John Stothert

Many in Audlem will be aware that John Stothert, who used to run the Canal Shop on Audlem Wharf until his retirement and who has since lived in Stafford Street, has died.

John's funeral is to be on Monday at 10.30am at the Crewe Crematorium and then back to Audlem Public Hall. Our thanks to Lynne Smith for those details.

Everyone who has spoken of John since the sad news of his death has said Audlem has lost one of its real characters.

Audlem Mill was taken on by John and Philippa Stothert in 1974 and they started work on the three storey building. The ground floor became a canal shop, the first floor became a workshop and art gallery, and the top floor was a flat to live in. The bathroom was formed in the old corn hoppers!

John Stothert had been involved in canals from the mid-1940s. He went up the Llangollen Canal in about 1949, a major effort in those days, and later founded Shropshire Union Cruises at Norbury Junction, one of the earliest boat hire companies, himself building many of their boats.

John did many things in the Audlem Mill workshop – including building furniture and a microlight aircraft.

Many will recall his antics designing and then riding his own craft in the Raft Races back in the 1980s. We say 'ride' as the raft in question invariably involved a bicycle, or possibly monocycle. Something almost invariably went wrong, resulting in John riding round and round in circles while slowly sinking in front of the cheering crowds.

John was also a flying enthusiast, once again designing and building his own aircraft. Yet again, that led to problems, and more serious ones, with a crash that left him with a broken back and many months in the hospital at Oswestry. It was the second time he had broken his back yet, somehow, he continued to work and get around at the Canal Shop.

Regular readers will be aware that AudlemOnline often writes, particularly on 1st April, about Coxbank International Airport and its main user, the airline BryanAir. Doubtless all will conclude this airport is a figment of the webteam's imagination but that is not so.

When John Stothert built his micro-light aircraft, he also registered a field to the south of the village as 'Coxbank International Airport', completing the complex correct documentation as if it was a major airport. It has, unfortunately, the extraordinary record of only one take off and no successful landings, as John crashed soon after he had taken-off in his microlight.

He will be sadly missed.

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