The triumphs and trials of canal life
WHEN a theatre-maker and a poet, both with strong links to the canals, got together with a team of volunteers to research the 30-year period after the Second World War, they came up with some wonderful stories.
Poet Heather Wastie had her first taste of canal life as a child in the Black Country when her family was involved in campaigns to save them from being abandoned; theatre-maker Kate Saffin is a boat dweller with a thirst for gathering and sharing accurate accounts of canal history. As Alarum Productions, they are passionate about celebrating the achievements of ordinary extraordinary women.
Now, some the fruits of their labours on the I Dig Canals project are available to the public in podcasts, a short film and their newly published book. The book was due to be launched in April at Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust which was the project’s base, thanks to the generosity of chief executive, Traci Dix-Williams and her team.
When circumstances led to the event’s cancellation, the team worked really hard to ensure that the book was extra special. Traci describes the book as ‘rich with detail’ and says: “It conveys the grittiness and romance of life on the canals and gives the women involved a great way of capturing and sharing their memories.”
After living in the Black Country for 50 years, in 2006 Heather moved to Worcestershire, where she was appointed Poet Laureate in 2015/16. She is known nationally for her writing and performance work, much of which centres on oral history.
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this project enabled her to combine her professional life with revisiting her childhood, reconnecting with women she got to know through a community of local activists.
“It was wonderful to be able to visit these women and record their memories, including interviewing my own mother who did a lot of detailed, efficient organising as well as having responsibility for childcare, catering and so much more. I hope the I Dig Canals book will show how crucial this work was for the future of the waterways we have today.”
The publication contains memories and photographs from the 40 women they interviewed, some now in their early nineties, who were involved in campaigns to save the waterways during the 1960s and ’70s. There are also contributions from poets and a visual artist inspired by those stories.
Keith Hodgkins, chairman of Tipton Civic Society, calls it ‘a wonderful evocation and celebration of the vital part that women volunteers played in the saving and restoring of the canals of the Black Country and the wider network’.
The book is available to buy from www. alarumtheatre.co.uk. Just follow the I Dig Canals link. There is also a series of 15 podcasts which are free to listen to, featuring extracts from the interviews and a short film about the project.