NEWS ROUND

Chedham’s Yard

Artefacts
As work on site continues, the Friends of Chedham’s Yard and project volunteers are busy getting the artefact collection ready to move back to the yard next year. They have started on the mammoth task of individually marking each artefact with its identifying number. The numbers have to be small and placed where they cannot be seen once the artefact is back on display. The work is painstaking but great progress is being made and the volunteers enjoy the social atmosphere of working in a team. Eventually it means that all the currently unsightly tied-on labels, which have a habit of falling off or getting damaged, will be removed. A group is going to the store once or twice a week to do the marking and it is anticipated the bulk of it will be completed before next winter when it will be too cold to work in the store. If you are interested in helping, please contact our Project Officer, Emma Banks .

Other volunteers have been busy at War­wick Archaeology cataloguing the more sig­nificant items found during the archaeo­logic­al dig. These have already been clean­ed and labelled and will eventually be taken to the store for marking, adding to the coll­ection and eventually putting some on display.

It is proposed to keep some of the many items found during the dig as they are – without cleaning or marking – to display as loose items at the yard, in keeping with a traditional blacksmith/ wheelwright who would have had heaps of discarded and broken metal objects lying on the floor.

Chedham’s on the Move
A small group of volunteers has, with professional assistance, been busy producing presentations to take round schools and other organisations. They consist of three boxes – one aimed at primary schools, one for secondary schools and a reminiscence box. Due to our Heritage Lottery Funding, the sessions are currently being delivered for free. The schools boxes have been designed to fit in with the national curriculum, and all are aimed at generating interest in the Yard in the hope that this will attract groups to visit when it is open. The volunteers have undergone training and have started taking the boxes out to schools. If you would like to find out about having a session for a school, or know of a group who would benefit from our reminiscence box, please get in touch.

Work in progress

Events
In July, Chedham’s Yard complemented the Bible Festival at St Peter’s Church with demonstrations of traditional crafts – a stone mason, chair making, spinning and weaving and pole lathing turning. The next public event to be organised by Chedham’s Yard is a Nature Day on the 20th August.

We are planning bush craft demonstrations, a nature trail, a bee-keeping demonstration and crafts. See the website and posters for more details nearer the time.

An unexpected find?

Girlguiding News

Lyn Hancox, leader of Wellesbourne Guides has been messing about on boats recently. Lyn holds the Girlguiding Boating and the Royal Yacht Inland Waterways Helmsman qualifications which enable her to take groups of girls on narrowboat holidays. In the past she has taken Wellesbourne Guides and hopes to take them again next year.

This year she has been busy leading Baden Powell Challenge Weekends for the County. The BP Challenge is the highest award a girl can achieve while still a Guide, and as part of the challenge has to take part in an overnight adventure, something she has not done before.

The narrowboat used is the “Centenary” which was given by Marks and Spencer – to mark their 100 years of trading – for the use of youth groups in this area.

The girls learn to steer, look after the engine, open and close lock gates and go down the weed hatch to remove weeds from the propeller. They also do their own cooking. In the evenings there is time for relaxation and a popular activity is building small rafts with night lights to float on the canal.

Lyn recently helped to bring the Centenary from Lichfield to Stratford for the Boat Festival 1-3 July when members of the public were welcomed on board. The photograph shows Lyn at the helm at the Farmers' Bridge flight of locks near Birmingham.

Last year as part of Girlguiding’s Centenary Celebration Lyn helped to crew the Tuptonia owned by City of Birmingham and Nottinghamshire Guides and also Centenary from the Midlands to London to see the Tall Ship – The Lord Nelson – a 20 day round trip as part of the water challenge.