'Saturn' at Chester

AS PART of the centenary of the birth of Tom Rolt, founder member of the IWA, and being born in Chester, the fly boat Saturn will be joining the celebrations at Chester Basin.

Saturn should arrive in Chester on Wednesday, 31st March, after collecting beer from Spitting Feathers Brewery in Waverton, and will join the mass of other boats at the week-end event.  Afterwards the boat will cruise to the  National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port. The photograph is of Saturn by Waterway Images, being horse drawn.

As part of the celebrations, at 8pm on Thursday, 1st April, there will be a special talk organised by Chester Canal Heritage Trust about the life and work of Tom Rolt, who was born in Chester a hundred years ago.

Rolt was a talented writer of both fiction and non fiction. His book Narrow Boat chronicled his tour of the inland waterways in 1939, in  his narrowboat, Cressy.

Published just after the war, it inspired Robert Aickman and others to work with Tom to form the Inland Waterways Association.