Newsletter – June 2009
June 13th, 2009The Chairman opened the June meeting with details of the forthcoming ramble, the Drakelow Tunnels visit, the 4th August Chateau Impney lunch and the Francis Brett Young readings in October. He then introduced Julie Tonkin, presenting ‘Canal Art and how it came about’.
Julie started by giving a brief history of the development of the canal system from its origins in 1760, through the mania from 1792 onwards until major developments came to an end with the coming of the railways in 1830. By the middle of the 19th Century the canals were in decline and it is believed that canal art began around this time as families were driven to live on their boats due to having insufficient money to keep both home and boat.
Our speaker had brought a vast array of items she had decorated herself and went on to use them as illustrations of the development of canal art. Julie explained that the designs were influenced by Polish art and by traditional English folk art. All too soon our speaker came to a close but her audience was not going to let her get away lightly and continued asking questions for some considerable time.