Following the conclusion of our Tay Descent appeal, we are delighted to confirm that a total of £350 was raised for Elgin Museum. Our members Charlie Quinnell, Tim Jones and Bruce Watson took on the gruelling course on the Scottish river Tay in October, being the first coracles to take part in this Scottish Canoe Association event which is now in its fifth year.
We are delighted to report that the Ironbridge Coracle Trust has secured two grants totalling £50,000 that will enable them to get the ball rolling with acquiring and preserving the Eustace Roger's coracle workshop in Ironbridge.
This item on the Tay Descent, featuring Society member and BBC presenter Charlie Quinnell, appeared on BBC Alba's Gaelic news programme, An Là. The English transcript is below the video
I built my 'Ironbridge' under Kevin Grimley's tuition in August 2012 at the Green Wood Centre. Capsized Steve's smaller coracle on the Sunday afternoon while waiting for a second coat of bitumen to dry on mine. Steve kindly gave us an introduction to coracle handling on the New Pool and I had just said “this seems quite stable!", as I rocked it back and forth... Two more coats of bitumen and I was finished!
In July 2014, the Bishop of St David's (Rt Revd Wyn Evans) visited the Coracle Sheds during his visit to Carmarthen. He was interested to learn about the coracle story and was presented with a miniature Towy coracle to remind him of his visit. The weather was very poor that day, so the Bishop decided to stay on land!
Julie Rees
This photo, taken in the 1920s, shows a coracle and a Ford Model T taking on a flood. The coracle (the passenger is probably a member of the Rogers family) fares somewhat better than the car...
Photo: Bruce Watson/Trevor Bagley
The Blairgowrie coracle on display at the Carmarthen River Festival in July. The next day, the coracle was presented to Martin Fowler at the National Coracle Centre, Cenarth, for permanent display in the museum
Despite the weather, there was an excellent turn out of both spectators and competitors at this year’s regatta. As usual, competitors competed in a number of different events including slalom, water polo (during which Peter Faulkner took goal-keeping to a new level, alighting from his Teme and using it to block the entire goal) and the Coracle Society race which was won (again!) by Steve Miles.
Channel 4 recently broadcast a one hour documentary, "The Real Noah's Ark: Secret History".
A new item appeared recently on BBC Alba on the Spey currach. You can watch it on the BBC News by clicking here. An English translation is provided below
[[{"fid":"169","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Bernard Thomas","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Bernard Thomas"},"type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Bernard Thomas","title":"Bernard Thomas","style":"width: 350px; height: 477px; margin: 5px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default"}}]]Bernard Thomas (1923-2014), Vice President of The Coracle Society, was one
The Coracle Society regrets to announce the passing of Bernard Thomas, one of our Vice Presidents.
We extend our deepest sympathies to his family at this difficult time