Our member in New Zealand, Pete Sullivan, shares this report of the completion of his first coracle, originally mentioned in our 2015 Journal. The coracle, named PV Gloria (PV = paddle vessel), was launched on St Patrick's Day from Naval Point, Lyttelton
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Please consider signing and sharing this petition to be delivered to the incoming Welsh Assembly following the election in May. If you would like a paper petition form to collect signatures, email for a PDF file (Welsh or English versions available) and return address.
We were recently contacted by the Natural History Museum, London asking for some advice regarding their coracle. They have a Boyne style coracle, built for them by Peter Faulkner, which although currently needing repair, has previously been used in their Wildlife Garden. They have sent us some photos of it in use - see below.
As a child, I spent a great deal of time with my maternal grandfather, William Morgan, whose parents had come over from the Vale of Glamorgan. He was always proud of his Welsh background and passed that pride along to me as well as a few words of "yr hen iaith" (the old language).
Society member Alistair Phillips runs numerous coracle making courses each year at his workshop in Oxfordshire. He has shared these photos of a course he ran in June with us.
If you too have photos or anything else to share with us, please let us know via Contribute or Facebook
An article on Malcolm Rees and his coracle making/fishing recently appeared on "We Made It", a series of articles following traditional crafts and the arts. To read the article, please click here
The work of the Ironbridge Coracle Trust has received national recognition in the form of this article, which appeared in The Times on 6 August 2015
Article and images are copyright Times Newspapers Ltd. This can be read online by clicking here (subscription required)
Dave Purvis was once again representing the Society at this year's Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in Portsoy. He was joined by Museum Assistant Heather Townsend from Elgin Museum, for whom we raised £350 at the Tay Descent last year towards the conservation and reinterpretation of their Spey currach, thought to be the oldest coracle in existence.
Heledd Wyn Hardy from University of South Wales came to St Fagans on 26th July to film the coracles, net fisherman and Jim Lilford from Tomos a Lilford Brewery (who brewed our special Cwrwgl ale). You can view her video below (some of this video is in Welsh)
On a wonderful summer's Saturday, the inaugural Welshpool coracle regatta took place at the Town Wharf. Coracles have been absent from Welshpool for some time, so this event was truly historic. Despite not being able to raise enough entries for the planned Macmillan coracle regatta in the morning, a brilliant day was had by all who attended.
We have been made aware of two events later this year that are looking for traditional craft demonstrators
We all thought the coracle (curach) had died out as a traditional working boat in Scotland in the 18th Century with the cessation of timber floating on the River Spey.
Anyone who has been for a paddle on many of the country’s rivers in the past few years will have noticed much litter floating around, or caught in overhanging branches.
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