Margi and Hes decorated the tree in the St Mary Magdalene Church,in the town centre of Newark, and along with help from members they have made another stunning presentation to go with all the other organisations efforts in this annual event. The model again serves as a fantastic stand, and this year’s decorations highlight the fact that our barge “Leicester Trader” is 60 years old this year.

Naturally with the advent of Christmas thoughts also turn to the New Year and to this end we will shortly be publishing our winter newsletter.

If you are in town please visit the church and see for yourself!

Margi in the Middle

Our AGM is due to be held on the 7th November 2013, with lunch followed by the third Traffic and Trade on the Trent Workshop. The venue for all of these activities is the barge, now fitted with a new stove for a more efficient heating service. Our thanks as ever to Les for his hard work in achieving this. Please join us, the notice is appended below as a reminder! Please also let Hester know for catering numbers in the event you would like lunch on the day – a lovely opportunity for us to have a good old get together

A real treat over the week end of 15th September 2013 were our visitors in the photo above. The visit, organised with Les by Glenn Stones, was a real get together of people connected to the waterways in the past, and I quote Les’ commentary “Tom and his brothers Dennis and Brian were all on Trent tanker barges when I was at school and I spent a lot of time on board with them. Harry Bogg and Harry Ledger also lifelong boatmen and worked just about every trade there was in the Humber waterways. Glenn, who is Tom’s son, organised their visit to Leicester Trader from Hull where they all live. He followed in his fathers footsteps on tankers and is currently Humber Operation Manager for J.H.Whitaker tankers”.

A big thank you to our visitors and we hope you enjoyed being with us as much as we enjoyed having you visit!

We are pleased to report that our sea shanty evening tickets are all sold, meaning the evening will be, we are sure, a roaring success!

Our apologies for the lateness in the publication as we are short of a newsletter editor, and Secretary, we would welcome any assistance from members old and new.

Activities to date include:

Sconce and Devon Park 100 year celebration amidst glorious weather a lot of interest in our project was generated. We were visited by Newark and Sherwood District Councillor Dennis Jones.

Newark Festival in mid-June where we berthed in full view next to Newark Town Bridge was a dual event being the Leicester Trader’s 60th anniversary and the Festival. Visitors included Notts County Councillor Tony Roberts  who gave a  cheque for £500.00 towards our restoration project, also Newark Town Mayor Bryan Richardson. Our badge maker was christened as a Father’s Day attraction, we participated in the Newark Carnival procession around Newark with our model of Leicester Trader made by member Peter Smith, and sold out on our tombola! The interest shown by the public with visits over the Festival were encouraging to say the least. We estimate we had in excess of 300 visitors.

On our Open Day 4^th August at Newark Wharf we towed LT to Newark Town Wharf. Although the day was quiet  it  was  a berth we have not tried before, and we welcomed the opportunity to test the site for future use. Many thanks to Frank Dyson of Castle Barge Pub for his help and support on the day.

Recent visitors  have included Lincoln Mazda 5 Sports Car Club , Collingham Local History Society, Nottinghamshire Country Link, and Nottingham branch Inland Waterways Association.

Our future activities include:

Trade & Transport workshop Day (part 3) Sat 7^th September to be held  on board from 12:30 to 4 pm. Barge will be open from mid-morning.  Best to contact to Les in advance as soon as possible in order we can ascertain our catering needs.

27^th September Sea Shanty Evening. Please see pamphlet attached, our major fund raising event –please support!

Les’s talks continue to be of interest with 1 scheduled in September and 4 in  October. The monies generated from these talks contribute significantly to our operating costs and any members wishing to attend are very welcome.

The Converted community Barge Sobriety operating from the Yorkshire Waterways Museum at Goole called alongside Leicester Trader on en route to Nottingham.

Member Frank Major came to stay on his narrow boat Pride of Holderness and during his visit by painting coamings, weatherboard and decks.

Open days will be the 14^th and 15^th September to coincide with Heritage Open Days. On the 15^th we anticipate a reunion with a group of retired boatmen from Hull who Les has known from his school days!