No 9 SWDT Celebrates Christmas at the Bell Inn, Creech St Michael Come and join the fun on the evening of Friday 3 December. If you and your partner, spouse or friend wish to join the merry throng, please contact Robbie by Friday 19 November with your menu choices and £10 deposit per person (cheques made payable to Waterways Development Trust).

Options - 2 courses inc. coffee/tea and mince pie £14.95, 3 courses £16.95

Starters: Prawn cocktail Goats cheese and red pepper souffle Future Perfect Japanese chicken yakatori Salmon mousse

Main Course: Takes to the Air Roast Turkey Roast Beef Future Perfect caused quite a stir at Priory Bridge Road slipway on the Haddock and Salmon pie morning of Friday 20 August. Craned into the for the very first Stuffed Butternut Squash time, she behaved like a ‘lady’ and the team breathed a sigh of relief as she was delivered safely into the water. Sweet: During the period 21 – 30 August the community boat carried passengers Chocolate Yule Log from The Brewhouse to French Weir with special services for Friends of French Christmas Pudding Weir Family Fun day on 22 August and for the Longrun Meadows Official Raspberry Pavlova Opening and Family Picnic on 28 August when it offered a ‘river bus’ service as Cheese & Biscuits well as transporting the Mayoral party and musicians to the event. The ambition from the outset has been to bring Future Perfect onto the River Tone but excess silt in the river has to be removed before the boat can navigate Firepool Lock. Following negotiations with British Waterways and the Environment Agency, the necessary permissions are now in place for its removal which the Trust hope to achieve in spring 2011. Spooky Trips Stop, Look and Listen If you take a walk along the and Canal towpath you will be very familiar with the roar of traffic on the motorway, and trains on the for Scary railway. The passengers in these various vehicles can see virtually nothing of Passengers the canal, and may not even realise it exists. Scaling things down, cyclists and joggers hurry along the towpath to their Sailing from its mooring in various destinations, and I sometimes wonder how much of the canal wildlife Creech St Michael and crewed they actually see. Certainly, those wearing day-glow jackets and/or puffing by a very spooky team of noisily as they jog, will see very little. volunteers, Future Perfect Instead, try this: make sure that your camera battery is charged up, wear gave passengers the first outer clothing that is un-ostentatious to the point of being dull (dark experience of its kind. trousers and a brown coat in my case) and take a more leisurely stroll Chairman Dave Durdan along the canal bank. If you think you see something moving, then stop. remarked, “This is what Wait for a moment and see what happens – you may get a surprise. If Somerset Waterways you think you can get closer to something interesting, take a photograph Development Trust is all about before you move (in case the wild creature thinks otherwise) then walk - making our local waterways smoothly on the grass, not the noisy gravel. accessible to as many people At the moment I make the journey from the Maidenbrook Estate on the as possible. Since it was fringes of Taunton, to Creech St. Michael, on foot, along the towpath, at least launched in April 2010 we’ve weekly. Often these journeys start quite early on a Sunday, when there is less dressed Future Perfect for distraction on the towpath. In the course of one recent journey I saw: swans, weddings and carried a band ducks, many moorhens and their ‘teenage’ youngsters, squirrels, rabbits, five of musicians up the River wild deer, a variety of bush-dwelling birds including Goldfinches, a Kingfisher Tone. We’re now preparing ... and a dead rat. The Kingfisher dived from a tree into the canal, possibly to deck the boat out for our caught one of the many fish in there, and then shot back to its perch in a special Christmas events on double-flash of electric blue. Unfortunately, no photographs of this event – it 11/12 and 18/19 December, was all over in a blink. when Santa will have gifts for accompanied youngsters who Now I could illustrate this brief article with a photograph of any of the join us on a trip.” creatures I saw that day – though not the Kingfisher (my reactions being far too slow for that), nor the distasteful deceased rat. Instead, however, The Trust relies on its I am going to beg artistic licence and include a picture taken on another excellent band of volunteers canal, which shows a heron being startled by a rabbit jumping in the whose responsibilities air right behind it (the picture is ‘real’, not computer-generated). It may, range from crew and boat in fact, be a Cheshire heron – but it serves to illustrate the point that if maintenance to leading you do not ‘look’, and do not have the camera ready, then you cannot wildlife walks or providing possibly ‘see’. Plenty of both heron and rabbits on the B&T Canal – refreshments at events. If you maybe someone will get a better, local shot. know anyone who may be interested in joining we’d love Ken Bussell, volunteer member to hear from them. Longrun Meadows The To improve the way Officially Opened in which bulk goods could be transported to the Public during the 18th and 19th centuries, over Future Perfect played a key part 212 Parliamentary in the opening ceremony of Acts were passed to Taunton’s newest green space allow the construction and the August Bank Holiday of canals serving sun shone on proceedings. mainly collieries and The event, hosted by Project mineral mines. Unlike a Taunton, took the form of a family navigable river whose activity afternoon and picnic and fixed course and attendance was brisk with over temporary fluctuating 300 people crossing the new water levels limited footbridge from French Weir Park their year round navigable use eg. the Rivers Parrett and Tone in Somerset, across the River Tone. canals offered a constant route and managed depth throughout the year. Longrun Meadows was purchased The Chard Canal, opened in 1842, was the last mainline English canal to with funding from South West be constructed. It served neither colliery nor mine, but rather facilitated Regional Development Agency goods’ distribution from the Channel southwards through granted on condition that Somerset and as far as the south coast of Dorset. It linked the towns following the construction of of Chard, an important market and textiles centre and Ilminster to the the flood defences required for Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, which in turn connected the regional the town centre regeneration, capital of Taunton to the . Traffic from the port and the 65 acres of meadow should from Taunton made use of the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal and the be landscaped and given to the navigable River Tone to join the Chard Canal for movement southwards. people of Taunton for their leisure It was a major engineering achievement; its 13 ½ mile length included three and pleasure. , one over a mile long, four inclined planes, one lock and including Taunton Deane Mayor, Cllr a unique single tracked example; major embankments and deep cuttings, Jefferson Horsley accompanied by including half a dozen substantial aqueducts. The lateness of construction musicians Albion Horns, arrived at brought it almost immediately into the dawning railway age and this, the event on Future Perfect before combined with other unusual factors, contributed to its closure 24 years later, being stopped in his tracks by never having paid for itself. the “Tone Troll” who was lurking The Chard Canal is in many ways a rare object and deserves special under the new footbridge. attention. Its premature demise cannot be attributed solely to either Having completed its civic duty, major structural failure or competition with the railways. Rather, a Future Perfect then went on to combination of reasons led to its closure in the late 1860s. provide river trips throughout the SWDT with partners Taunton Deane Borough Council are undertaking the afternoon. preservation of this special inland waterway whilst protecting its rich wildlife habitats. With the support of local landowners and Groundwork South West (a community task force employment project) the first phase of work, which is happening currently, is to preserve the embanked section of the canal between Ruishton and Creech St Michael alongside the River Tone. Contributor - Richard Dommett Company Secretary

