museum matters

Museum MattersFebruary 2015

Newsletter of The Friends of The CanalMuseum, Stoke Bruerne

© The Friends of The Canal MuseumRegistered Charity No 1121146

www.friendsofthecanalmuseum.org.uk

JUST before the publication of our lastIssue we received the sad news of thedeath of our very good friend and patron,Sonia Rolt OBE, who died on 22nd Octoberfollowing a short illness at the age of95. Sonia’s illustrious career in thecanal world has been well coveredsince her death and most memberswill be well aware of the significanceof her work. Suffice to say here that,so far as this organisation isconcerned, she was in it from thebeginning. When Lynda Payton firstapproached me about forming theFriendsat theendof 2005, I turned toSonia and sought her support. Ofcourse it was immediatelyforthcoming and, although by thenshewas beginning to show the infirmities ofage she was able to use her not-inconsiderable influence in smoothing thepathway to our acceptance by the thenauthorities. From thenon shealways took akeen interest in what we were doing andmanaged to make an appearance at our

first Village at War event in October 2008,alongwithanumberofother ladieswhohadserved on the boats during the SecondWorld War.

I have many memories of Sonia over theyears, but one that remainsmost vivid is thevisit that Lynda and I and our respectivespouses paid to her at her home at StanleyPontlarge in Gloucestershire. It was agorgeous summer’s day and the wonderfulold house looked absolutely perfect. Aftertea we asked her whether she would like tohaveashort drive.She immediately agreedand suggested that we go to visitToddington Station on the preservedGloucester and Warwickshire Railway,which runs past her house.On arrival at thestation she was treated almost as Royaltyand insisted on examining some of theworking engines at close quarters,although then she was in her late eighties.I was honoured to represent the Friends ather funeral on 13th November when shewas laid to rest beside her husband Tom in

In this Issue

Chairman's Jottings 2Sculptor update 5Jack James 6FoCM News 10Family Festival 2015 11Photos from recent events 12Eric Young 14FoCM Diary 2015 15

Cover picture: The bright and airy new layout of the shop in the Museum following thewinter closure. (Photo: KD)

Chairman's JottingsDavid Blagrove

Sonia Rolt on Phobos (Photo: Telegraph.co.uk)



the tiny churchyard opposite her house.Myimpression was that everyone of themultitude at the service was a person whoboth cared for and loved the same sort ofthings as Sonia. There were people fromthe canals, railway preservationists, thosewho loved historic buildings, lovers ofgardens and all the other things thatconcerned thismost loved lady. She leavesa slot that can never be fully filled.

Of course I may live to regret making thecomment that this winter so far has beenevenmilder than last year's, sinceFebruarycanalwaysmountasting in its tail, but so farat least (late January) we seem to havemissed the worst of what the climate canthrow at us, and it is only amatter of days toValentine’s Day when, apart form the usuallovers' exchanges of tokens, the calendarcan be marked as the day on which theMuseum reopens for business after itsChristmas and New Year break. In factLouise, Mat and Co have not, as somemight imagine, swanned off to sometropical paradise for the intervening period,but have in fact been busy in the officepreparing for the oncoming spring andsummer seasons. Similarly the Friends

have not been idle: Already arrangementsfor our twomajor events have been agreedin outline; curatorial questions have beenaddressed, including the financing of newdisplay cases; training of Sculptor crewshas been undertaken; a winter volunteerparty has continued the trimming of theexcessive laurels by Museum Green andplanned a programme of furtherimprovements to the canalsideenvironment. This spring and summershould see the completion at last of thephysical part of the Interpretation Projectfollowing Planning Approval in lateJanuary, andwork should soon commenceonopeninguppart of theQuarryField to thepublic consequent upon the completion ofthe sale of part of that field to a third party byCRT.

A full season of events and visits is beingplanned for Sculptor. This year sees the bi-centennial of the opening of theNorthampton Arm and IWA NorthamptonBranch are planning a 200th birthdaycelebration at Gayton Junction at thebeginning of May. We have agreed to lendthe Branch some of our event equipmentand this will be delivered on site bySculptor. Kathryn has been planning anouting toLondon to celebrate theboat’s 80th

birthday and the 70th anniversary of the endof World War 2 by returning the boat to itswartime pastures at Alperton. We havesince been invited to present the boat at alarge Pageant on the Thames in June tocelebrate the 800th anniversary of theMagna Carta. This last is a great honour,since the sealing of this document, originalcopies of which still exist, is often taken asone of the foundation stones of our modernsystem of government, and one that is of


Sonia Rolt (Photo: independent.co.uk)



international importance. The connectionbetween the thirteenth century Barons’Charter and twentieth centuries’ strugglefor freedom from oppression can besuccinctly summed up by a humble cargo-carrying boat that served as a fire boat inthe war against Hitlerism. More relevantlythough, it canbeseenasagoodwill gestureonbehalf of its owners,CRT, to theThamesorganisations that care so passionately forthat river.

