Huddlesford Boat Gathering 2009

Every two years (is that biannual or biennial? or are they both the same?) Lichfield and District Canals Restoration Trust hold a boat gathering at Huddlesford Junction on the Coventry Canal. The event is held courtesy of Lichfield Cruising Club who kindly donate their clubhouse and grounds for the event. The main organiser of the event is Sue Williams of LHCRT and the amount of effort she puts into this event must be highly commended!!

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My part was a little bit easier than Sue's, I had to harbourmaster the historic boats, trade boats and LHCRT members boats moored between bridges 82 and 83. All other boaters were expected to find their own moorings on a first come first served basis, although, owing to the number of boats attending this year, we may have to seriously consider extending the organised moorings to cater for the visiting boaters in future years.

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The event was only a one day event, and was open to the public from 1000 to 1600 hrs. Most boats arrived on Thursday or Friday preceding the event. Under the guidance of my mentor, Pat Barton , I attempted to sort out the historic, trade and LHCRT members boats, and, hopefully, most of them were reasonably happy with my efforts.

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Trade boats included The Cheese Boat, The Fudge Boat, The Ice Cream Boat, TR Boat Handling, Smart Stitch (who embroider your boat name onto T shirts and Polo shirts, ) Fox who sell giftware and Ian Smith Chandlery who sell, well, chandlery!

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Historic boats that attended included President and Kildare, Nutfield and Raymond, Swift (part of the BW Heritage Fleet), Marquis (an ex BCN? Tug), Hawkesbury (one of the last Woolwich boats to have been built?), Monarch (another ex Fellows Morton and Clayton steamer that has been a steamer, then a diesel, then a steamer and back to being a diesel with butty Grimsby, Trout, Dove, Bream, Tipton, Corona, and Minnow, complete with its beautiful sounding 9 hp Bolinder! (My sincere apologies to any historic boats I may have missed out).

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Another boat at the gathering was A J FELGATE, a Truman Enterprise Narrowboat Trust boat that is charity based for youth groups, plus, of course, all the other boaters who turned up and helped to make the day a success.

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On the actual day there were numerous stalls trying to tempt you to part with your hard earned cash, as well as displays by the Knot Tyers Guild and a display of historic cars (I believe there were about 70 of them!) who definitley put to shame the display of historic cars at the IWA National Festival at Redhill!

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During the event the LCC clubhouse was open to all and was selling an excellent real ale especially brewed for the event by Blythe Brewery in Staffordshire appropriately called L & H Bitter.

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During the evening the ladies of LCC prepared an excellent meal for all of us, followed by entertainment provided by a jazz group called Funktionality. I am not a great lover of jazz, but this group were good, and considering their ages, one was 16, 3 were 18? and one was 23, they were brilliant!

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All in all a very good event, and once again, a special mention for Sue Williams who put so much into making this event the success that it was!