For interest, Taunton Deane Borough Council has produced a series of leaflets – Exploring Taunton Deane - describing circular walks in the Borough. Walk No 19, Hatch Beauchamp, Wrantage and the Chard Canal can be downloaded from the Taunton Deane website or obtained from the Landscape Heritage team on 01823 356491. Membership A Toast to the Bridge and Groom Sunday the tenth of October started off as a rather overcast and gloomy In edition No. 7 of Wateread, the day. The good weather, promised by the forecasters, was failing to following name was accidentally materialise. But then, as if on cue at 2pm, the sun came through and omitted from the list of members, produced a warm and bright afternoon. Waiting on the suitably decorated and sadly this error was repeated Future Perfect at the Creech landing stage, we could hear the church bells in edition No. 8. ringing away a little further down the village. Then all went quiet, with Mrs Esme Wheaton, Creech St only the moorhens and ducks providing a little background noise. Michael. Later, the church bells rang out again, and Esme joined the Trust at its very after a little while a lookout was despatched inception and is one of our most to the canal bridge to seek signs of the happy reliable and regular volunteers. Of couple arriving for their transfer by boat course, it has to be someone who to Charlton Bridge. The lookout spotted a has worked so hard for the Trust beautifully preserved Austin 7 car heading who is left out of our members slowly his way, with the bride and groom on list! We apologise to Esme for this board. Many others were following the car on omission. foot. After the couple had embarked, and the bystanders had taken many The following are the members photographs, we departed for Charlton with Brian Cull at the helm, Ron who have joined us since Rooke (who lent me a tie!) as crew with me as helper. production of Wateread edition 8. I am certain that the happy couple appreciated a half-hour of Rosemary Berry, Taunton comparative peace and quiet on the canal, a break in their hectic day before further festivities later in the afternoon. They were met at Mr & Mrs C Birks, Nether Stowey, Charlton Bridge, not only by the Austin 7 and the official ‘spectators’, but Bridgwater by two groups of the general public - they had approached us for boat Mr P Bisatt, Taunton trips at Creech, which we had to deny them, but someone suggested Mr Pete Bonham, Taunton that if they strolled down to Charlton Bridge, we could pick them up on the way back. Along the way, many people on the towpath wished the Mr Ken Bussell & Ms Angela happy couple good luck and a happy future. Thompson, Taunton Mr Austen Chamberlain, Creech St After disembarking (onto the red carpet) at Charlton Bridge, we collected Michael our one-way trippers and returned to Creech. Later, as we were putting the boat away for the day, we remarked that the exercise had gone Mr Mark Clark & Miss Karen West, rather well - happy husband and wife, happy spectators along the tow Creech St Michael path, happy one-way trippers and plenty of good publicity for SWDT and Miss Kelly Durdan and family, Future Perfect. Creech St Michael Ken Bussell, volunteer member Mr Tim Fitzpatrick, Taunton Mr Kenneth P W Gill, Crewkerne Mr Andrew Grieves, Wellington Editor’s message Claire Greenaway & Tammy You will notice a big design change for Wateread No 9 – I hope you Trenoweth, Wellington approve. There are a number of reasons for this change, not least of which is the ability to provide the newsletter on a more frequent basis. Mr Terry Hanslip, Taunton A small number of members have made contributions which, I think Mr & Mrs J Lawton, Seavington St you’ll agree make for a more interesting read. Please do get in touch if Mary, Ilminster you have something to report which relates to the Trust’s objectives of: Mr & Mrs Eric Lowes, Taunton · Promoting Somerset Waterways Mr Robert Rhys · Educating people about Somerset Waterways Mr Richard Routledge, Ham · Interpreting the history and landscape of Somerset Waterways Mr Bob White & Ms Julie Vincent, · Protecting and conserving the environment, landscape, heritage and Taunton recreational resource of Somerset Waterways Mr & Mrs Graham Wood, Creech St · Improving and enhancing Somerset Waterways in a sustainable manner Michael Mr Richard Young, Taunton Don’t wait for a newsletter deadline, just submit your item at any time, preferably with a good quality image, to [email protected] or by mail Contributor - Janet Coles, Director to Robbie Lowes c/o Project Taunton, Ground Floor, East Reach House, and Membership Secretary Taunton, TA1 3EN. I look forward to hearing from you!