when it’sbetter to decide to do a proper expensive repair job, ratherthan lots of temporary fixes: the maintenance teams haverestraints on their funds, but they are not zero, and can oftenbe best used on longer-term maintenance tasks. This re-quires a culture change in the organisation.

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Finishing the legging of Braunston Tunnel in May: Sue Day,our speaker for November, is on the right wing-board; storyand pictures in December, maybe? Anyway, Elaine and Ihave had a few weeks away from boating during the peaksummer season, and that’s left a gap to consult the RobertAickman papers housed in the National Archive (PublicRecord Office) in Kew. I recommend it as a day out, with thewhole range of Government papers to browse: now we’re offto the National at Wolverhampton. When you read this, I hopeI smiled when you called in at the Branch Stand, and yougave Elaine a wave on the Lavender boat.

Peter Scott

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THE RISE AND FALL OF NORTHUMBRIABRANCH OF I W A

byFred Stearman

1) The Formation

Marian and I joined I W A in the autumn of 1970, as a result ofconversations with a leading member of I W A whom we had meton a boating holiday that summer. At that time, I W A Branches were very large, the North-eastBranch covering Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland. At afield trip to the Driffield Canal on 10th October 1971 we fell intoconversation with John Croot, then living in Sunderland. Findingthat we were travelling quite a distance from the north to BranchEvents (even social events being held in mid-Yorkshire), we won-dered if there were enough other members in our area to make localmeetings feasible. John subsequently obtained a list of membersliving in Northumberland and Durham and wrote to them, 45 inall.

John called a meeting in Newcastle on 6th November 1971, thenin Durham on 25th April and 7th June 1972. Response was goodand at a meeting on 20th July, Northumbria Section was formed, itsobjectives defined and a programme of events planned. The firstpublic meeting was held at the Three Tuns Hotel, Durham onThursday 19th October 1972 on the theme of restoration and at aformally- minuted committee meeting on 1st November, 1972,officers were elected and a winter programme agreed. The firstAGM was held on 15th May 1973. Coincidentally, in 1972, I W A began considering changes tothe Association's Branch structure. A new structure was finally

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approved in March 1974 and on 1st July 1974 we becameNorthumbria Branch of North-east Region instead of NorthumbriaSection of North-east Branch.

2) Halcyon Days

In the early days, Branch activities flourished, with support fromstudents from the Durham University Industrial ArchaeologyGroup and there were walking trips on waterways such as theHuddersfield Narrow, the Rochdale, the Pocklington and thederelict canals in the Manchester area, boat trips on the Lancaster,the River Don and many more. Fund-raising and publicity camefrom the well-attended Craft Fairs organised each year. The Branchran two successful navigation campaigns in 1994/95. The first wasto prevent the Tees (Newport) Bridge from being permanently fixedin a closed position, and the second was to have a navigation lockincluded in the construction of the Tees Barrage. Although thebridge is not likely ever to be raised again, this remains theoreticallypossible, and the lock is used for access to the sea by craft from boatclubs in the Stockton area. These achievements were celebrated in1995 by a Boat Rally and Cruise called Tees Upstream. Boatstravelled from Stockton to the limit of navigation above Yarm.There was sufficient support to justify inviting visiting speakers totravel considerable distances to give talks at the open meetings, andthere was no problem in getting volunteers for the Committee andfor the official positions. Initially most of the Committee were fromthe Tyne area, although I was the first Treasurer for a short time.There was quite a rapid turnover of officials at first, resulting in agradual shift to the Teesside area. John Reeve became chairman in1980 and remained until becoming Region chairman in 1986.Marian Stearman became Secretary in 1978, and there has been noone else since! Bill Curle became treasurer in 1977 and continueduntil he resigned in 1998 I think Marian and I are the onlymembers from the earliest days still active in the Branch to the end,

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although others are still active for the waterways elsewhere. Ibelieve four others of the original 45 contacted by John were stillmembers of the Branch until the end.

3) The Fall

Membership of the Branch has continued to rise, but interest inBranch activities gradually declined, although public interest hasnever been great. In recent years we have not been able to attractmembers of the public, or indeed our own members, to our eventsgenerally, although it has only been in the last year or so that we haddifficulty in finding officials. Marian’s announcement, a year inadvance, that she would not continue after the 2008 AGM (30 yearsbeing more than enough!) did not result in any volunteer, and theCommittee knew that there was no chairman-elect. More important-ly, perhaps, the Committee realised that it no longer had a purpose;whatever objectives or function it might have had in providing forthe Branch members, promoting I W A etc. it was no longer doingso. Items in the Branch Newsletter outlining the situation producedno response and it was clear that at the 2008 AGM a decision todissolve the Branch would be inevitable. This proved to be so, andat a Special General Meeting on 10th April 2008 this decision wasconfirmed.

