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Meet Clive

Two men standing by the canal

"My ashes will be tipped off that canal bridge. We've had some good times on the canals. We're all volunteers and we all do it for different reasons, but the joy of working here for me, and it is a joy, is that I feel people bring more stuff in than they take out. They bring their stories and there's so much history.

My wife and I were once nominated for one of those Buckingham Palace party things. We used to organise the annual Saul Canal Festival and Folk on the Water. We had lots of fun and great feedback every year, but the flood that washed out the festival in 2007 was the final straw and we couldn't afford to carry on. The festival takes so much effort to do that after it finishes you want to go away boating just to get away for a while, and then you can start planning again for next year. I used to sometimes ask myself, "Why do I do it?" but you love it on a sunny afternoon at the festival when you see so many smiles on faces and that pays you back. I stood on the bridge one day when the festival was on and saw a man crying. He could see I was concerned and turned to me and said, "Don't worry it's tears of joy, I've just heard a woman singing Danny Boy unaccompanied.”

I'm still a boater now. We love it here. My grandfather was a ferry man at Framilode and he kept the pub there. I'm 67 but I've got a picture of me here when I was knee high. My mum's sister used to take us on walks and I've got one of those tiny photos of me about 10 metres from where our boat is now."

Clive & Chris, Cotswold Canal Trust Visitor Centre, Saul Junction, Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

photo of a location on the canals
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