Len unfortunately passed away at the end of September 2008.  Len was a vital member of the group and because of this, his testimonial has not been removed.  Len will be sorely missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.

Len Ilsley

Hi, I’m Len
I joined the group in 2002.
I enjoy the camaraderie with the other members, and over the years have got involved in administration of the group and maintenance of the boats.  The icing on the cake though is moving the boats around the Midlands to different shows and having local people come on board to see where the original boaters lived and worked and to hear the history of the boats and canals.
Over the years I have been on training courses for first aid, boat handling, blacksmithing and roses and castles painting.

Peter Bruton

I stumbled onto the Heritage Boats almost my accident following a visit to the British Waterways stand at the Inland Waterways Show at the NIA in 2001.

On an impulse I filled in an enquiry card headed 'Become a BW Volunteer' and the rest is history as they say.

Since then I have become increasingly involved progressing from cleaning the brass to being responsible for moving a working pair.  By far the most rewarding however is the new friendships I have made and the banter that goes with it together with the opportunity to enjoy our unique canal system.

Richard Tyler

As a boy in Birmingham, the canals were part of my play-area, primarily around Shirley and Earlswood. I didn’t know then that they had names – it was just the canal or ‘cut’.  Later in life I hung around Gas Street Basin in my lunch breaks from college, and my thesis was on canals.

Much later I wanted to ‘give something back’ to BW after I had attended a very enjoyable series of short events based around canals, so Ed Moss suggested that I join the newly formed Friends of the Working Boats.  The rest, as they say, is history, and I have no regrets.

Joan Blackley

Shortly after moving to Birmingham in 2002 I discovered Friends of the Working Boats in a leaflet advertising social groups and clubs around Solihull, I couldn't believe my luck. I've been a fan of narrowboats and the canal system since taking family holidays in the 1980's, the first of which was on the Welsh canal on a 70 foot boat – no half-measures for us.

The times I enjoy most are being on the move, hand on the tiller and cup of tea in hand or leaning on a lock, chatting with friends and watching the boat coming round a corner in the canal.

Gavin Dobbie

Some 3 years ago, my parter Joyce and I visited a canal boat festival on the BCN.  We were admiring on of the BW working Boats and were invited aboard by a lady voluteer.

She explained about the group and gave a most interesting talk about canal history, the boats and the people who had lived and worked on them.

We were so impressed that we immediately joined the group and have had a wonderful time volunterring since then.

Whilst I enjoy moving boats to and from festivals, I also get the wondewrful feeling of self satissfaction form speaking to the public, especially young people about our canal heritage, and would definitely recommend volunteering with the group to anyone with an interest in our canals

Julian Bevan

I have been interested in the Canals since about 1961, when I was taken as a trainee country Policeman with a colleague along the Llangollen Canal at Chirk and we went across the Aqueduct. This was a total surprise and I was hooked there and then. I have fished the Canals, walked them, and even did a small amount of restoration on the Montgomery with my daughter. I have done many other things on them including removing bodies from them!

I have had several canal holidays, and when I came to retire I thought that I might volunteer my services. I had occasion to visit an exhibition in Market Drayton where I met a representative of BWB who directed me to the Sagitta Project that was being run by Staffordshire County Council. I enjoyed several years with Sagitta, and when she was returned to the Midlands Area I met up with Richard L. In conversation on a boat move he made a reference to a Web Site, and as I had built two Web Sites I told him that I was interested. I was in fact taking an evening course at Keele University in Web Site Design,  and I used the [former] Heritage Boats site as my Course project.

John Robinson

I had little experience of steering working boats until I met Richard Lacy in 2005. Thanks to patient tuition from John Embling, Len Illsley and Glyn Phillips  I qualified as a steerer in 2006, and enjoyed a long trip back from Beale Park to Birmingham in Sagitta after the IWA Festival. There is no platform better than a canal boat for enjoying the peace and natural beauty of the English countryside. I also admire the superb technical ingenuity with which West Midlands folk manage to keep these old boats going when the elderly machinery decides to play up. I still have a lot to learn about historic boating but could not ask for better tutors than the Group.

Mick Perry

As my working life was on steam railway engines, Birmingham buses and lorries, it seems natural that my ‘retirement hobby’ would involve transport; I don’t think I was ‘cut-out’ for The Samaritans or Marriage Guidance. From my childhood home on the Tame Valley Canal I used to watch working boats moving coal to Nechells Power Station and helped the men whenever I could, so when I heard an appeal by local historian Carl Chinn on radio WM for canal stories, I called him and related some of my tales on the air.  The then HWBG co-ordinator was on the programme too, and she sent me details for joining.  The rest, as they say, is history.

I like all aspects of the work within the group, especially getting to know a lot of the canal system and people, and showing the boats to parties of visiting school children.

Neil Howes

I’ve been around the canals for over 60 years starting with a visit to ‘Sutton Stop’ in the bad winter of 1947 to watch a team of ‘Shire Horses’ pulling an ice breaker to allow coal to get through to Hawkesbury Power Station.  Sutton Stop and Hatton Flight were favourite places to watch commercial narrow boats until the end of carrying in the late 60’s.

Girls, marriage and children curtailed canal visits. In the late 60’s early 70’s I was for a short spell secretary of  'The Canal Transport Marketing Board’ a posh title for a group of enthusiasts that met in Gas Street, Birmingham helping to promote canal carrying, meeting in the offices of the Birmingham Midland Canal Carrying Co.

The group unfortunately didn’t last long, lack of cash and lack of members from other few remaining carriers led to its demise.  I joined the Historic Working Boats group in 2002 shortly after retiring, giving me the chance to give back to other people all the pleasure and interest I’ve enjoyed on the canals.

Now I enjoy learning new skills on restoration, steering and operating narrow boats and realising how very hard work it is and how very skilful and professional the old boaters were.

Martin Lillystone

In February 2006 I had the priilage of crewing and helming one of these great 72’ working boats, through locks to rallies and events with a great bunch of peoplke. I have had some very exciting trips with mats, rope, sacks etc round the propella with no weed hatch ! (what fun !!)

For those who have met me, theywill know I am more hands on than I am a writer…… I now realise now that the biggest gift of life  is meeting friends like all I have met within the group.