A very sad ending to a once- flourishing Branch after 36 years

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News from the Ouse/Ure Corridor Section

Dragon Boat RacesThe weather was fine all day, unlike last year, and the small gazebo,which we shared with the River Foss Society, was a great success. Manythanks to everybody who helped out. A special thanks to Liz and ChrisPinder for supplying the gazebo.

Castle Mills LockCastle Mills Lock, which we took over the keeping of from May 1st 2008,has gone quiet lately. However, we have had two boats go throughsuccessfully and have a new recruit, Andy Chase, who will be joining theIWA and will be trained to operate the lock.

Next season (2009) we will be changing the opening arrangements to setdates throughout the season, which will be widely advertised. This willenable people to look at their diaries and put their names down for setdates, and, hopefully, will mean more than one boat at a time, so as tosave on water and time. The current season's arrangements will stay asthey are, as they have been widely publicised.

April 2009I have started talking to various organisations in York about hosting aweekend for boaters in York. The weekend that is being discussed is:24th, 25th and 26th April. The Boaters Christian Fellowship and theIWA will be involved. At the time of going to press, there are two eventsorganised, an Evensong on the Sunday at St Olave's Church, Marygateand a talk by the Rev. John Lee, of St Paul's Church, Holgate, whorecently sailed a yacht across the Atlantic from the Canaries to Burmuda,as one of the crew.

Watch this space.

The Marina at Bishopthorpe.I hope you would agree that the proposed marina project on the old York

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Marine (Blakes) site at Bishopthorpe - now owned by Peter Mandy, adeveloper, is an interesting development. So long as there are plenty ofmoorings available for visitors.

Many thanks,Tony Martin

Tony Martin is Chair of Ouse/Ure Corridor Section of the Inland Water-ways Association (IWA) in North Yorkshire.

Please use this e-mail address if interested in booking a passage throughCastle Mills Lock, York. amartin_assoc@yahoo.co.uk Two daysnotice is needed. OR telephone: 07868-619-859. Twentyfour hour voicemessaging service.

Please leave your name, mobile number, name of boat and proposed dateof passage. Thank you.

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Castle Mills Lock, York

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My link to the ROTHERY family of Bargees

All the years I have been associated with the Yorkshire Canals little didI know that one day I would find a Bargee family link.

My family history concerns the ANDREW family of Swanland, in theEast Riding and where I was born. It is close to the River Humber andduring my school days in Hull, I was well aware of the many bargestraveling up and down the river. There were 3 other Marks found in ourfamily, the first was the Wheelwright of North Ferriby in 1798 and hisson Mark in 1828.

Father Mark had a twin brother Matthew, both were baptised in SwanlandIndependent Chapel. Matthew had a son William who married ElizabethQUEST, an unusual surname. William had a son Mark born in Swanlandin 1862 and with his brothers John and Henry, sisters Rhoda and Annie,could not be located in any further research.

Until Eureka ! Mark turned up in a search having lived in Toledo OhioUSA, and died in Los Angeles in 1928.

But the interesting canal link is to his young brother Henry Andrew whoemigrated to Toledo from Canada in 1887 had a fiancee ElizabethROTHERY who decided to emigrate with the older sister Susan andhusband, Arthur Simpson, a barber on Ocean Liners. They all purchasedtickets and sailed to Philadelphia in 1894 traveling overland to NorwalkOH to meet Henry Andrew.

Document’s from family members show the ROTHERY family connect-ed to the canal trade for a number of generations. A census search foundin 1871 John Rothery born about 1831 in Doncaster, Master of Barge‘Bendles’ at Knottingley. Ten years later he was in Hull, a waterman andthen in 1901 Captain of the Canal Barge ‘The Ark of Hull’ at MonkBretton colliery. The family records suggest he met his death by beingmurdered on the Hull docks.In the 1871 census his wife Ann was listed as Masters Wife on the ‘FairMaid’ in Queens Dock Hull. She was born Ann Rayner at Sandal Magna,

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Wakefield and I have seen records that the Rayner family were also BargeMasters. There was a Frank Rayner, Engineer on the Trent Navigation.

