Hellos and goodbyes
ONLY 37 days to go!
The Canal Festival 2026 is coming - we NEED YOU!
19th September, 11:30am - 6pm, Aristotle Lane Recreation Ground
A mighty mega-mix of music, good food, delicious drinks, canal themed shenanigans and fun for all the family.
The Festival has also played a big part in raising funds and fondness for the Kilsby Boat Project.
We are looking for volunteers to help host the Kilsby marquee.
We’ll be:
Chatting to people about the project
Sharing photos and videos from the past and plans for the future
Playing around with shadow puppets, magnet poetry and stories from the history of our waterways
Having a jolly time
You don’t need to have any experience, or even to have volunteered with us before. The only requirement is that you are happy meeting and greeting!
You don’t need to sign up for the whole day, an hour or two is plenty.
If you would like to get involved please sign up here!
A goodbye, with a massive thank you to Marta, our Heritage Project Manager
After a six month stint in which they not only successfully got Kilsby up to Stourbridge (by boat, crane and lorry!), and all logistics in place for the physical work of restoring Kilsby to begin, but also laid extraordinary groundwork for the all the unseen but essential systems that keep this project streaming along, Marta has stepped down as Project Manager. We are extremely grateful to have had Marta for the first major push of this project, and will feel the benefits of their diligence and vim for the rest of it.
And now we have a new Heritage Project Manager at the helm.
Introducing the magnificent Helen Le Brocq...
Helen will be working alongside Technical Project Manager Steph Pirrie,
and the Kilsby Steering Group. She brings with her a wealth of experience
in arts, community and heritage projects, and is particularly passionate
about the involvement and enjoyment of young people in these activities.
She has turned museums into magical learning paces, empty shops into
youth arts venues, and aircraft hangars into festival performance venues.
She is thrilled to be involved in such an exciting project that will not only
save a beautiful historic narrowboat and return it to its Oxford community,
but which will become a space for storytelling, music and theatre!
To meetings she brings excellent tea bags, buckets of warmth, and a great
sense of humour. She is happiest on the water, making other people happy by teaching them how to paddle board.
Any questions? Contact Helen at nbkilsby@gmail.com
And finally
As our restoration of Kilsby enters its next exciting phase, we want to ensure we are capturing every story, skill learned, and environmental benefit created by this project.
We are currently inviting quotes from Evaluation Consultants to help us manage our data and evidence our success to the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The successful candidate will work closely with our Project Manager and volunteers to build an "Evaluation Toolkit" that measures everything from the technical integrity of the hull to the wellbeing of our crew.
If you know a professional with experience in heritage evaluation and a knack for making data collection "volunteer-friendly," please share this opportunity with them!
Indicative Budget: £3k–£3.5k.
Timeframe: Now through to Winter 2027.
Full Brief: Available upon request from kilsbypm@jlht.org.
Thank you for reading and have a lovely day.
(Don't forget to sign up here if you'd like to help out at the canal festival!)