Later in the year we shall be visitingBraunston once more to honour ourarrangement with our good friend TimCoghlan, and in August we shall onceagain support our IWA friends by attendingthe National Festival of Water atNorthampton. We are arranging foranother historic boat to take Sculptor’splace at the Museum while the boat is 'offstation'.

Over the last few seasons our eventspeople have found increasing difficultieswith setting out tentage and stalls onMuseumGreen owing to subsidence in thearea of the one-time Mill Dock. This hascaused the area of the old dock to sink andto create a hazard to persons using theGreenat other times.At the last fewCouncilmeetings this has come up for discussion,along with the overgrown state of thelaurels that bound the north side of theGreen. This latter has been taken in handby the Adoption group and we haveregained a substantial slice of the Green. Ithas been proposed that the depression inthe Green be filled in with topsoil and thatthe outline of the dock be both accuratelyplotted and marked before the area isconsolidated, turfed and seeded. It canthen be fenced off until spring. The

downside of this is that it will not be a cheapoption but it certainly needs doing and ifCRT can’t find the funds immediately wemay have to help out.

At our AGM in late November we saidfarewell to Denis Atkinson, who had beenour assiduous Minutes Secretary forseveral years. His place has been taken byRoger Hasdell, who not only is an oldwaterways hand of many years’ standing,

but also the ffather-in-law of our Councilmember Mick Butler. With the election ofLinda Clarke as our new MembershipSecretary and Brian Everest as Treasurernow have a strong Council team with newblood. Both the Honorary Curators, Mikeand Sue Constable, also retired during lastautumnandasmall presentationwasmadeto them at the AGM as a token of theFriends’ appreciation of their work over thecritical years when the future of theMuseum hung very much in the balance.Finally I must mention the well-deservedAchievement Award that went this year toTrevor Allum. Trevor has been a tower ofstrength in many ways behind the scenes.Along with the other members of whatmight be called the 'Services Crew', he has


Steve Dean and Mike Gardner on Sculptorat the top of the Rothersthorpe flight in the

snow (Photo: RW)



caused tents andmarquees to rise and fall,to carry out esoteric works with electronics,to trundle bits and pieces for miles in hispick-up and many other similar tasks.Always each monstrous new task thatseems to fall to him is greeted with acheerful grin and the Friends are lucky tohave such a member living right on top of itall. We are also extremely lucky in that wehave a brilliant team of people to supportTrevor and I am very happy to pay tribute tothe rest of them for their hard work in

making sure that events go off smoothly.

Not least of Trevor’s attainments was hisassistance in setting up the Carols by theCut event, which goes from strength tostrength each year, not to mention theparallel Christmas Market held at TheNavigation. In fact both village pubs playedtheir part, The Boat providing AndrewWoodward to lead the carols. LastDecember’s event took place in very coldbut dry conditionsandwasagreat success,raising a considerable sum for our funds,although fund-raising is not the main aim.

Sculptor UpdateA QUIET time for Sculptor over the winter.Sadly the new cloths that were orderedwere late arriving and when they did arrivethey didn't fit as they should. The clothshave been rejected and we shall takeadvice from CRT at Ellesmere Port aboutordering new ones.

We had a 'Sculptor day' on 14th Februarywhen the expertly repaired (by Bill Mann)throttle quadrant was refitted - it wouldnever stay quite where it was put! We alsocleaned up the hold and inspected theshutts for winter damage.

Sculptorhasbeen registered for theMagnaCarta event on the Thames which maymean she is not here for the Family Festivalweekend but we have, just in case,arranged for an alternative historic boat totake up her usual moorings.

Our thanks must be expressed to EmmaHermon, fromCRT,who looks after us fromthe volunteering point-of-view on Sculptor.In early February she arranged for thosewho wished to go to attend a mostinteresting day at CRT's GloucesterMuseum, primarily aimed at thepreservation of boats but it alsoencompassed other metal and woodenobjects such as bridges - a really great day.

