Stan Holland found our Christmas piece on the Godalming to Lancashire canal journey of Tony Haynes a cause for pleasant reminiscence. Pausing only to correct our description of Tony's 'barge' - ('it was a narrowboat') - Stan regaled us with the story of his own canal-drifting days.

'As Tony proceeded north on the canal to the current limit of navigation he would have passed under Bridge 19, which is shown as Quaker's Bridge in the waterways guide, although no-one seems to know how it got this name. Can anyone tell me?'

Stan recalls on one trip, putting his wife offshore to go to Meeting in Bourneville. She began her ministry there by saying: 'I don't suppose many Friends came to Meeting this morning by boat.' The couple's daughter was marrying the following Saturday at the Meeting and this had inspired a ministry on life's varied journey. 'This event occurred thirty years ago, and our daughter is still happily married - and so are we', Stan tells us. 'After sixty-three years it is still an interesting journey. I think I might manage a little more.'

Labels: narrowboat