The Letchworth Settlement:  User Groups

This course will encourage a deeper understanding of, and involvement with, Inland Waterways.  It aims to look at the birth, rise, fall and resurgence of the waterways system with the change from past commercial carrying to today’s leisure boom in pleasure boating.  This is accomplished by a series of illustrated lectures which will progress from a basic introduction to waterways to specialised studies of the history and development of certain rivers and canals, commercial boating and the way of life beyond the towpath hedge.
The course requires no prior knowledge of canals and boating – just a desire to know some more about the subject!
The tutor has over thirty years experience of the Inland Waterways and now presents an average of a hundred lectures a year on various aspects of canals and rivers together with other historical subjects.  He has written several books and researches and maintains two websites on historical canal subjects. A book box will be provided from the tutor’s collection of waterways books.