We did try and undertake a CAATsassessement on Sculptor at the top of theRothersthorpe flight but we chose the oneday when the snow was flying aroundNorthamptonshire, so we'll have to tryagain.

Trevor Allum receiving his award fromDavid Blagrove (Photo: LP)




SISTERMaryWard, the nursing sister, hadbeen born and brought up in StokeBruerne. She had returned to the village inlater life to nurseher father,whohadownedproperty on the canalside. Her husband,Charles took over the boatman’s shop thathis father-in-law had run and Sister Marytook it upon herself to provide a sort ofhealth service for the boat people whopassed by her front door. Jack and Emma

James had come to knowSisterMary in thecourse of their regular journeys throughStoke Bruerne. She owned four cottagesadjoining her house and facing the towpathand, following the hardwinter of 1947, Jacklearned that one of them, number 3, wasbecoming vacant. Accordingly he andEmma called upon Sister Mary and wereoffered the freehold thereand thenat a veryreasonable price. Emma had brought herhandbag and immediately took the amountasked out in cash, which Sister Marypolitely declined, saying thatmatters of realproperty were rather more complicatedthan buying a boat. However, once thelegal matters were duly negotiated, Jack

and Emma found themselves owners of acentury-old canalside cottage and Jackapplied for the vacant post of lock-keeperfor the seven locks of the Stoke Bruerneflight.Whilst it wasundoubtedly awrench tocome ashore after a lifetime living afloat,they had in some ways the best of bothworlds, for the canal ran right outside theirfront door. Stoke Bruerne was a regularovernight stopping point for boats, and inany case Jack’s job required his reportingdaily names and numbers of boats passingthrough top lock, which was a reportingpoint for the Boat Control system. Jack’ssons Tom and Noel remained boating asdid Emma’s brother Arthur, and of coursethey frequently passed the front door, sothe family connection remained strong.

In 1944 an Ealing Studios film, 'PaintedBoats', was made using Stoke Bruerne asone of its locations. An impression that onegains today when viewing this film is how

run-down and untidy the canalside was inthose days. One of the first things that Jackdid on his appointment as lock-keeper wasto begin a campaign of tidying up thecanalside environment. As a formerThames boatman he recalled the pristine

Jack JamesA serialised biography by David Blagrove - Part 11

3 Canalside Cottages (on the right)which became the James' home

A scene from 'Painted Boats' showingthe 'run down' towpath in Stoke Bruerne



condition of many of that river’s locks.Whitchurch and Bray locks in particularwere celebrated for their gardens, whileSonning regularly took the prize for thebest-kept lock and could be seen in thephotographs displayed in thecompartments of Great Western Railwaycarriages before nationalisation. Althoughhe knew little at first of the science of

gardening, Jack as ever was quick to learn.Before long the top lock area was plantedwith roses and other perennials, weedswere removed from paths; the white andblack lock gateswere touched upwith paintand the paddle gear oiled and greased; thedistinctive twin-arched bridge waswhitewashed and a flagpole erected. Allthis was done in addition to Jack’s paidduties. Year by year the smartening upprocess continued and the newly-nationalised Docks & Inland WaterwayExecutive of the British TransportCommission, the new owners, instituted anational competition for the best-kept lockwith a valuable trophy, which Jackconsistently won. Jack’s work wasmatched by other developments outsidehis control.When the family arrived in 1947there was no mains electricity, drainage orwater in the village. The Boat Inn had agenerator supplyinga12vDCcurrent to thepub and also used for charging batteries,

but everyone else was reliant on oil lamps,wells and cess pits. Before the war StokeBruerne had acquired a local reputation asa pleasant place to visit at weekends butpetrol rationing had largely put an end tothis in wartime. As the economy of thecountry began to recover from the post-warausterities of 1945-50, andmotor carsoncemore took to the roads, so did the villagebegin to regain its pre-war popularity.Mains electricity arrived in 1950 and waterand sewage soon after. Populationnumbers had declined steadily from a peakin 1851 and the Census of 1951 records itslowest point. From then on it began torecover and Jack James’s efforts playednosmall part in turning Stoke Bruerne intowhat estate agents nowcall 'a sought-after-village'.

The Boat Control system was operated bytelephone from a small stone hut adjoiningThe Boat Inn. This hut was originally wherethe leggers who worked boats throughBlisworth Tunnel were based, but hadbecome the lock-keeper’s office. Jackmoved some pieces of horse boat gear inhere as a sort of display and would spendmuch time explaining to interested visitorsexactly what they were and how they wereused. There was so much interest shownthat Jack began to have ideas forexpanding the display.

