Trust exhibit in Stone and Alton
Visit Canal Cruising Co on Saturday 2 October - the boatyard at the heart of canal town Stone – and explore taking a holiday afloat, life on board a working narrow boat and restoring the lost canals of Staffordshire with volunteers from The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) Stoke-on-Trent branch and Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust.
Family-run business Canal Cruising Co is delighted to host an IWA Waterway
Community Day during Stone’s annual Food & Drink Festival. Visitors
can explore on board a modern holiday boat, look in the back cabin of an
historic working narrow boat and go Wild Over Waterways –WOW –
with FREE children’s activities exploring life afloat, traditional
canal art and water safety.
There will be displays about Staffordshire’s waterways plus the opportunity to buy canal gifts and Christmas cards and to take part in a grand draw to win a short break aboard a Canal Cruising boat – with all proceeds going to IWA Stoke-on-Trent branch restoration projects such as the nearby Uttoxeter Canal and Burslem Port.
Julie Arnold, Wild Over Waterways Coordinator IWA Stoke-on-Trent branch, comments: “A visit to Canal Cruising Company’s boat yard during the Food & Drink Festival is a fantastic opportunity to discover more about boating holidays and Stone’s great canal heritage. We are also celebrating the centenary of the birth of Tom Rolt, a founding father of The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) and the campaign that has led to the renaissance of canals for leisure and as a focus of regeneration.
Rolt’s book Narrow Boat (1946) describes arriving in the small country market town of Stone, with its graceful buildings, breweries and crowds of Saturday shoppers – and buying a “Staffordshire Evening Sentinel” having lost track of time as he enjoyed his week’s journey on the county’s canals. Indeed, Canal Cruising Co. Ltd has been operating their boat hire business here for over 60 years too - longer than any other on the canals. In 1953 the Wyatt family was instrumental in founding an association of pleasure craft operators that continues to promote boating holidays on Britain’s inland waterways today; now their modern hire boats set standards for quality holidays afloat.
The Waterway Community Day activities are a great way to experience boats and the canal in Stone, and to find out more about enjoying waterways – boating, walking, cycling, fishing and even joining in, getting muddy, working on restoring a canal!”
“Waterway Community Day”, Saturday 2nd October, 10.00 to 5.00pm, at Canal Cruising Co. Ltd, Crown Street, Stone, ST15 8QN, by Yard Lock (No. 28) Trent & Mersey Canal.
The following day we move to Alton, where we will be focussing on the Uttoxeter Canal which runs past the village. Our exhibition shows both the historic line of the canal and our exciting plans for restoration. Please come and talk to us about these plans, and about how you can soon become involved in work parties on the Canal.
“Alton Exhibition Day”, Sunday 3rd October, 10.30 to 4.00pm, at the Village Hall, Alton, Staffs. See the village website for directions.