'Like to go on holiday', he said.

'Yes' I said, flushed with the experiences of gaining a pass B.Sc. in Chemistry, Billiards, Skiffle, surviving National Service and having recently started my first real job at the wage of 6.50 per week.

'What are we doing', I said.

'I Thought we'd go on a canal trip', he said.

I later learned that involvement with canals was almost inevitable as my grandfather had bananas and other goods delivered to his shop by horse and cart from the nearby Crescent Wharf in central Birmingham.

There had been earlier contacts; like catching goldfish in the stilled waters of the Stroudwater Canal, glimpses of the Dudley No 2. Canal from the top of a No. 12 Birmingham Corporation Double Decker Omnibus at California on the way to a then very rural Bartley Green (the stagnant green water was at the bottom of claypits immediately to the west of Lapal tunnel, which had fallen in around 1918), and watching horse drawn rubbish boats from the top of a No.11 bus whilst on the way to Handsworth Grammar School via Winson Green.

That first canal trip was Wolverhampton to Llangollen and back in a week, starting from the Double Pennant Boat Yard. A round trip of some 110 ten miles and 110 locks. This was 1962 when there was still a public right of navigation, although you wouldn't have thought so meeting the remnants of commercial traffic still on the move at the time.

This trip was the first of many along this route over a number of years and an increasing interest in the canals themselves. The order of things is now a little veiled in time but I joined the IWA, became involved with what was to become Waterway Recovery Group - work parties involving the Southern Stratford, Kennet & Avon, Welshpool, Lower Peak Forest and Ashton Canals.

Eventually the concept of boat ownership raised its head which resulted in ownership of a converted blue top butty called Exe and an association with the Allens of Oldbury from 1969 until they ceased trading early in 1997. Their yard was my base for many years - a source of friends and an incredible amount of knowledge about canals, boats and the Birmingham Canal Navigations in particular. When the time came for another boat there was little choice about who would build it!

Theoretical Chemistry had the audacity to become pure mathematics, and following national service I joined the film industry and after a short time moved into television film with the BBC and eventually into making programmes for the Open University. It was this latter occupation that eventually brought me to Milton Keynes.

Having had a spell as Editor of Towpath Telegraph, branch magazine of the Milton Keynes Branch of the IWA, I then moved onto sales officer and finally became Branch Chairman around 1991. It was whilst in this position that the concept of restoring navigation to Buckingham was born. The British Waterways general powers bill was being discussed at an IWA Grand Junction Regional meeting and, whilst mainly outside British Waterways ownership, it was felt that the restoration of the Buckingham Arm would be worth pursuing.

As a consequence I called a meeting of people I knew that might be interested in such a project. This meeting was held on 2nd of February 1992. The rest of the restoration story to date is chronicled in minutes of meetings and the society newsletters.

It was not until sometime later that it was pointed out to me that I had not taken the concept back to the IWA Milton Keynes branch. This was not a deliberate decision, but no doubt a reflection of the negative attitudes prevalent there at that time and which eventually resulted in my resignation from that position.

Within the Society my original position was that of Secretary to be followed by a short spell as Chairman, but now I am enjoying being "just" an ordinary Committee member.

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