Council pay for restoration

THE Three Rivers District Council is to donate half of the money required to restore a traditional narrowboat at present moored at Rickmansworth.

With £12,000 still needed to restore Roger, £6,000 has been donated by the council to enable the work to continue.

'Learning the Lock'

The boat is being restored with a view to using it to teach primary school children and teenagers about boats, and learn about the canal on which they worked, and will be part of the 'Learning the Lock' educational program.

The special timber needed has been ordered, and a slot reserved at the dry dock of Jem Bates at Bulbourne for six weeks in January and February, to carry out the restoration.

Roger was built in 1936 by Bushell Brothers, purposely for the coal trade. It carried the final load from Baddesley Colliery on the Coventry Canal to Dickinson's Croxley paper mill.