Marsh Charitable Trust Awards

For 2024 there are four award categories for each of the six regions: Individual Volunteer of the Year, Volunteer Team of the Year, Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25), and Lead Volunteer of the Year.

East Midlands

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Rob Westlake

Rob has been volunteering with us for many years and has worn an enormous number of hats over that time including being a lead volunteer on the historic workboat ‘Sculptor’, leading the first volunteer-led offside vegetation event and now chairing the Stoke Bruerne adoption group.

During times of flooding, Rob stepped in most days, coordinating the on-the-ground response, overseeing operations, and keeping everyone informed of what was happening. He has been a calm, loyal and ultra-reliable volunteer, with his leadership ensuring activities have run smoothly and everyone is supported.

Rob’s team are enormously thankful for his diligence and patience, he exemplifies our values and is the go-to person for many residents, boaters, businesses, and volunteers and colleagues. With his hard work, knowledge and dedication, he is thoroughly deserving of Volunteer of the Year.

Volunteer Team of the Year: Beeston & Meadow Lane Towpath Taskforce

Recognised for their outstanding volunteer service and unwavering dedication to improving the local waterways. Over the years, this remarkable group have played a crucial role in transforming and maintaining the towpaths, creating an enjoyable environment for the local community. Supporting local events and maintenance works, their efforts have not only enhanced the natural beauty of the canal, but have also fostered a strong sense of community and pride among local residents.

The team ensure the towpaths and canal remain accessible and safe for all users, through repairing potholes and uneven surfaces, removing invasive aquatic weed and cutting back overgrown vegetation to prevent hazards and obstructed pathways. They have created creating wildlife habitat zones through the planting of wildflower meadows and introducing of planters. Their genuine care and hard work enhances the experience of walkers, cyclists and boaters alike, making the towpaths a welcoming space for recreation and relaxation.

Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25): Cameron Fletcher

Cameron has been a fantastic support to the Beeston Towpath Taskforce, carrying out weeding, painting, removal of fly tipping and gardening in the area. He is a pleasure to work alongside as he enthusiastically tackles tasks such as digging out the roots of sycamore saplings and skilfully tackling the intricate painting of a historic water level gauge.

Cameron has been volunteering since April 2023, and the team have seen him go from strength to strength. His commitment to learning and acquiring practical skills and knowledge is so impressive. He has set an ambition to develop as painting and decorating skills and has continued to volunteer as well as working at nearby Beeston Marina. Cameron is a valued and hard working member of the team, who are all tremendously proud of him and want to celebrate his fantastic achievement.

Lead Volunteer of the Year: Martin Pearce

Martin brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge from his professional experience in the engineering and aerospace industry. This combined with his demonstrable passion and commitment to the waterways makes him an exceptional lead volunteer. Martin has advised on the installation of a new operating system for the River Trent non-tidal locks which has eased the operation of locks and benefitted lock keepers, customers, colleagues and fellow volunteers.

Martin monitors our water control systems to anticipate issues and organise corrective works that ensure water levels are well-managed. He demonstrates a willingness to help others, and his motivation has always been to strive to make everyone’s work easier and continuously evolve and improve. Martin has used his skills to benefit others, producing site-specific training resources and supported others to develop their knowledge. Martin is an inspirational, motivational person and a pleasure to work alongside.

West Midlands

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Judith Foulkes

Judith has been volunteering for over five years and is a well-respected, trustworthy and extremely valued member of the West Midlands team. Judith has several volunteering roles, such as administrator, helping customers with advice on times, procedures and supporting hire boat companies and local businesses. ‘Scarecastle’ is a major visitor attraction event which brings around 700 visitors who will take a trip through the tunnel. Judith manages the booking systems, a large volume of enquires and acts as the first point of contact to give a pleasant and efficient services to customers.

Judith navigates various systems to support the operations and assets teams with preparing work plans to address defects and arrange maintenance of the canal. Judith has been a key liaison for the programme of breakout force testing during the winter months on the canal locks and their paddles. This entails measuring the force required to open a lock gate and to open a paddle, using a spring balance and torque meter and recording the results. Performing these tests of lock mechanisms helps us ensure their safe operation, and maintains the life of these heritage assets. Her support enables operational teams to deliver so much more.

Volunteer Team of the Year: Coir Roll Project Hatton

The team delivered the installation of coir rolls along the Grand Union Canal in the Hatton and Warwick area as part of a biodiversity project. The coir rolls create a soft edge banking to enable native species such as otters, water voles and many others to safely and easily use the canal network and as nature corridor.

This dedicated team carried out work that would have been prohibitively costly to outsource, and their efforts this spring and summer meant the entire project was volunteer-led and they should be justifiably proud. The quality of the completed work has been superb and will stand the test of time. The area is already seeing ecological benefits, with vegetation growth from the rolls installed last year and the flourishing habitat they have expanded this year. The pride they have in their work is clearly evident and is a brilliant example of the power of volunteer involvement.

Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25): George Dunn

George volunteers as a conservator supporting with maintenance that directly benefits customers and has been volunteering since 2022. He has shown incredible enthusiasm and taken on a whole range of new experiences to grow his knowledge and confidence. He is now an accomplished and skilled member of the operational team, carrying out preventative maintenance, installing fences, tackling windblown trees and continues to develop his learning.

