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Update: Save Our Heritage Huts Appeal

 20 April 2013

Since we launched the Save Our Heritage Huts Appeal last year, we have received donations of nearly £1100, for which we are very grateful. However, we still need to raise more - in order for our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to be successful, we need to provide 'match funding' - for our appeal, our target is £5000.

If you have not made a donation to the appeal there is still time to do so - please make cheques payable to 'The Coracle Society' and send to Euan Raffel, The Coracle Society, Flat 3, 12 Delven Lane, Castle Donington, DE74 2LJ.

Petition to prevent detrimental changes to St Fagan's National History Museum

 20 April 2013

The Welsh Assembly are currently considering restructuring of National Museum Wales, which includes the St Fagan's National History Museum - the home of our national coracle archives. This could result in job losses and location closures, to the detriment of preserving, promoting and restoring the history of coracles. 

Send us your content for the spring newsletter!

 20 April 2013

We will shortly be producing our spring newsletter, but as always we need content to put in it! If you have any articles, photos etc from recent events, items found in the press or dates for the diary, please submit them via Contribute as soon as possible

Ash dieback disease

 29 December 2012

The recent news stories related to the ash dieback outbreak make for troubling reading for any nature lover, but much more so for the coracle maker. Ash is one of the ‘staples’ for coracle construction and this outbreak could, if it reaches the extents of the Dutch Elm disease outbreak - which by the 1990s had wiped out over 25 million elm trees - quite possibly put most coracle makers out of business.

Carmathen River Festival - 30th June - 1st July 2012

 01 December 2012

The River Festival was hailed a success, despite the poor weather conditions. More than 1000 people packed the town's quay for 2 days of family fun and river entertainment. The coracle men provided taster sessions throughout the weekend and then took to the river for the annual coracle race on the Sunday. It was a very close race, especially as the weather wasn't kind to the coracle men, with Malcolm Rees retaining his title.

Hackney Wick Coracle Regatta - September 2012

 01 December 2012

Not your normal venue for a coracle venue, but on a pleasant September Saturday, a sizable crowd gathered in Hackney Wick, East London, for an afternoon of activities on the water. 

Photos: Daniel Weill

Annual Basketmakers' Summer Meeting 2012

 01 December 2012

We were asked to attend the Annual Basketmakers’ Summer Meeting on 23rd June at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire where they were displaying and demonstrating traditional Welsh craft basketry.

We displayed our traditional Towy coracle and several photos of how the coracle is made and it’s history.

We were helped on the day by two young members of the Society,
Miss Jaymee Rees & Miss Mia Rees - granddaughters of Mr Raymond Rees, who proudly wore their Society sweatshirts.

2012 AGM and Regatta

 01 December 2012

This year’s Annual General Meeting and Regatta were held at St Fagans: National History Museum near Cardiff by kind invitation of our Archivist, Dylan Jones. After the formalities of the meeting, members were invited on a tour of the archived coracle and net fishing assets at the museum. In the afternoon, we caught a lucky break with the weather as clear, sunny skies graced us with their presence for the regatta, which took place in front of St Fagan’s Castle. Whilst there weren’t

Save Our Heritage Huts Appeal

 21 October 2012

In the 2009 Journal, Alan Grove wrote:

“It is quite extraordinary that two sheds, used as coracle making workshops by two ‘famous’ coraclemen, should have a question mark hanging over their future existence at precisely the same time. They are namely that of John Christmas Thomas (‘Jack’ Thomas, 1904-1976) of Cenarth and the Rogers family workshop at Ironbridge, Shropshire, last used by the late Eustace Rogers (1915-2003).”

Annual General Meeting and Regatta

 07 July 2012

Our Annual General Meeting and Regatta will take place at St Fagan's: National History Museum (just outside Cardiff) on Sunday 29 July. The AGM will start at 12pm, and the Regatta will commence at 2pm. The AGM and Regatta is taking place in conjunction with the museum's 'Gone Fishing!' weekend, which members are very welcome to attend. Entry to the museum - and the Gone Fishing! events - is free. Also available over the weekend will be tours of the fishing collection and coracle archives led by our Secretary and Archivist, Dylan Jones.

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