8:00am Friday 15th June 2012
A STOURPORT volunteer will be getting in tune with the Bramble Appeal by singing in the town this weekend to raise much-needed funds for the canal boat’s restoration.
Equipped with his banjo, Geoff Shaw will be belting out songs of the canals and sea during Stourport Basins’ Pirate Weekend.The Stourport Forward volunteer will be entertaining visitors at 2.30pm on Saturday.
Mr Shaw said: “By restoring Bramble to her former condition, as a historic working canal boat, we are helping to keep alive the songs and traditions of the many people who lived and worked on the canals, transporting a wide range of cargoes around the country before the arrival of railways and, later, lorries.”
Pauline Annis, chairman of Stourport Forward, who own the 1934 boat, added: “We are extremely grateful to Geoff and to all our volunteers for all that they do to preserve the history of Stourport Canal Basins and all that we have learned about the lives of the people who would have lived and worked at the canal basins when it was a working canal port.
“We hope that local people will come and enjoy the songs at 2.30pm on Saturday while also supporting the restoration of our own historic working canal boat, Bramble.”
This week is also the last chance for people to enter a silent auction for a water colour painting of Stourport Canal Basins, donated by Ken Jackson, of Kidderminster.
Mr Jackson, a former chairman of Kidderminster Art Society, donated the painting to the appeal in April.
It will remain on display at the Windlass Cafe/Restaurant until next Wednesday while bids are invited as part of a silent auction.Anyone interested in submitting a bid for the painting should send their bid in a sealed envelope marked ‘The Bramble Appeal Silent Auction’ to Stourport Forward, 1 Severnside, Stourport, Worcs, DY13 9JU.
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