Chester

Tom Rolt Centenary Celebration

June 28th, 2010

A celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Tom Rolt. Father of the Inland Waterways Association. Vintage car and heritage train enthusiast.

Born 1910 in Eaton Road, Chester, Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt trained as a mechanical engineer. He held an apprenticeship with Kerr Stuart's locomotive works in Stoke on Trent, where his uncle was chief development engineer. In 1939 using his uncles boat Cressy (a horse drawn fly boat adapted to run with a Model T Ford engine and fitted out with living accomodation by Tom himself) he undertook a journey, with his wife of two weeks, to explore the inland waterways of Britain. He noticed the decline of the waterways as a way of life and the decay of the infrastructure.

With his book "Narrow Boat" about his experiences afloat he enthused others to take to the waterways and, determined to preserve this hidden gem, was a founding father of the Inland Waterways Association in 1946. In all Tom Rolt spent 12 years living on the canals.

In the 1950's he was instrumental in the establishment of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society of which he bacame General Manager between 1951-1952. The worlds first preserved railway he recorded his pioneering experience in his book "Railway Adventure". He wrote prestigiously on engineering. Including biographies of Brunel, Telford, Trevithick and Stephenson as well as text books, journals and novels. Including several ghost stories brought together in the compilation "Sleep No More" set amongst Britains industrial heritage, and his three part autobiography now available as "The Landscape Trilogy".

See the Amazon link below

To mark the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Tom Rolt a gathering of narrow boats took place on Tower Wharf in Chester over the weekend of 27, 28 June 1010. Organised by the Chester branch of the IWA. With over 70 boats in attendance. Resplendent in bunting and decoration the canal basin was awash with colour. Also present was Cressy Reanactment Cruise undertaking a reconstruction of the 1939 journey, on the narrowboat Heron, having set out from Banbury, Oxfordshire on the 24th April.

Also present was the steam engine Tom Rolt from the Talyllyn Railway, standing, in steam, on a low loader in Telford's Wharehouse car park. And the Hydrogen powered concept boat, the "Ross Barlow" from Birmingham University, on its first major cruise.

These pictures of the Tom Rolt Centenary Celebration in Tower Wharf, Chester were taken on the Friday early evening and on the Sunday of the event.

click on any picture for a higher resolution slide show