New booklet records CanalCraft project legacy
IN OCTOBER 2018 the Forth & Clyde Canal Society (FCCS) obtained support from the National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund for CanalCraft, a one-year project to bring boats and people together through activities, community celebrations and gatherings.
The CanalCraft team and the FCCS have published a beautifully produced booklet describing the project and its legacy.
The FCCS was established in 1980 and focused on campaigning for the canal’s restoration. Forty years on and the society continues to promote the canal and its social and economic potential. The FCCS wanted to rekindle interest and a sense of ownership amongs those who live or work near to the canal.
Kirkintilloch, the society’s base of operations with a long history of boat building, and Maryhill, an area in the north of Glasgow with a rich industrial heritage, were identified as specific areas of operation.
The society wanted to reach out particularly to young people and women, both groups underrepresented in boating activities. Younger participants appeared not to know much about the canal. Many local women had grown up during the canal’s closure and remembered the deaths and accidents that took place in the derelict canal, and had grown up thinking that the canal was a dirty area of the city, where criminal activity took place.
The project included an oral history project involving the society’s members, a new archive for the society and the construction of three boats.
Participants learnt skills including canal boat navigation, small craft boatbuilding and boat safety. They collected, filmed and broadcast their experiences through the creation and sharing of online content. These achievements were celebrated through community events, film screenings and celebratory gatherings.
The project’s legacy extended to the gifting of two of the boats: to the Ripple Retreat, which offers holidays for families dealing with child cancer; and to the Carnival Arts Yard, which will use the boat during the annual Glasgow Canal Festival.
A third legacy comes after one young participant said that he wished to ‘join the society and become a skipper’. He is now the society’s youngest volunteer, learning about canal boats and training in heritage and community project management.