CanalCuttings - Your FREE Online-world British Inland Waterways, Narrowboat, River Cruiser, Canal Boat Magazine, Info Source and Britain's & Narrowboat Holiday Guide.
Around 850 Pages of Information and Features About Canals, Navigable Rivers and Their Usage - We're not just a Narrowboat World Magazine. The website includes River and Inland Waterways information - UK Inland Waterways Press Releases and Articles Invited.

Learning Boat Python Arrives On The Chesterfield Canal

Narrowboat Python arrived at West Stockwith lock, where the Chesterfield Canal comes out of the River Trent, on Saturday 19th September 2009.

Narrowboat Python was greeted by Keith Ayling, the Vice President of the Chesterfield Canal Trust, who said “We are delighted to lease this boat from British Waterways. The Learning Boat is a unique project which will provide a really useful service to the communities along the Chesterfield Canal.”.

Python is a ex-working boat that the Chesterfield Canal Trust have leased for five years from British Waterways. She is a coppered steel construction craft built by Yarwoods in Northwich and fitted out at Uxbridge. She was commissioned in February 1930. Her fleet number was 249 and her registration number was UXB 572. She came into the hands of the British Transport Commission (which eventually became British Waterways) in 1949. They shortened her in the 1980's to her current 53'. She had been out of service for a year before the handover. Her sister boat, Panther, is owned by the Coventry Canal Society.

In late May, Python was collected from Adelaide Dock in London. She was taken up the Grand Union Canal to Soar Valley Boats, near Nottingham, where she had a complete overhaul and was repainted. She was on display at the Inland Waterways Association National Rally in August. She has just been taken down the River Trent to the Chesterfield Canal.

Python will be used for canal work in the winter and as a learning resource in the summer. She will also be on hand for rallies and festivals, performances and events. It is hoped that by the time the five year lease is up, the people living on or near the Chesterfield Canal will insist that she stays having become an essential part of their lives.

Narrowboat Python arrived at West Stockwith lock, where the Chesterfield Canal comes out of the River Trent, on Saturday 19th September 2009 Photo left: Maurice Marsden, Arthur Naylor, Pete Ramsell and Mick Cheshire who brought the boat down the River Trent plus Keith Ayling (Vice President of the Chesterfield Canal Trust).

The Learning Boat Project is a long-held vision of Dr. Geraint Coles, the Development Manager for the Chesterfield Canal Partnership. The plan is to use Python as a resource, not a trip boat. She will stop at village and town wharves along the navigable length of the canal and will be used as a flexible, multi-purpose platform with workspace, exhibitions, artefacts, a stage and lockers full of laboratory equipment, costumes and props.

Over the coming months, a whole series of modules in drama, history, science & technology, ecology etc. will be developed for children of different ages. There will also be performances and presentations for adults.

The key to the Learning Boat approach is actually doing things. Tell Primary School children that “The easy movement of goods was the triumph of the canal age” and they will yawn. Get a couple of them to try to pull a couple of bags of coal on land and they will struggle. Put the bags on the Learning Boat and they will be able to pull it easily.