New Bistro Evening

New Wednesday evening menu for The Willow Tree commencing 20 October.

Bonfire Night

All welcome for Mercia Marina's Bonfire Night celebrations on Saturday Nov. 6th from 5pm til late.

Heart of the Water podcast

NB Maggie-Anne has become our very own Radio Caroline. Instead of broadcasting from the coastal waters off Felixstowe, Anna is in the relative comfort of Heron Pontoon, although on windy days the similarity is more marked!

Anna, the owner of Maggie-Ann, is a compulsively creative person and Heart of the Water is her latest passion. You can read more about her on her own website http://www.annalovatt.info/ and a nice resume of the show on http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2010/09/heart-of-the-water-is-it-the-first-canal-podcast.html.

The show is well worth a listen as Anna is an excellent broadcaster. If you know of any local musicians, please suggest they get in touch.

The show is all Anna's own work. Mercia Marina's connection is simply that we are fortunate to have her as a moorer and so bathe in the reflected glory.

Winter 2010/11 Closures

Despite budget cutbacks, British Waterways have some extensive maintenance programmes planned for this winter which will result in closures. The map above, which you can click to enlarge, is from Waterscape, one of British Waterways' websites and can also be found on http://www.waterscape.com/media/documents/Map_C.pdf.

Although each year many stoppages are planned, and so boaters are forewarned, in reality if the first ones overrun in time and/or money, it is not uncommon for the planned stoppages to be cancelled.

Celebrating reopening Bridge 20

Findern Footpaths Group, a redoubtable local charitable body committed to maintaining and improving footpaths and around which both local politicians and landowners tread carefully, today announced a special event to celebrate the reopening of bridge 20 on the T & M.

Many will remember the stink caused when a wayward tractor-drawn trailer load of manure was dumped in the cut in Oct 2008 and much of the bridge parapet was demolished.

The 240 year old Bridge 20, also known as Hicklins Bridge, was rebuilt at the reported cost of £250,000 although whether BW or the insurance company paid is not known. The bridge was rebuilt to make it as authentic as possible and was strengthened at the same time.

As can be seen from the Findern Footpaths Group photo above, BW's contractors did a wonderful job.

If you fancy attending what must be a very rare event, celebrating the reopening of a canal bridge, Findern Footpaths Group welcome you to attend on Saturday Oct 2 at 11:30. There will be speeches and a cake in the shape of this now famous bridge, which has gone from the ignominy of almost being demolished thanks to a load of manure to having its very own celebration.

Western Evening at the Tea Rooms

The second face of

The Willow Tree

7:30 SEPTEMBER 18^TH

WESTERN NIGHT

3 COURSES FOR £12.95

(DEPOSIT OF £5.00 PER HEAD TO SECURE PLACE)

BOOKING ESSENTIAL

(NUMBERS LIMITED)

LIVE MUSIC

FANCY DRESS OPTIONAL

BRING YOUR OWN WINE – CORKAGE £2.00

JOIN OUR EVENT MAILING LIST

(caroline@morrowbrown.plus.com)

TEL: 07866960008 FOR DETAILS

Payment by Cash or Cheque only

Mercia Marina

Findern Lane

Willington

DE65 6DW

IWA National on Our Doorstep

The Inland Waterways Association (http://www.waterways.org.uk/)have announced that the National Festival and Boat Show will be held at Burton next year on the 29-31 July. The last time this travelling event was held at Burton was about 5 years ago.

The final choice of location was between ourselves and Burton. Unfortunately, the Committee decided that the town centre site was preferable to our rural location. However, there is still a possibility that we will host it in the future as the organisers visited us many times and had already planned the site layout.

As the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Society are seeking volunteers, so will the IWA for the show. Although most of the work is done by the indefatigible WRG army, stewards and the like will be required.