In the year before Jack James was born,the Grand Junction Canal Companyappointed a 36-year-old engineer calledThomas Millner to their Northern District,basedatBlisworthArm, orGayton Junctionas canal people now call it. Millner servedtheGrand Junction Company for the rest ofits existence, retiring in 1929 when theCompany was taken over by the Regents


A well looked after Sonning Lock



Canal to form the Grand Union CanalCompany. He was a keen photographer,cyclist, motor-cyclist and motorist, whichlast three items gave him a certain mobilitydenied to other contemporaryphotographers. He was encouraged by theCompany to photograph matters of

engineering interest, but he also managedto capture other contemporary canalscenes on the glass plates of the time. Forsome reason, on his retirement, he left hisentire photographic archive behind in a loftat Blisworth Arm. These lay undisturbeduntil shortly after the end of the SecondWorldWar when Charles Hadlow, Millner’ssuccessorasengineer, rediscovered them.Hadlow was interested in the history of thecanal and had collected a number ofdocuments relating to this so, when in 1947the author L.T.C.Rolt moored his boatCressy at the Arm End and asked Hadlowabout some illustrations for a forthcomingexhibition in London, he was shown thesehitherto unpublished views andimmediately recognised them as a uniquerecord of a past way of life. The exhibition

was organised by the then newly-formedInland Waterways Association (IWA) andwas put on in Heals department store inTottenham Court Road. It created muchinterest and, for the first time, copies ofMillner’s work went on public display.Today these images form an icon of thehistoric canal systembut in 1948when theywere first shown they caused a minorsensation. Jack’s son, John, by then an artstudent in London, had joined the IWA andvisited the exhibition and was greatlyinspired by the favourable reaction to it.

In 1951, the year of the Festival of BritainExhibition held on the South Bank of theThames in London, John, helped by hisfather, obtained an ex-working motor boatcalled Jason on which he lived atPaddingtonwhile completinghisart collegecourse.During his vacations hewouldworkthe boat north to Stoke Bruerne to visit hisparents and, in doing so, found that therewas a demand for some sort of trip boat totake visitors along the canal. At the timeStoke Bruerne was not the ideal place forsuch a venture, but John becameconvinced that Paddington might be,especially with the numbers of visitorscoming to the capital for the Festival. By1954 he was ready to inaugurate a regulartripboat serviceon theRegent'sCanal fromPaddington through Maida Hill tunnel andRegent's Park to Camden top lock andreturn, a venture in which his parentssupported him both morally and financiallyuntil the business was capable of standingon its own two feet. John later opened hisown art gallery at Paddington, a part of thecanal system now better known as LittleVenice which has become a popular andfashionable residential area.

Thomas Milner (Photo: Blisworth.org.uk)




The next year, 1955, saw Jack James, withthe encouragement of a local resident andthe assistance of Charles Hadlow, put onan exhibition about the canal in the villageschool at Stoke Bruerne. This was verypopular and in 1957 the newly-openedsecondarymodern school at nearbyRoadeput on a similar exhibition which likewiseproved successful. The then Chairman ofBritish Transport Waterways, Sir ReginaldKerr, was aware of the importance ofpreserving the past history of the waterwaysystem and used the success of these twoventures as a means of persuading the

British Transport Commission to includewaterway items in its growing collection oftransport artefacts. Jack Jamesmeanwhilehad suggested to Hadlow that the disusedcorn mill on the canalside at Stoke Bruernewould make a good place for displaying hiscollection of horse boating and otherequipment. It had at one time beenmootedthat the building would be an appropriateplace for a boat children’s hostel andschool. Sister Mary was greatly in favour ofthis, but by 1955 the once heavy traffic ofthe Grand Union Canal was showing signsof decline and a Government report of thatyear effectively put the Grand Union Canalnorth of Berkhamsted under a sort of 25year suspended sentence of death. From

