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A century on from probably the only strike by boatmen... or at least, the only one that seems to have made the history books. I am currently researching this for a new play to be premiered at the Historic Boat Rally at Braunston in June (and for a new show to be performed by Years 4,5,& 6 at Braunston Primary). It is part of a bigger village/canal community theatre project part funded by the Arts Council. Tim Coghlan of Braunston Marina is also supporting and we will be crowdfunding as well. Do you, or your boat, have any links to the strike? Do you know of an FMC boat that was there? I haven't found a definitive list, just one photo of Australia. I would love to hear from you and be able to include your contribution - which will be acknowledged in the programme, website etc. I have found various resources online and identified some long standing Braunston residents who come from boating stock and whose parents or grandparents took part. But I'm sure there is more out there about the strike. But I'm sure there are more stories and recollections (albeit passed on - I doubt there is anyone living who can remember back that far!) that would both contribute to telling the story but also add to our knowledge of boating heritage. A little more about the project can be found here: https://alarumproductions.org.uk/portfolios/braunston-1920s2020s/ By way of background: Alarum Productions focusses on telling the stories of the waterways - until now, mostly the stories of women - in ways that are thoroughly researched and carefully presented to be both accurate and entertaining. We have performed Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways; Acts of Abandon and I Dig Canals at the historic show and toured widely. Not as widely as Mikron, but there are only two of us and we aren't quite as young as them! The current Towpath Talk has a nice piece by Tim C about Arts Council support for arts on the waterways (us and Mikron). And I don't why it loaded sideways...

Between April 22nd and August 5th I will be touring a show celebrating women at work on the wartime waterways - it focusses mostly on the trainees (who were later nicknamed the Idle Women) because we are recreating the journey that they regularly worked: London, Birmingham, Coventry, London. We will be celebrating 75 years since the scheme started with Eily (Kit) Gayford and Molly Traill working with Ciss and Albert Sibley before going on to train many others. We have around 50 shows booked so I won't fill the forum with individual events, I think you'd get a bit sick of me! By way of an outline: End of April/early May - Limehouse, Mile End, London Canal museum, Cavalcade, Horsenden Farm (Perivale) Rest of May - GU Hillingdon, Ricky, Linslade, Milton Keynes, Stoke Bruerne, Stowe Hill, Weedon, Birdingbury Wharf June - Saltisford Arm, Hatton flight, Minerva wharf, Titford, Tipton and then onto the B'ham & Fazeley (still confirming venues there) and Tamworth. July - down the Coventry to Hawkesbury junction and the Greyhound, Rugby, Hillmorton, Braunston and back down the GU finishing at the Pirate Castle on August 5th. All the details are on our website: www.alarumtheatre.co.uk And you can see a short film about the project on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADjsDWKA4kY&t=1s We will be accompanied by NB Tench owned by Alex Bennett with Heather Boyce as skipper (Alex will be joining us as much as she can) and we are looking for women who would like to join the journey and help crew - it might be a day, a few hours, or longer, whatever suits you. If you'd like to recieved details of this as they become available please go to our website and sign up to the mailing list. It's a volunteer position but we are able to pay travel expenses to get to us and we'll feed you lots of tea and cake. Look forward to meeting lots of forum members en route! Kate