Eight children were born in Hull from 1854 to 1871 and when tracingsons James and Benjamin they were found in 1881 at Sowerby in Halifax,Master and Mate of the Barge ‘ Balby ‘. Then in 1891 Benjamin wasCaptain of the Barge ‘ Victory ‘ found at Thorne.

James was married in Hull in 1884 to Charlotte Ann Wilcox and thenemigrated to Canada where they raised a family. Luckily one of thedescendants of the Rothery family from the USA has produced picturesof the canal and barge at Sprotborough Lock and also of the Bargebelonging to James and Benjamin.

James and Ben were the third generation of the family on the canals.Their grandfather was born at Hollin Hall (Sandal), married a Doncasterwoman and carried cargo to Sheffield on the Don. Then his wife died in

The barge belonging to James and Benjamin.

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the cholera epidemic of 1832 and he took the family to Leeds where hisoldest son became a sloopman, and his younger son a keelboatman.

The younger son married and moved to Fall Ing, Wakefield, then Kirk-gate. His oldest son died at the age of 3 after being hit by a coal wagonon a tramway at Allerton Bywater. His 3rd daughter was born on the"Crinolene" in Leeds Canal basin. The family (who lived on the boat atthat time) were counted twice on the 1871 census--once at Queens Dock,Hull, and again at Knottingley. His wife died at Thornhill and was buriedat St. Michael and All Angels while the family were delivering a cargo toSowerby Bridge. From then on the family were mostly based in Hull.Tom, James and Ben worked on the boats. Ben is in the 1891 censuspassing through Thorne lock.

Great grandmother Simpson mentioned traveling by canal as far south asStoke on Trent. Her father was loading coal at Barnsley in the 1901census. There's one photo of James on his keelboat, but later than 1881--itwas a postcard but he was identified on the back

Elizabeth Andrew nee Rothery with daughter Annie and sister in lawRhoda visited Swanland in 1914 in steerage on RHS Cedric because ofthe World War I on a Troop Ship and returned on RMS Franconia laterin the year.In the US records my namesake Mark is described as a Carpenter, whichwas a family tradition, but also as ‘Then Black Sheep of the Family ‘.

Fascinating research.

Mark AndrewIWA MemberMember and Former Chairman Calder Navigation Soc.Developer of Sowerby Bridge BasinFormer Chairman Salt Warehouse TrustStarted Shire Cruisers LtdMember Rochdale Canal Soc.Former West Yorkshire County CouncillorFormer Water Space Amenity Commissioner

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OUR FIRST EVER SIGHTING OF AN IN THE BUFF MALEBANK STRUTTER, NOT QUITE IN BREEDING CONDITION.

A friend of mine, a retired British Waterways employee, passes on to mehis complimentary monthly B W magazine. In the May 08 issue, BW areagain appealing for sightings of wildlife in, on and around our waterways.I wonder if they would be interested in a very rare species my wife and Ispotted strutting along the Aire and Calder hauling bank, mid-waybetween what was once No 4 swing bridge and the New Canal end. It wasspotted a good way ahead of us on the lovely, warm, sunny afternoon ofthe 29th May. As our boat and it converged it became apparent that I hadnever seen this species in surroundings like this before. Doreen was nowaware of its presence, and as we still could not make out any details, wewere in discussion about its plumage, which appeared to be an all overlight tan. The gap was rapidly closing, when Doreen and I said almosttogether “It’s got nothing on.” It was indeed a male of the species not yetat the height of breeding condition. We were given a further full frontalwhen he turned to face us and cupped an ear to hear me say more plainly“Get some clothes on you dirty old bugger”. But I did not repeat it andregretted having said it for I am a firm believer of free speech andexpression and with-out doubt he was making a bald statement. Heshrugged his shoulders spread his hands in resignation, turned and saun-tered off nonchalantly towards Pollington where he would have had torun a gauntlet of a group of fishermen who were fishing from that bankat Pollington Lock tail.There were four Strawberry Island Boat Club members sitting in the sunon the Pollington visitor moorings, did they see anything of this strangebird.A very slow moving narrowboat that we passed shortly after our sightingcould have been, I think must have been, his back up team.

Ken and Doreen

NB Elsinore.

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‘A Warm Welcome!’

The West Riding Branch extends a warm welcome to these memberswho have joined us since the last Mile Post. We hope to meet you atsome of our branch meetings.

Mr G Appleyard TadcasterMr P Swaffield Harrogate

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The Mile Post.

