We will meet up at 11:30 am at:

The Boat Inn
Bridge Road
Stoke Bruerne
Towcester
NN12 7SB

for a 25 minute (crewed) boat trip to the entrance of Blisworth tunnel and back, followed by bar meals to be served in their Bistro on return.

The pub ask that we provide them with our meal details at least 3 days (Monday 17th) before the visit. The menu can be seen here, or at the Boat Inn’s web site.

We can then wander around the canalside (taking all applicable health and safety precautions of course) before taking a guided tour of the canal museum. Note that the museum is fairly small, and this will not take very long.

For more details of the museum, see their web site canalrivertrust.org.uk/things-to-do/museums-and-attractions/the-canal-museum-stoke-bruerne. (Beware: these are pages within the overall Canal and River Trust web site, so it’s possible to wander into other parts of the web site unrelated to the museum.)

After the museum tour you can browse their gift shop, take tea in their cafe, look around the canalside, or just go home. Note that as it’s winter, they close early at 3pm.

Price depends on the number of attendees, as the boat trip is £100 however many people come, but a maximum of £10 per person. We will also collect £3 a head for a donation to the museum (it's free entry) in lieu of a tip for the guide. We are collecting a deposit of £5 per person to book this trip. The boat will take a maximum of 25 people, so in the unlikely event of more bookings than this, the last received will get their deposit back.

Meals and drinks at the pub's bistro (and possibly the museum cafe) are your own responsibility.

Access: Note that while the museum building is accessible with two disabled parking bays, the museums exhibits are on the first and second floors which are reachable only by stairs. Because of the historic nature of the building, there is no wheelchair or lift access to the these floors.

To book, please complete the attached booking form and send by email to Paul Gover and in response you’ll get an email explaining how to pay your deposit of £5 per person to the club account.
Please book by Sunday 9th March.

Word document     Printable Booking Form

Refer to the document Event Booking Conditions for Terms and Conditions.

Join us for a week’s break in the Lake District centered around Grasmere. This is a lovely village in the middle of the Lake District and has the William Wordsworth Museum.

For walkers we will be planning walks of varying lengths in this beautiful part of the lake district. Details of 6 walks from Grasmere are given in the attached link:

www.lakelandretreats.com/6-walks-from-grasmere/

There are a many attractive places to visit within a short drive of Grasmere.

Boat excursions are available from Bowness-on-Windermere for Lake Windermere, from Keswick for Lake Derwent and from Bridgend for Ullswater.

Keswick, Ambleside and Windermere are great places for shopping and lunching etc.

We will be planning some evening meals in Grasmere restaurants which will give us a good opportunity to get together and update one another on our daily exploits!

This will be a self drive event and accommodation will be your choice. We know that some of you will prefer Hotels or Bread & Breakfast accommodation while others will prefer to be self catering so we are leaving it to you to book your own accommodation.

The accommodation can be in Grasmere or located a short drive away. We would advise you to book your accommodation asap as we have been advised that bookings are being made early this year for summer breaks. You may wish to stay for a shorter time, say 3 or 4 days, instead of 7 days and we can easily plan for this.

Can you let John know if you would like to come and advise us your plans for dates and accommodation.

John’s email is: jriscman@gmail.com

John & Ray