British Waterways withdraws from the Cotswolds

It’s sad to read the news that British Waterways are withdrawing from the Cotswold Canals Partnership from April 2008.

With the government cuts to their funding and the need to find the money to repair the breach on the  Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal it was inevitable that something had to be cut.

It looks like the short arm of the Stroudwater Navigation at Saul Junction will be the only used section for a little longer than hoped.

Posted on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 07:16
Comments (1) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

Trow Stuffers Anonymous

The Cotswold Canals Trust produce a quarterly magazine (The Trow) for over 5,000 members.  Four times a year they enlist volunteers to stuff the magazines into envelopes, usually in the evening at the Saul Heritage Centre.

This time they met in the morning.  The task was larger than normal as this issue was accompanied by a leaflet about the Santa Special cruises, and by an A4 letter (which had to be folded in half), and by three books of raffle tickets.

This time I took advantage of the daylight to capture a little video footage of everyone working hard.  I produced the Cotswold Canals DVD last year and I’m collecting additional material for a supplementary DVD showing recent activities.

Needless to say I spent the rest of the three hours folding, collating, stuffing etc.

It’s a shame that British Waterways charge us for parking in an almost empty car park at the Heritage Centre for activities like this.

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 17:55
Comments (3) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

Hot Cakes

The Cotswold Canals DVDs are going like hot cakes.  That’s a box of 100 DVD for the Cotswold Canals Trust ready to be delivered to Gloucester today.

Around five years ago the Trust started a scheme for life members to join and spread their payments over 5 years and this has raised considerable funds for the Trust.

Now the five years is up and the standing orders ending the Trust is looking after those members and offering them a choice of a free book or DVD if they continue with their donations.  Hopefully this will continue to raise funds for the restoration of the Cotswold Canals.

Posted on Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 19:26
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Santa at Saul

The weather forecast for today was good - at least as good as can be expected for December - so it was off to Saul Junction. I’d heard that Santa might be visiting Saul Junction and I wanted to see if I could capture him on film for next year’s update to the Cotswold Canals DVD. As soon as I arrived I was spotted by David Pagett from the Cotswold Canals Trust who kindly introduce me to all the volunteers working so hard at the Heritage Centre. Many of them had already seen the DVD and they were all very complimentary.  Thank you everyone. David was such a good salesman that I had to keep my guard up or he would have sold me one! Perseverance, the CCT trip boat, had been decorated with Christmas decorations and Santa had borrowed the boat for his grotto. He had just popped out when I took this photo but he was making regular trips along the the canal in Perseverance, accompanied by children of all ages.  

Posted on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 22:18
Comments (0) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

The Ultimate Stocking Filler

The Ultimate Stocking Filler.  That’s the heading for the Cotswold Canals Trust’s E-newsletter issued today and recommending our Cotswold Canals DVD. The Cotswold Canals Trusts quarterly magazine has just been published with a review and the letters have started to arrive placing orders as well. Thank you to the Cotswold Canals Trust.

Posted on Monday, November 27, 2006 at 16:31
Comments (0) Category(s): Cotswold Canals , News

A second batch of DVDs already

The Cotswold Canals Trust has asked for a second batch of DVDs already, as the first batch have been selling well.  I’m pleased they wanted the second batch so soon. And some good news on the building of our boat.  An email from the builders said it will be going into the dock tomorrow to start work on the hull again. Now I’m holding my breath to see what Sue’s sensational news is on No Problem.

Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 16:39
Comments (0) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

Sale or Return DVDs for the Cotswold Canals Trust

I’m letting the Cotswold Canals Trust have 20 copies of the Cotswold Canals DVD on sale or return (and 4 copies of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal DVD). Yesterday I took them up on the train to Gloucester where David and Julia Pagett from the Cotswold Canals Trust kindly invited me into their home and plied me with coffee and offers of biscuits etc.  We talked about the the work of the Trust and of their own canal experiences. The Trust is planning to sell the DVDs at weekends at their road shows and at the Heritage Centre at Saul Junction where they will also be running their Santa Cruises in December. We were all wondering how popular they would be.  This evening I got an email from David to say they had sold 3 already, before the weekend.  The score is 2 - 1 to Julia - well done to both of them.

Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006 at 16:37
Comments (0) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

Cotswold Canals DVD is now released

It’s in the post. We promised on our website that the Cotswold Canals DVD would be ready for week commencing 13 November and we’ve kept that promise. Advance orders are now in their jiffy bags and will be in the post tomorrow, right at the start of the week we promised. Now I just need to get the 20 copies to the Cotswold Canals Trust (CCT) for their Christmas sales at Saul Junction Heritage Centre and at their road shows. A big thank you to everyone who helped in the production of the Cotswold Canals DVD. After a short break we will start editing the Forth and Clyde & Union Canals DVD which we filmed during the summer.

Posted on Sunday, November 12, 2006 at 16:43
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We are mentioned in the Cotswold Canals Electronic Newsletter

The editing of the Cotswold Canals DVD is now complete, except for tidying up the menus. We are on target to have them copied for dispatch during week commencing 13 November as we have promised. The Cotswold Canals Trust (CCT) have mentioned the DVD in their latest electronic newsletter and it will be reviewed in the next edition of The Trow, their newsletter.  They will also be selling it at their Heritage Centre at Saul Junction and at their road shows.  Thank you to the CCT.

Posted on Sunday, November 5, 2006 at 16:46
Comments (0) Category(s): Cotswold Canals

The last of the feedback is arriving

The last of the feedback is arriving from the proof watchers of the draft Cotswold Canals DVD.  The watchers put in a lot of work and the feedback was good. They generally thought it was pitched about right for the intended audience - those with some interest in canals but not too full of details. Between them, the proof watchers, picked up several details which were wrong and these will be corrected over the next few days.  There were also comments where we hadn’t quite got the pronunciation of local names right. We will make the final edit of the video in the next few days and then the copies will be made.  Orders can already be placed on our website and we have promised to fulfil orders already placed during week commencing 13 November and we are on target to make that date.  We will be making a donation of £1 per copy sold during 2006 to the Cotswold Canals Trust.

Posted on Thursday, November 2, 2006 at 16:47
Comments (0) Category(s): Cotswold Canals