Water Ways: A Thousand Miles Along Britain’s Canals with Jasper Winn

Join Writer in Residence for the Canal & River Trust & slow adventurer, Jasper Winn as he takes us along a thousand miles of 'wet roads and water streets' and talks about the heritage, history and communities of people who make Britain’s canals so great.

For 150 years, between the plod of packhorse trains and the arrival of the railways, canals were the high-tech water machine driving the industrial revolution. Amazing feats of engineering, they carried the rural into the city and the urban into the countryside and changed the lives of everyone. And then, just when their purpose was extinguished by modern transport, they were saved from extinction and repurposed as a 'slow highways' network, a peaceful and countrywide haven from our too-busy age. Today, there are more boats on the canals than in their Victorian heyday.

Jasper spent a year exploring Britain's waterways on foot and by bike, in a kayak and on narrowboats. He discovered a world of wildlife corridors, underground adventures, the hardware of heritage and history, new boating communities, endurance kayak races and remote towpaths. He shared journeys with some of the last working boat people and met the anglers, walkers, boaters, activists, volunteers and eccentrics who have made the waterways their home.
 
Tickets £4 (redeemable against the cost of Water Ways by Jasper Winn) includes a glass of wine / soft drink.

About the author:

Jasper Winn grew up in West Cork, where he left school age ten and educated himself by reading, riding horses and playing music, an upbringing that shaped a lifetime of travel. He is the author of Paddle: A Long Way Around Ireland (Sort Of Books), the story of a solo trip by kayak, and is currently Writer in Residence for the Canal and River Trust.