The final meeting before the summer break will take place at The Wilmot Arms, Derby Road, Borrowash, DE72 3HA from 8pm.

I’m pleased to welcome our speaker Stuart Smith from Midland Railway at Butterley. Stuart is an active volunteer for the Railway Trust and will be speaking to us about Notable Railway Accidents. I have heard Stuart present and can assure you that he will be well briefed and is a good presenter. He has also promised to make allowance for the more squeamish so don’t be alarmed by the title and cancel your Senior Railcards. It promises to be an ideal way to spend a summer evening.

We are currently putting another Packet together so that should be with you during August ahead of our next meeting. If you are away on holiday please don’t forget to make a note of anything that might be helpful to members as a contribution to future editions.

Working parties are accelerating and current plans are to start a mid week option on Wednesdays so  that we can keep up with all our planned improvements. All dates are available on our web site www.derbycanal.org.uk

We will also be attending a large CRT backed event at Trent Lock on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th August. This will be a promotion of the waterways with activities (around a waterways theme) for all the family including historic boats, “activity tasters”, stalls, trade boats, etc. It is free entry and runs between 10am and 4pm each day. We will be there and would welcome anyone that can help us for an hour or so to come along. Please let me know by replying to this email.

We will also be organising a lock through at Swarkestone on Sunday 28th and Monday 29TH August, so again please turn up with a windlass and spend a few hours promoting the cause with us.

Can I offer apologies for any who will have missed our planned barn dance last Saturday. Unfortunately we could not proceed due to lack of support. I will be refunding tickets at the Society meeting or by post. We’ll need the original ticket to prove purchase.

I hope to see you at one or all of the events, but in any case have a good summer before we meet again.

Chris Madge
Chairman