this time onwards the number of carryingboats diminished year by year. The BTC,faced with finding some sort of use for theoldmill building, finally decided that it wouldbe a suitable place for a public exhibition,since by now visitor numbers to StokeBruerne were increasing exponentially.Already some items of canal interest hadbeen preserved by the BTC and exhibitedin a disused bus garage at Clapham, SouthLondon, from 1961. The Curator, Dr JohnScholes, did his best with the collection ofrailway and road artefacts placed in hiscare, but there was very little room, norsufficient public concern, to include morethan a few items of waterway interest. Bythis time political opinion was turningagainst the monolithic BTC as a means ofcontrolling the railway industry; any idea ofco-ordination of public transport had longbeen abandoned; and the retention of thecanal system as a viable freight transportmode was in serious doubt. Although theinitial stages of establishing a Museum inthe old mill at Stoke Bruerne were initiatedby the BTC and Dr Scholes, the BTC wasnot destined to inaugurate the Museum. Atmidnight on 31st December 1962 the BTCceased to exist and its waterway assetsbecame the responsibility of a newly-constituted body, the British WaterwaysBoard. By now work on adapting the Millbuilding and assembling a displaycollection was well under way and bycoincidence both Jack James and CharlesHadlow were approaching retirement. Inview of the great interest shown by bothmen, the new Board offered Jack theposition of Caretaker and Doorman andHadlow that of Curator.

Jason - still operating today




Financial UpdateIN NOVEMBER and December from theCharity account we had no outgoings andincome of £25,970.00. A transfer of£25,800 was made from the TradingAccount to theCharity account as an end ofyear procedure. From the Trading accountwe had no income and outgoings totalling£26,557.75 which included costs for‘Carols on the Cut’ of £344.01 and thetransfer to the Charity account mentionedabove.

The financial position of the Friends as of31st December 2014 is as follows:

Charity Account: £48,867.17Company Account: £ 320.54Business Reserve: £ 1,052.02Cash in hand: £ 0.00Total Liquid Assets: £50,239.73

Brian Everest, Treasurer

MembershipSubscriptions

JUST A REMINDER that annualsubscriptions are now due for the 1st April2015 renewal. There has been no increasein subscription fees with the rate remainingas follows:

Individual member £15Joint members £20Joint members (over 60) £15Family membership £20Concessionary rate * £15

* Students and those over 60

An MBE for our ChairmanAS YOU WILL all be aware, David wasawarded an MBE in the Queen's BirthdayHonours in June 2014.

On 30th January 2015 David, together withhis family, attended Buckingham Palace inorder that David could be formallypresented with his MBE by HRH PrinceCharles. David has kindly made thefollowing comments about the day:

It was damncold in the courtyard but beforethe ceremonywemanaged to get bothTomand Steve in, as well as the three ladies.HRH Prince Charles did the deed andasked some very relevant questions aboutprogress on theMontgomery, a detail that Ihave privately forwarded to Richard Parry.A good family blow-out at Rules in MaidenLane followed.

FoCM News

David and Jean with son-in-law Steve,daughter Margaret, grandson Tom anddaughter Sarah outside the Palace



A NEW EVENT TEAM headed up byTrevor Allum are busy preparing plans forthis year's Stoke Bruerne Family Festivalwhich is set to take place on Saturday andSunday 13th and 14th June. This year'sevent will be a milestone, the 10thanniversary since the first Gala Weekendorganised by the Friends in June 2006, sodefinitely something to celebrate and thenew team are setting out to achieve a newrecord for fundraising.

Like in previous years you can expect tosee rampaging vikings, historic and modelboats, dance, displays of traditional canal

crafts, music, theatre, a bustling marketalong with our usual real ale bar and foodand lots more. As usual entry will be freeand parking only £5 per car. Remarkablevalue for a family day out! Bookings arealready coming in, so if you are coming byboat make a note to reserve your mooringnow! Booking forms for moorings andtraders are available to downloadon-lineatwww.fr iendsofcanalmuseum.org.uk/family-festival-2015.

We hope to see you all there, but can youlend a helping hand with our objective ofraising a bumper surplus in our 10th

Anniversary Year? We'd liketo run more fundraising stallsthan ever before and needvolunteers readyandwilling togive a few hours on eitherSaturday or Sunday to helprun a stall. Any offers of help'on theday'with puttingupandtaking down tentage andmarket stalls or helping 'man'car parkswill alsobegratefullyreceived, especially as someof us are getting older and nolonger as fit and able as weoncewere. Let Trevor know [email protected] ifyou can assist.

Meanwhile, for moreinformation about what isplanned as it becomesavailable please check-outour website atwww.friendsofcanalmuseum.org.uk

10th Anniversary Family Festival - a milestone event



Mike and Sue Constable being congratulated on their achievements followingretirement from their curatorial role at the Museum by The Friends Chairman, David

Blagrove (Photo: LP)

The flag pole as a blue Christmas tree at the 'Carols on the Cut' event (Photo: LP)

Photos from recent events



The canalside lit up for 'Carols on the Cut' and parade of illuminated boats (Photo: LP)

The lights on Inchy, the winning illuminated boat (Photo: LP)

The Grafton Regis marching band was a popular attraction at 'Carols on theCut' (Photo: LP)

Photos from recent events



WE ARE saddened to report the death ofEricYoung,whopassedawaypeacefully athome on 1st January after a long battle withcancer.

