Shardlow Heritage Centre - events - museum and exhibition about this 18th century canal transhipment port

Shardlow Heritage Centre
Exhibition and Special Events
2007

The main wall exhibition contains sections on Boatbuilders; Shardlow Hall; Wilden Ferry and Cavendish Bridge; the coming of the Trent and Mersey Canal; James Sutton and the Shardlow Boat Company; Soresby and Flack Boat Company; Cowlishaw's Coal Company; the North Staffordshire Railway Company; the milling and animal feedstuffs firm of F E Stevens Ltd; Public Houses and Breweries including the 200 year history of the site of the Malt Shovel and the neighbouring brewery/maltings building; Dickinson's Nurseries, Early Transport.

Also, large poster display panels tell the story of St James Church, Wilne Chapel, the village carnival, the House of Industry, the village schools, the tramway, the Ropery and the Henshall family, and a case study of a site on Aston Lane.

There is a full size replica of a narrowboat back cabin which has been named Swift after one of the Shardlow Boat Company's craft. This displays signwriting by Tony Lewery, roses and castles by Jan Deuchar and water cans lent by the family of Ike Argent.

Children visiting can dress in costume. A grant from the Co-op enabled the Centre to commission clothes of the Edwardian period of canal boating. Elasticated to fit various sizes of small people they can give our younger visitors the feel of life in long skirts or granddad shirts and ‘weskits’.

In the exhibition cases and displayed around the walls are items related to rural crafts and industries including blacksmiths and cobblers tools, farming implements, bottles from local breweries, and material relating to the Aston to Shardlow tramway.

A video presentation provides an introduction to the historical port and the present day village.

Events 2007

April 3, Tuesday 7.00 p.m.	Preview Evening - everybody welcome
April 6, Good Friday 12 noon - 5 p.m.	Heritage Centre re-opens for the 2007 season.
May 7, May Day Monday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.	'People - Who are we?' - for Museums Month we are hosting a Shardlow Family History Day - Sheila Cooke, local historian, will be there with some of our archives to help answer your questions about Shardlow families, including the Suttons, Soresbys and Cowlishaws. Bring your old photographs and documents relating to Shardlow, Cavendish Bridge and Great Wilne - people, firms, events and buildings - to help us expand our knowledge of the past.

August 26, Sunday, 7.30 p.m.	MIKRON THEATRE COMPANY Mikron are coming again to the Clock Warehouse as part of their Waterways and Summer Tour. Mikron's own narrowboat, Tysley, was built in the 1930's. This year's show has a local theme: The Lacemakers It is 1816 and William Johnson, who works in John Heathcoat's lace factory in Loughborough, is going to marry Sarah. But their ordered lives are about to be shaken up by larger events, when a Luddite mob attacks Heathcoat's factory, burning the lace and destroying fifty five lace frames. It is the start of a great adventure which will take William and Sarah far from home in their search for work. This is the story of the intrepid lacemakers of Loughborough, whose struggle to earn a living took some of them to Devon, some of them to Calais, and finally - trapped between the poorhouses of England and the French Revolution of 1848 - to a new life in the colonies of Australia. Mikron is again doing what it does best - taking a fascinating event in history and turning it into an accessible and entertaining piece of musical theatre. Clock Warehouse, London Wharf, Shardlow - food available - 01332 792844 (no tickets, collection after the show - noting that ticket sales are normally £5 to £8 for this production)
August 27, Bank Holiday Monday noon - 5 p.m. (times to be confirmed)	Wallace Spence, paintings and prints of Shardlow and other canal scenes.
October 28, Sunday	Last opening day of the season