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Oxfordshire Heritage Boat Journeys
Location: Oxfordshire
Project Details
 Between June 19th and 26th two heritage boat journeys wound their way through Oxfordshire. One began in the north of the county heading from Cropredy along the Oxford Canal to Oxford and the other started from Henley and travelled to Oxford along the River Thames. The canal working boats Mountbatten and Jellicoe led a group of canal dwellers and performers along the canal, and Plover B accompanied by a Canadian canoe, amongst other craft, travelled along the Thames. The boat journeys linked in Oxford on 26th June 2004 as part of Oxford Open Water Week Festival. Both journeys were accompanied by storytellers and performers at overnight stops along the way. The routes followed the heritage and history of the waterways and stories were gathered by local filmmakers along the way. Each night, the boats stopped at different towns and villages and the river and canalside became a focus for performances of historical re-enactments, traditional music, storytelling and for learning opportunities about the built and natural environment of the waterways and their surroundings.
 The stories were gathered on video and stills photographs and some can be viewed on this website or on http://www.oomf.org.uk A 40 minute DVD programme has also been edited from the archive and will be available from the http://www.oomf.org.uk website. The stories will be made available to local museums and heritage groups. At the launch of the two boat journeys at either end of the County, and at each stop, community groups including schools, were invited to perform with the boat people and take part in heritage, storytelling and gathering activities.
Group Name |
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Produced with OOMF! |
| Project Contact |
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Rosemary Richards |
| Address |
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Unit 17, Standingford House, Cave Street, Oxford. |
| Project Postcode |
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OX4 1BA |
| See also |
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Produced with OOMF! website |
| Local Community Involvement / Partnerships: |
River and canal dwellers, school groups, community groups and musicians from around Oxfordshire were involved in the project.
Members of the boating community in Oxfordshire who took part included local historican Mark Davies, who for much of the journey was captain of Plover B on the River Thames, and who helped set up and co-ordinate the project; the coal boats Mountbatten and Jellicoe and their crew Ivor and Mel Batchelor; Giles Shearing; Benji Ming; Kate Saffin; and Tim Christian & Jane Rouse. Musician and performer Matt Sage acted as MC of the Thames journey.  Rower Marianne Hansen, video maker Sue Evans and storyteller/video maker Jack Kinobe and canoe enthusiast David Houghton joined theThames journey . Video maker Louise Taylor lived on the canal for the week filming all the events.
Help at the overnight stops was provided by Tim Sumner and Marita Johanssen. Tim Sumner and Paul Azzopardi took stills photographs with additional photographs by freelance photographer David Fleming.
Video editing for the LHI and OOMF! websites by Oxford Video Society and Matt MacNamara (with thanks to OFVM) and for the DVD by Ben Adam of 8 Productions.
Integral to the project was the opportunity to open the participation and perfomance to groups and individuals from a variety of cultures and ethnic backgrounds and to groups with special needs.
Performers introducing music and water themed stories and art from international cultures included :-
 Oxfordshire based Fily Cissokho, a master musician from Senegal, introducing the magic of the Kora, a 21 string African harp
Oxford based African story teller and cameraman Jack Kinobe, who travelled along the whole of the Thames journey performing at overnight stops and capturing the other events of the week on video.
Presentation of images made at workshops by the East Oxford Bangladeshi Women's Shapla group
Tandara Mandara- Wallingford’s finest Balkan Russian gypsy folk trio, with accordian, fiddle and double bass
Oxford Drum Troupe with explosive African rhythms
Audio Visual experimental performance by young people from East Oxford's Rap Yard.
At Iffley Lock a Water Garden Installation from Asian artist Madi Acharya-Baskerville based on Tagore’s riverbed poem ‘The Hero’
Alexander D Great - calypso singer
 Poems from Olive Steadman
Bengali Men's Group
Shotover Day Centre
Restore
Mencap
BANCEC, Banbury
East Oxford Anglo Asian group
Blackbird Leys youth group
Other community groups and individuals taking part in workshops leading up to the event and in performances during the week included :-
Cropredy School
Grange Primary School, Banbury
St Ebbe's Primary School, Oxford,
Sandhills Community Primary School,
St John's School, Wallingford,
St Nicholas School, Abingdon
St Leonard's School, Banbury
Wolvercote Primary School
Carswell School, Abingdon
John Mason School Wind Ensemble, Abingdon
Chris Park Raven’s Taunt
Local all-female Morris side The Aynho Apricots, Jonny Fletcher – Acoustic sunshine soul man
Colin Fletcher and Jane Griffiths Stunning Celtic guitar and fiddle duo
Chantelle Pike
Henley Drum Club
Mark Handley
Goring Unplugged
Chrysalis
Chris Hawes
Mark Baker
The Paper Men – Celtic players
Sid - Wallingford’s own dub poet
Sustainable Wallingford
Abbie/Claude
Justin Gibson
Kate Garrett
Dave Noble
Simon White Quintet
Wantage Barbershop Quartet
Simon White Quintet
Abingdon Drama Club
The Matt Sage Orchestra
Production Manager : Graeme Merifield
Creative Director : Clive Holland
Project Producer : Rosemary Richards |
| Grants: |
Heritage Lottery Fund: £24750
Nationwide Building Society: £5000
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