New boat service on Friday

Audlem Lass is the name of a new boat that will be a welcome attraction on the Shropshire Union canal in Audlem from Friday morning, 22nd April, Good Friday.

Audlem Lass will provide a scheduled service at weekends and additional trips by reservation. Fares are £1 a trip (50p for children) between Audlem's bottom lock (Lock 15) and the Overwater Marina.

All profits from the new service will be donated to the RNLI, the lifeboat charity. Indeed, over the Easter weekend, the normal fares will be waived and donations to the RNLI collected instead.

Audlem Lass will be operated by Rod Cottrell and a team of volunteer coxswains. Rod has been an enthusiastic fund-raiser for the lifeboat charity for many years and saw the canal route between Audlem and the Overwater Marina, which opened in 2010 with mooring for 230 narrow boats, as an ideal way to raise funds.

The boat hull was purchased by Rod and the fit-out with new seating and canopy has been part financed by the Overwater Marina and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe Investing in Rural Areas. The Inland Waterways Association has helped too with funds provided by Miss Jean Evans to purchase a dozen lifejackets.

As well as providing transport between Audlem village and the marina, the boat is sure to boost local tourism and be a boon to Audlem's shops, pubs and cafés with improved access to the village by the many boaters using the marina.

It's expected that the 12-seater boat will be popular with schoolchildren. Already, around six hundred pupils a year visit the farm where the Overwater Marina has been created. The dairy farm is part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme and learning about rural life as well as touring the marina and canal by boat should make for an interesting and educational visit.

There will be scheduled weekend services from 9.30am by Audlem Lass between Audlem at Lock 15 and Overwater Marina. Onward trips to Hack Green, for the Secret Bunker, and occasionally to Nantwich are also being planned. Season tickets and carnets of tickets will be available for regular users, such as those with boats at the marina.

New too in Audlem will be touch-screen computers based at the Marina and the Mill Shop on Audlem Wharf. These will detail through video and other media the life and works of Thomas Telford; the canal system and it's impact on Audlem; and details of local attractions and services.

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