Leicester Riverside Festival
Foxton Locks Open Day
Folk in the Museum at Foxton Locks Canal Museum
08 Jun 2014
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Address
Middle Lock
Gumley Road
Foxton
Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 7RT
Free event
Folk in the Museum on Sunday 8th June
Free event, please take part or sit back and enjoy
For more information please call Tel: 0116 2792 657
Canal News
Canal paintings at Audlem Mill
06 Apr – 04 May 2014
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Every year, Audlem Mill in Cheshire hosts an exhibition of what is probably now the largest number of canal paintings assembled anywhere.
The 2014 Canal Art Exhibition from 6 April to 4 May, organised in conjunction with the Guild of Waterway Artists, will include paintings, and some photographs, by many of the best canal artists in the country.
The 2013 exhibition featured at least 160 works. Most of the Guild members were represented, including painters Sarah Pressland, Dusty Miller, Helen Harding, Sylvia Hankin, Lesley Pearson, Penny Taylor-Beardow and Louise Moore (also photographs), linoprint arist Eric Gaskell, and photographer Chris Nugent, as well as paintings by others such as Tony Lewery (perhaps better known for being an expert on Rose & Castles painting), Dave Holloway, and Malcom Davies and local artists including Sheila M Webster.
The exhibition always attracts many hundreds of visitors from all across the country.
The Canal Art Exhibition is just one of many events at Audlem Mill during 2014 which will be of interest to boaters. There will be exhibitions of needlework and canal related items, and there is also the gathering of about 40 historic narrow boats on 26/27 July, organised by Audlem Mill as part of the village’s Festival of Transport, which also has around 300 old vehicles on the second day – completely free days out.
Audlem Mill, one of the oldest and best known canal shops, is at Audlem Wharf, close to bridge 78 on the Shropshire Union Canal. For visitors by boat, there are moorings right outside the Mill.
Foxton Locks open day
06 Apr 2014
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Free event
Folk in the Museum on Sunday 6th April
Free event, please take part or sit back and enjoy
For more information please call Tel: 0116 2792 657
A volunteer at the bottom of Lock 66 Grand Union Canal holding the WW2 helmet
A watched phone never rings.
I’m waiting for a colleague to ring me back because I want to take a picture of him with a hat. Not very exciting, you may think. But it’s not just any old hat. It’s a World War 2 steel helmet of the type worn by all branches of HM forces as well as the police and emergency services, including civil defence personnel (the Home Guard – unfairly dubbed ‘Dad’s Army’) and air raid patrol wardens.
The helmet was found at the bottom of Apsley Lock 66, Grand Union Canal, when it was drained in preparation for replacing the gates. While the lock was empty, we held one of our weekend open days and more than 1,200 members of the public came and had a look at some of the things we do to keep 2,000 miles of canals and rivers in working order.
Throughout the day groups of visitors were shown around the chamber of lock 66 by staff and volunteers. As well as free lock tours there were children’s activities run by education volunteer co-ordinator Elaine Stanley and her Explorers team, an opportunity to try fishing under the watchful eye of match booking organiser Dick Pilkinton and national angling development manager Becca Dent, boat trips, and guided tours of Frogmore Mill. National volunteering manager Ed Moss and volunteer leader South East Miriam Tedder had made sure there was a heavy volunteer involvement on the day. Despite the cold January weather, there was a real festival atmosphere.
Anyway, back to the hat. Down in the lock, the helmet – which was thought at first to be a theatrical or fancy dress prop – was shown to interested visitors. Because of the queues of customers waiting to go down into the lock, I was using the ‘family hold back’ philosophy, so I didn’t get the chance to take a close up of the chap who found the helmet – which has now been verified as the genuine article by the ‘Curator Uniforms, Personal Equipment and Flags’ no less, – that’s a great job title isn’t it? – at the Imperial War Museum! I hope my colleague rings back soon…
02 Feb 2014 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Address:
Middle Lock Gumley Road Foxton Market Harborough
Leicestershire LE16 7RT
Free event
Folk in the Museum on Sunday 2nd February
Free event, please take part or sit back and enjoy
For more information please call Tel: 0116 2792 657
Posted in Canal News
Tagged Aldridge, Canal & River Trust, Canal News, Folk in the Museum, Foxton Locks, Foxton Locks Canal Museum, Grand Union Canal, Waterways, WW2
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