Some of our funded projects...

Over the twenty years we have been in existence we have funded many projects at the museum, from re-bottoming the museum's historic working boat NB Sculptor, the conservation of important objects and archives, new museum displays, created audio trails and helped with the cost of refurbishing the main building and installing a kitchen and cafe. Below are just a few projects which have recently been completed, or are underway...

Craft Control Board

One of our members, John Alderson, rescued this craft control board in a skip at Brentford and donated it to the museum. During canal carrying days, and well before computers existed, it manually recorded the positions of working boats and details of their cargo's on the canal network in a BW office, probably at Brentford. As you can see, it is styled rather like a metro map. 

The board needed extensive conservation and was transferred to Ellesmere Port where the work was carried out in 2023-4 at a cost of £1,000. Our charity funded 50% of the cost. 

Model of the Foxton Inclined Plane

Our 'working' model of the Foxton Inclined Plane which was added to the museum in the 1980s hasn't operated in the living memory of some of our longest serving volunteers. Over the years volunteers have failed to get it going for more than a few minutes at a time, and it had a cracked perspex cover. The diorama inside is also in need of attention.

We gave £5,000 funding to the Trust in 2021 towards its repair and refurbishment, for which quotes have now been obtained, and work will start soon, although the mechanism is thought to be too fragile to ever work successfully. Meanwhile a brand new perspex cover has been sourced and installed.

We Speak Your Language

With increasing numbers of visitors from overseas, we funded foreign language captioning cards which visitors can pick up from dispensers on each floor. So far, descriptions of objects and displays are available in French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and Dutch. It is hoped to add new languages as volunteers with foreign language skills come forward to check translations for us.

Cost £60

Photo Cut-Outs

For a minimal outlay for materials, funded by the Friends, our amazing museum volunteers have constructed and painted two photo-boards so our visitors can upload selfies of themselves as boat people on social media. One has already been installed on the 1st Floor of the museum and is proving very popular with our younger visitors.

Cost £100

Christmas Cards

In 2014, waterways artist Brian Collings kindly allowed us to produce a series of Christmas Cards using his paintings of local scenes. It was decided to reproduce these, and some photo images taken by Max Costello. The Friends have funded their reproduction for sale in the shop this year. All proceeds will go to the Trust.

Local photographer James Moy, has taken a series of images of Stoke Bruerne, which will be used to create blank notecards. These will be on sale soon.

Funding: Up to £500