oldironsides

And don't forget the Etruria Canals Festival 4 and 5 June 2011. This will be the 18th annual canal festival at Etruria. Lots of working boats and the steam engine working all weekend. And its FREE!!

Quote: "Though BW had stated it had cut out the cost of using outside agencies, being castigated by the government for wasting money on what could easily have been done by its own staff, it is using surveymonkey to undertake a public name change poll." So says narrowboatworld.com, tearing another strip off BW for using expensive consultants. But surveymonkey is FREE!! I know BW isn't seen as the most efficient organisation and that there is a huge backlog of maintenance, but at least let's not criticise them for doing something as cheaply as possible.

Very thick from Venetian all the way to Bar Bridge junction yesterday. We went for a walk starting at Venetian Marina. On the way back there was at Venetian a boat thinking about heading to Bar Bridge. We warned him it was very thick but he wouldn't listen. Said he had come from Aqueduct with no problems. He got about a hundred yards before giving up! Might be a bit thinner today.

Why would it need a more interesting engine? With the advertised 1800 hp, you should be able to get this up on the plane!!

Here is one I did earlier with ICE. Harecastle Hill in the summer.

According to this: loadsamoney someone is sitting on a goldmine!!

If you insulated the top and sides of something like the penguin thingy or cast iron pot, it would become much more useful as an oven.

The Etruria Industrial Museum, at the junction of the Trent and Mersey and Caldon canals, operates one of, if not the, oldest steam driven beam engines which operates machinery, that is not a pumping engine. It was rescued and restored by a group of volunteers, starting in the 1970s. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is run in steam at least seven times a year and the Etruria Canals Festival is held there in early June. In the current difficult times, Stoke city council has proposed to either close it or offer it as an asset transfer to an alternative management. This option is being actively explored and it is being seen as an opportunity to continue the museum and the events and education which make the museum such an enjoyable place in the middle of Stoke-on-Trent. If you wish to help in the process, please start off by looking at the Facebook group Save Etruria Industrial Museum. Please help the museum and support it and do not listen to narrowboatworld that states the museum is closing.

This is on EBay. Does it look right to you? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPERB-19thC-MEASHAM-BARGE-WARE-TREACLE-GLAZED-TEA-POT-/160509053360?pt=UK_Collectables_Nautical&hash=item255f15c9b0

Yes, Churnet in flood yesterday and quite dangerous!

Rolt was the Samuel Smiles of the 20th. century. No doubt about it, we have many heritage railways, the canal system, and the way of using volunteers to run them which are all as result of the campaigning of Tom Rolt. He was one of the main founders of modern day industrial archaeology and managed to influence the thinking about the treatment of industrial heritage since WWII. He managed to move thinking away from the rural idyll traditionalism which was prevalent after the war. His biography of I K Brunel is probably his best book.

Apparently, a statement will be made tomorrow, Thursday 14 Oct, about what will take over from British Waterways.