Is there anyone out there who could help the branch by writingsomething for inclusion in the Milepost. Have you been on aninteresting boating trip? Tell us about it.. Is there somethingwaterways related you feel strongly about? Write us a letter aboutit.. Any amusing stories? Tell us all! E-mail us atboblaing@blueyonder.co.uk , hand it to one of us, or post it to anycommittee member before the end of December. We look forwardto hearing from you.

We would like to give a big thank-you to all the people who havealready sent us articles for inclusion in the Mile Post. You havemade our job much easier and our magazine more interesting.

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Joint Meeting.There is to be a joint meeting for members of the West Riding and theEast Lancs and Cumbria branches of the IWA. It will be held onWednesday 24th September 2008 at 8pm at The Old Stone Trough,Colne Road, KELBROOK (between Foulridge and Earby).The subject is ‘The Reopening of the Skipton - Colne Railway’ and thetalk will be given by Andy Shackleton.

All welcome.

For more information contact Madeline Dean at Madeline.Dean@care4free.net

LettersTo all at IWA West Yorkshire,

Many thanks for last year, our first with the  IWA. The meetings werevery interesting, & we learnt a lot about our waterways.We bought a 23' rivercruiser at the end of this May &, having been on 2courses in June (boat-handling & VHF radio), brought her back fromColwick, Nottingham, down (?) the buttock clenching Trent to Torksey,where we turned on to the Fossdyke for Lincoln. The journey took 2 days,& we met some really helpful people along the way. However, the firstlock-keeper on the Trent at Holme lock was the most unhelpful, butprobably because he was rather busy as we had to go in with the Notting-ham Princess, a large tour boat, which was a bit discomknockerating!Thank heavens that June 2008 was not  as wet as June 2007, althoughPeter & Elaine's pictures of being caught in the floods last year  weremagnificent.TTFN

Best wishes from Pauline & David Mitchell

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ChairmanPeter Scott3 Moorbank DriveSheffield S10 5THHome 0114 230 1870

SecretaryIan Moore2 Eric Street,BramleyLeeds. LS13 1ETMobile 07989 112581E-mail westriding@waterways.org.uk

TreasurerWilliam JowittOak Lodge1 Oakridge CourtBingley BD16 4 TAHome 01274 567950

Membership SecretaryChris Pinder152 High StreetYeadonLeeds LS19 7ABHome 01132 509371

Minutes SecretaryLiz Pinder152 High StreetYeadonLeeds LS19 7ABHome 01132 509371

Mile Post EditorBob Laing25 Bankfield RoadShipley BD18 4AJHome 01274 581800E-mail boblaing@blueyonder.co.uk

Mile Post EditorTricia Laing25 Bankfield RoadShipley BD18 4AJHome 01274 581800

Committee memberElliott Mosley23 Glenholm RoadBaildonShipley BD17 5QBHome 01274 581413

Web EditorElaine Scott3 Moorbank DriveSheffield S10 5THHome 0114 230 1870

Non Committee Posts

Meeting Co-ordinatorsKatie & Alastair SaylesHome 0113 393 4517E-mail: kandal@btinternet.com

Telephone contactAlistair FurnissHome 0113 253 9401

Regional ChairmanJohn Reeve10 Perth GroveStockton-on-TeesCleveland TS18 5BFHome 01642 580350

Committee Members 2008 / 2009

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Programme of Events for 2008/2009.All meetings take place at 8.00pm on the second Friday

of the month, in the top floor Social Club,Centenary House, North Street, Leeds, LS2 8AY.

12th September 08 The Life of Donald Bailey and his Bridge by Pablo Haworth

24th September 08 The Re-opening of the Skipton - Colne Railway by Andy Shackleton (Joint Meeting.)

10th October 08 The Canal Card Collectors Circle by Trevor Ellis

14th November 08 The Horseboating Society by Sue Day

12th December 08 Christmas Social and Members’ slides

9th January 09 Restoration of the Chesterfield Canal. By John Lower

13th February 09 Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal by John Fletcher

13th March 09 AGM

3rd April 09 Waterway Engineering by Laurence Morgan

Talks arranged by Alastair and Katy Sayles, 32 Pymont Drive,Woodlesford, Leeds LS26 8WA. Tel 0113 393 4517

Email: kandal@btinternet.comAll the meetings organised by the West Riding Branch are open andeveryone is invited. Any member of the general public is allowed to attendand members are invited to bring friends.The Inland Waterways Association campaigns for the Conservation, Use,Maintenance, Restoration and Development of the Inland Waterways,which are part of our heritage, and are there for the benefit of everyone.

For further information please contact 01274-581413