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Canal Day 2010
Sunday 3rd October
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Banbury Canal Day 2010 will be a celebration of the centenary of Tom Rolt’s birth and his lifetime achievements.
Tom Rolt (11 February 1910 – 9 May 1974) was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford, and is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways.
Born in Chester, Rolt studied at Cheltenham College and then trained as a mechanical engineer, before taking up an engineering post at the Kerr Stuart locomotive works in Stoke-on-Trent.
He was Vice-President of the Newcomen Society, a member of the Science Museum Advisory Council and of the York Railway Museum Committee; an honorary MA of Newcastle, an honorary MSc of Bath and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Rolt produced many works about subjects that had not previously been considered the stuff of literature: civil engineering, canals, railways, etc. His first book, Narrow Boat, was an account of his and his first wife Angela's honeymoon journey around the canal system of the English Midlands aboard a 70ft long wooden narrowboat named Cressy, which was refurbished at Tooley's Boat Yard in Banbury.
He spent 12 years living afloat. In 1945, he was a co-founder and the first honorary secretary of the Inland Waterways Association. Bridge No. 164 on the Oxford Canal in Banbury bears his name (in commemoration of his book Narrow Boat).
From the 1950s to his death in 1974, Rolt lived in the Gloucestershire hamlet of Stanley Pontlarge.
Ron & Mary Heritage in their narrow-boat Heron are planning to re-enact the Cressy journey leaving Tooley’s Boatyard on Saturday 24 April at mid-day and copied below is the press release from IWA relating to this event.
Historic “Cressy” Cruise Re-Enactment Planned for 2010
August 1939 saw a young, newly married couple, Tom & Angela Rolt, leave Banbury to cruise the inland waterways with their narrowboat “Cressy”. Tom’s book “Narrowboat”, chronicles their experiences and its publication in 1945 received so much popular acclaim that it led to the formation of The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) in 1946. The aims were to campaign for proper management, conservation, funding and restoration of the inland waterways – aims which are just as vital today as they were in 1946.
2010 will be the Centenary of the birth of Tom Rolt and as part of the IWA’s celebrations, Ron & Mary Heritage from IWA Oxfordshire Branch will attempt to re-enact the iconic “Cressy” cruise, leaving Tooley’s Boatyard in Banbury at mid-day on 24 April 2010 in their narrowboat “Heron”.
Tom Rolt was also a founder member of the Talyllyn Steam Railway and the Vintage Sports Car Club and it is hoped to have representatives from the latter – helping to give “Heron” a good send-off. Local dignitaries have already offered their support to the occasion.
Pupils from the North Oxford Academy are planning to track the cruise route and also produce displays, carry out interviews and design publicity for the event as part of their International Baccalaureate studies.
So where will the cruise take them?
From Banbury, the cruise heads north towards Braunston – the heart of the inland waterways system. Then on to the Leicester arm of the Grand Union Canal and descending through Foxton Locks to Market Harborough, site of IWA’s first National Rally in 1950.
From Market Harborough she travels north through Loughborough and the River Soar, and joins the Trent & Mersey Canal near Trent Bridge. Following the line northwards, ‘Heron’ will reach Middlewich in time for the Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival 18 – 20 June 2010. From there she will cruise to Chester to join in the celebrations that IWA Chester Branch is planning for the weekend of 25 - 27 June 2010. Tom was actually born in Chester in 1910 so it is fitting that a Centenary Celebration Dinner is also planned for that weekend in the historic Chester Guildhall.
“Heron” will then rejoin the original “Cressy” route and cruise down the Shropshire Union Canal, up the Staffordshire & Worcester before rejoining the Trent & Mersey. From there the route will take her along the Coventry Canal, down the Oxford Canal passing again through Banbury and on towards the Thames. “Heron”s cruise will finish at the IWA’s National Festival & Boat Show (The Tom Rolt Centenary Event) at Beale Park on the River Thames over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
“Heron” will be decorated appropriately during her travels, promoting the Rolt story and the IWA. Any boaters or other enthusiasts who may wish to join Ron & Mary for all, or part of the journey would be most welcome.
For further information about details of the cruise please email Ron & Mary Heritage.