Eric joined FoCM in 2006, and was anactive member, narrowboater andwaterwayssupporter, aswell asanardent fan of Ruston and Hornsbyvintageenginesanda radio ham toboot. He was Raynet’s CountyController; a role he held for over30 years and President of theNorthampton Radio Club. He wasalso active in the localNorthampton Branch of the InlandWaterways Association and in2009presented a cheque toFoCMfor £1,000 towards the SculptorAppeal in his capacity of Vice-Chairman. Trained in the RAF,Eric’s knowledge of radios, powersupplies and TVs was legendary.

He could fix almost anything and he wasalwayswilling togivehis time for free tohelpout his friends. In 2012 Eric answeredFoCM's call for help and overhauled and

repaired 23 out of 26 defectiveaudio trail handsets for theMuseum, soldering brokenjoints, glueing cracked casesand replacing batteries. Healso roped in NorthamptonRadio Club to set up a radioevent at one of our early GalaWeekends with speciallyprinted QXL cards, containinga picture of Blisworth Tunnel,which were posted out to allamateur radio operatorscontacted during the event.

Eric will be sadlymissed by hismany boating friends. Our

condolences go to his wife Irene, brotherPeter and family.

Eric YoungLynda Payton

Eric, with David Blagrove and Lorna York, presenting anIWA cheque to The Friends of The Canal Museum

Sculptor appeal for £1,000 (Photo: LP)

Eric with two of the repaired handsets (Photo: LP)



March-201519th FoCM Winter Talks 19:30

My time with BW - Lee King

April-201516th FoCM Winter Talks 19:30

Speaker to be advised

May-20159th/10th Canal Art Painting Workshop 10:00

24th May / 1st June Pond Dipping Daily

June-201513th/14th FoCM Canal Family Festival 10:00

FoCM Diary 2015

The Friends of The Canal Museum at Stoke Bruerne may not agree with the opinions expressedin this newsletter, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may beconstrued as policy or an official statement unless so stated. The Friends of The Canal Museumaccept no liability for any matter, errors or omissions contained within this newsletter. We willhowever gladly publish corrections if notified. The Editor reserves the right to shorten or modifyarticles published in the interests of space or clarity.

Sculptor, with 18 tons of coal, leaving Blisworth Tunnel (Photo: RW)

HandsetsNew recordings have now been transferred to the museum handsets by Chris Whitby.Thank youChris andalso toTrevorAllumandDavidBlagrove for all theirworkon thenewrecordings.



ChairmanDavid Blagrove, MBE(01604) 862174 - also member of the Curatorial Group and a Trustee

Vice-ChairmanLorna York - also member of the Curatorial Group and a Trustee

TreasurerBrian Everest ([email protected])

Minutes SecretaryRoger Hasdell

Membership SecretaryLinda Clarke ([email protected])

Publicity & Website, Grant Funding & AwardsLynda Payton (01604) 861205 ([email protected])

NewsletterKathryn Dodington ([email protected])

Museums & AttractionsPartnershipJohn Alderson

Volunteer Co-ordinatorTrevor Allum

OtherMuseum Manager (ex-officio seat)Jenny Copeland (Trustee)Bill Mann (Catering)Michael Butler (Village at War)

Events Sub-CommitteesTrevor Allum, Michael Butler, Jenny Copeland, David Daines, Roger Hasdell, Bill Mann,Sandie Morton, Mike Partridge, Lynda Payton, Victoria Powell, Terry Richardson,Graeme Scothern, Louise Stockwin, Laura Sturrock (also Trustee), Helen Westlake andLiam Whitby.

Non-Council PostsRoger Hasdell Asst Newsletter EditorTerry Richardson Asst Publicity OfficerBrian Collings Curatorial GroupRose Granaghan Winter Talks Organiser

Photographic Credits

KD Kathryn Dodington FoCMLP Lynda Payton FoCMRW Rob Westlake FoCM

FoCM Council

museum matters

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sonia rolt obe

wonderfulold house

friends ather funeral

canal museumregistered

memories of sonia

focm diary

railway preservationists