A STOURPORT pub is the second business to get behind our Bramble Appeal by donating money towards restoring the canal boat to its former glory.

Landlady of The Hollybush, Maggie Smith, gave £50 and put a donation box on the bar to aid The Shuttle’s appeal to secure the future of the 1934 working boat as a heritage treasure.

“We are very much a community-based pub in everything we do,” she said. “We want to encourage the local community to support and preserve our town and our heritage through projects such as the restoration of Bramble.

“We are really looking forward to seeing Bramble restored to her former glory, including seeing local schoolchildren on board learning about local history and the importance of the development of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and of working canal boats such as Bramble to the development of Stourport as a canal town in the past.”

She added: “Over the last 30 years, I have been on many narrowboat holidays and the one thing that I find so amazing is that you don’t have to travel very far before your landscape changes completely and much of what you see has been there for hundreds of years, unchanged. I would like our local children to experience the same.”

Bramble is moored in Stourport Canal Basins, having being bought by Stourport Forward, in partnership with Stourport Civic Society, from British Waterways, for just £1.

A total of £7,000 is needed to pay for a new prop shaft, mechanical and electrical work, new covers and fenders, a lick of paint and historic and replica items to furnish the living quarters as they would have been in times past.

Pauline Annis, chairman of Stourport Forward, said: “We have been really heartened by the response to this appeal, in so many ways, and we are very grateful to Maggie and everyone at the Hollybush who have always been extremely supportive, including allowing us to hold meetings in the pub and now through their support of the Bramble Appeal.”

Ways to jump aboard our Bramble Appeal:

If you or your school or group can organise a fund-raising event, contact The Shuttle and we will help publicise it by featuring it in our weekly coverage .

If you wish to send a donation, make cheques payable to Stourport Forward Limited and send them to Jennifer Meierhans, at The Shuttle, 6 Towers Buildings, Blackwell Street, Kidderminster DY10 2DY.

Please include your contact details as Stourport Forward would like to respond with letters of thanks to all those supporting the appeal.

If you can help with materials for Bramble’s refurbishment, contact Jennifer Meierhans on 01562 633346.

For more details, contact Shuttle editor Clive Joyce on 01384 358282.