A large number of motorcyclists from all across the country assembled at the wharf on Sunday 24th March between 11 am and 2 pm for the start of their 2024 season.

The R.B.R. is a a touring and photographic event for motorcyclists and drivers of sidecar outfits and three wheeled vehicles of any age. Snarestone Wharf was the first landmark the entrants had to visit on their annual rally, taking a photograph of themselves in front of the pump engine beams in order to gain points towards an award.

The sun shone, and many of the motorcyclists bought hot drinks from the shop or purchased burgers and fresh hot food from an open BBQ supplied by ACA supporters, Shires Event Hire Limited.

At midday the organiser arranged for an informal group photo, before the participants gradually dispersed.

It was good to see so many visitors to the wharf for a non-canal related event, and hopefully the Rally will return to the wharf on a later occasion.

32 people attended the AGM held at Measham Leisure Centre on 21st March 2024. Chairman, Peter Oakden, reported on events that happened in 2023, Treasurer, Bob Taylor, summarised the financial state of affairs for the past year and Secretary, Gray Hetherington, supervised the re-election of 3 committee members, Peter Oakden, Bob Taylor and Mike Jeffs, who were all due to stand down by rotation. All three were duly re-appointed. There were no points raised either by those attending, nor by proxy, and the meeting was duly closed after around 20 minutes.

Following the formalities of the AGM, Kathy Belfield, an ACA member and former Tourism Coordinator for North West Leicestershire District Council held an illustrated, entertaining talk about travel and tourism and her visits to various canals and waterways around the world.

Over 20 people attended a talk by local historian and journalist, Anthony Poulton-Smith, on “The Etymology of English Place Names”. The speaker has written a number of books on regional place names, and these were on display and available for purchase after the meeting.

During the first half of his talk the speaker explained how many place names are based on topographical features such as hills and rivers. Others are based on farmsteads and the names of their owners. So for example, the suffix -ham means a homestead e.g. Birmingham, and the suffix -don denotes a hill, e.g. Bredon (Hill). Likewise, the ending -hay means an area of land enclosed by a hedge, e.g. Cheslyn Hay.

Whilst the Romans had Latin names for their towns, later settlers such as the Saxons, Vikings and Normans found these names incomprehensible and difficult to pronounce, and consequently most of the town names we have today relate to post-Roman names. The Viking occupation left us with the ending -by, meaning a village, as in Ashby. The Normans, by and large, kept these names and added their own, most noticeably Ashby de la Zouch – the village of Ashby, which was owned by the Zouch family.

During the second half the speaker held a question and answer session. This lasted for a good 45 minutes. A host of local names were put forward by the audience, ranging from Nuneaton to Worthington to the oft mispronounced Gilwiskaw (Brook). The latter name, unsurprisingly, somewhat flummoxed the speaker, and the origin of this name is unknown.

Throughout, the speaker related anecdotes and kept his audience entertained and amused with his somewhat idiosyncratic sense of humour.

Due to intense badger activity alongside the Leicestershire County Council
owned canal between Snarestone Wharf and Faulks Bridge, Bridge 62, this
section of the Ashby Canal including the towpath is closed until further notice.

Peter Oakden 4th January 2024

A number of local residents and ACA members took part in a Games Night at Measham Leisure Centre on 12th December 2023. An assortment of traditional and pub games were on offer to the teams, who were participating for points. The winners on the night were a couple of local ACA members.

Our thanks go to Sandrine Taylor for organising this successful event, which the ACA hopes to repeat in future years.

The ACA’s popular annual quiz night was held as usual at Stoke Golding Club. There were 11 teams comprising 45 contestants plus the quiz master, Peter Oakden accompanied by the scorer, Sandrine Taylor.

There was a range of prizes including a raffle, and as is customary, there was a round of Stand Up Bingo to begin; each contestant had to sit down once one of their numbers was called out.

With no picture quiz this year, there were 9 rounds of 10 questions each on the topics of This England, Science, Food & Drink, Pot Luck, Sport, TV Film & Theatre, Geography, Politics and History. As usual, each team was permitted to play a joker once, and so double their score for that round. A fish and chip supper was served halfway through the proceedings.

There was a broad range of questions, a selection below:¹²³⁴⁵

1. Which county is Charnwood Forest in?
2. What part of the body is affected by gingivitis?
3. What is the lowest score you cannot score with a single dart?
4. What is the second longest river in Europe after the Volga?
5. What does the eagle on the emblem of the United States of America hold in its right claw?

And one of the questions that flummoxed many of us in the room:

6. What is the name of the sitting MP who founded the Reform Party in the UK?

If you want the answer to that one, have a look at the ACA letterhead!

Winners on the night were team Forfar 5 with 84 points out of a possible 100.

1. Leicestershire ↩︎
2. The gums ↩︎
3. 23 ↩︎
4. The Danube ↩︎
5. An olive branch ↩︎

After an absence of one year the 22nd Moira Canal Festival will take place on 18th and 19th May 2024. These dates coincide with the IWA National Trailboat Festival on the same site. The NTF is returning after a five year absence, and it will be good to see some boats moving along the isolated northern section once again.

The flyer below gives provisional details of the main attractions at the Festival.

45 people attended Phil Clayton’s illustrated, witty presentation on “Curious Cuts” at Measham Leisure Centre. The theme of his talk was a potted history of canals which had big ambitions but never quite made it, some of which were commercially unsuccessful, many with impressive aqueducts, locks and bridges, and others which never saw a boat, or even had water in them. Phil has visited many of these sights himself and used his own photographs to illustrate his points.

He began his round Britain tour in the south west of England with descriptions of canals such as the Grand Western Canal, before moving on to the Lodes of East Anglia, then on to the north of England and the Ulverston Canal, with short excursions to Belgium and Ireland.

We hope Phil will come back in the future to give us another of his entertaining talks.

Popular presenter Robbie Cumming and his boat Naughty Lass have recently been filming their voyage along the Ashby Canal.  Look out for the new series on BBC TV in 2024 to see how he got on.

A large number of members and the visiting public were at Snarestone Wharf on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the official opening of the stop gate, which had been freshly painted in ACA colours of cream and red to mark the occasion.

The celebrations began at 12 pm and lasted until 5 pm. Marquees had been set up, barbecued food was available all day, and boats moored at the wharf were decked out in flags.

The highlight of the day was the opening ceremony, which took place at 2 pm in the following manner: ACA’s work boat RAM, loaded with passengers, first requested permission to pass through the stop gate….

…permission was granted by ACA Chairman, Peter Oakden, and committee member, Rod Smith, who was standing in the purpose-built signal box….

….confirmed permission for RAM to proceed by raising the railway signal at the end of the wharf…..

….a ribbon was cut, the stop gate was swung open and RAM passed through to a fanfare of cheering, applause and whistles…..

Throughout the afternoon a tombola was held, bricks were sold, donations received, and boat trips on RAM took passengers to both the winding hole and beyond to bridge 62.

To conclude the day, a member of the catering team, who very kindly donated their proceeds from the barbeque to the ACA, drew the winning tombola ticket.

All in all a very successful and enjoyable occasion.