GIRL POWER
Canal Boat|August 2020
Heather Wastie’s fascinating journey with the Alarum project’s history celebration
Heather Wastie
GIRL POWER

I Dig Canals is a project celebrating women’s involvement in campaigns to save our canals. I’m a professional songwriter and poet and wrote my first poem when I was at infants’ school in Cradley Heath. Looking through my childhood diary recently, I came across an entry from 1969 when I was 13 in which I invented new lyrics to ‘English Country Garden’: Prams and bikes and parts of cars. Drums and pushchairs, bottles, and jars.

Can you guess what I was writing about? Yes, the state of the cut and the kinds of rubbish my family battled with as we attempted to navigate canals in and around the Black Country.

In 2013, I wrote a poem looking back at that time, describing the canal as soap sud soup with beer bottle croutons, / peppered with cans, and the odd chunk of meat. Meat? Anyone who was boating at that time will probably know what I mean.

Since our first meeting in 2016, writer Kate Saffin and I have been writing and touring canal-related shows as Alarum Theatre. Our first, Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways, tells of the trainees who took on the challenging job of operating pairs of cargo-carrying boats during World War Two. Now, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have just completed a major research project in which we interviewed people, mostly in the Black Country, who remember the canals in the 1960s.

Denne historien er fra August 2020-utgaven av Canal Boat.

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Denne historien er fra August 2020-utgaven av Canal Boat.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA CANAL BOATSe alt
HIGH AND MIGHTY
Canal Boat

HIGH AND MIGHTY

Acorns make the perfect store food for jays’ larders

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2020
TAKING THE PLUNGE
Canal Boat

TAKING THE PLUNGE

Why Chris and Sarah Atkin will never forget tying the knot

time-read
4 mins  |
November 2020
LABELLED WITH LOVE
Canal Boat

LABELLED WITH LOVE

Helen Tidy enjoyed one weekend moored next to The Beer Boat ... simply the perfect solution to collecting bottle tops for her next project

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5 mins  |
November 2020
MIDDLE THAMES
Canal Boat

MIDDLE THAMES

In the second part of our guide, we follow the Thames upstream from Reading through the steep sided Goring Gap and quieter countryide to reach Oxford

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5 mins  |
November 2020
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Canal Boat

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Robert Davies recalls childhood memories of a popular holiday destination and uncovers a reminder of the golden age of canals

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2020
FIT FOR PURPOSE
Canal Boat

FIT FOR PURPOSE

Terry Hibbard from Harworth Heating offers his expert opinion following our feature on onboard stove safety

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3 mins  |
November 2020
BUCKING UP...
Canal Boat

BUCKING UP...

We join Waterway Recovery Group’s first canal restoration working party in six months - as WRG’s volunteers help the Buckingham Canal Society get the project back on track after lockdown

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10 mins  |
November 2020
ART ON THE WATER
Canal Boat

ART ON THE WATER

Graphic artist Katie Ruby lives and works on 32ft narrowboat Poppy

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2 mins  |
November 2020
Canal Boat

GO WITH THE FLOW

What makes a boat truly stand out from the crowd? Sometimes you just need a little finesse and a taste for adventure

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9 mins  |
November 2020
Canal Boat

A GLASS HALF-FULL AT BUCKBY WHARF

Tim Coghlan raised a glass on the Grand Union Canal as The New Inn reopened to the relief of regulars

time-read
10 mins  |
November 2020