George has acquired a vast range of practical skills and is developing as a helmsperson to operate workboats and support the team even further. He is a fantastic ambassador for us and has been a great support for festive events, assisting the public and keeping everyone safe. The team are incredibly proud of him and how much he has excelled in the last year, stepping in to support his teammates and demonstrate how just one person can make a huge difference.

Lead Volunteer of the Year: Tina Jones

Tina has made a massive difference in her role as lead volunteer. She produces a monthly newsletter which is informative and provides recognition and appreciation to her team. She has built a team that show a tremendous team spirt, with social meet ups and litter picking days, a tea and scones afternoon and talks from experts in heritage and environment, even a refresher talk on how to perform life-saving CPR.

Tina is a brilliant advocate for volunteers and gives everyone in her team support and advice. She is always on hand to help achieve improvements and find constructive solutions when a problem arises. She is a proactive and driven member of the team and emphasises training and connection for volunteers, writing up helpful instructional documents that have been used as a best practice standard across the entire area. Tina has implemented new processes for new starters to make sure they are given a comprehensive and supportive induction and that they feel confident in their new role. The team feel incredibly lucky to have her.

London & South East

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Andy Gee

Andy started his volunteer journey with a plan to eradicate an invasive aquatic weed called floating pennywort from the River Stort. He approached this goal with energy and a sustained commitment, not only to remove the pennywort, but to draw on support from the local community to establish a preventative approach. Andy began engaging people who paddle on the river, briefing them to remove the smaller leaves before they could grow into large matts and choke the waterway.

Andy, his twin brother, Stuart and the members of their canoe club, Whoosh Explore, set about removing matts of floating pennywort by hand. The vegetation they removed manually would occasionally weigh well over a tonne. A year later, the river was declared free from this invasive plant, saving our charity from the costly expense of mechanical removal and spraying to supress growth.

These coalitions have come together to form a steering group and Andy and his team are changing the attitudes and methods of control towards a sustainable, year-round approach rather than annual controls. Andy’s work continues to inspire and motivate his many friends and loved ones, fellow paddlers and partners to care for the waterways and become volunteers themselves.

Volunteer Team of the Year: Milton Keynes Offside Vegetation Project

This community-led project was formed with the help of partners and volunteers, who together tackled over 24km of overgrown offside vegetation throughout Milton Keynes and the surrounding area. Their efforts have contributed much-needed care to the canal, ensuring it is accessible and sustaining its natural beauty so that the local community, towpath users, boaters and paddlers enjoy the wellbeing benefits of being by water.

Come rain or shine, they have tackled the task with pride and a willingness to innovate and support. There have been so many notes of appreciation from canal users and their work has truly brought the canal community together.

Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25) Peter Brookwalker

Peter began as an aspiring young individual who started volunteering at drop-in sessions, and quickly established himself in the team, taking on new challenges as part of the Enfield Boat Crew and even training up as a lock keeper during his exams. Peter is a friendly, engaging and reliable volunteer who encourages everyone.

He has turned his skills to everything from learning new computer systems, to supporting training of new volunteers, developing social media content and practical tasks like painting, graffiti removal and litter and debris removal. Peter enjoys caring for shared spaces, encouraging others to achieve their potential and creating a positive impact on people’s lives. When asked about his volunteering, he says “Make a difference. You can do it too”.

Lead Volunteer of the Year: John Thomlinson

John’s exceptional dedication to us over 11 years of volunteering is incredibly inspiring. With the help of John, the team have successfully run many more events that simply wouldn’t have been possible without his support. He takes the time to understand the task thoroughly and briefs his fellow volunteers on how to approach it safety and efficiently. He can always be counted on to use sound judgement and is great support. John consistently goes above and beyond to fit volunteering with his full-time job and commitments as a carer.

John has worked with a fellow lead volunteer to run a monthly litter picking group and does all of this with a warm smile. His positive outlook has been amplified and created a ripple effect through our team, ensuring every volunteer has a rewarding and enjoyable experience. His genuine care and his belief in our cause, our values and vision is an inspiration to others and enhances what we achieve as a team, together.

Wales & South West

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Siou Coleman

Siou has been an exceptional member of the team, developing the visitor experience of Diglis Island and the Fish Pass, helping to showcase the positive environmental impact and the ongoing scientific monitoring of this engineering marvel. The volunteering role has since evolved to include weekly fish pass drop-ins, Island open days, photography workshops and talks to the local community.

Siou regularly leads the tours as a team or solo, and will support drop-ins and open days, come rain or shine. Wherever she goes, Siou is an ambassador for this amazing project and the number of people who book on a tour based on her recommendation is astonishing!

Siou inspires others with her confidence and wealth of knowledge, being able to adjust the focus of a tour to be environmental, historical or take an industrial focus. She is a talented storyteller, sharing engaging anecdotes to entertain her group and encourage lifelong supporters for the Trust. She has helped drive donations, shared our cause message and inspired people to volunteer, a true ambassador for living waterways that transform lives.

Volunteer Team of the Year: Planned Canal Maintenance Team

A newly-established team, the volunteers have taken on the task of vegetation control along the waterway, operating a ‘fleet’ of two workboats and three paint flats. The team undertake a huge variety of tasks, all of which require careful planning and safe execution. Led by Peter Pilkington, Andy Robbins and boat manager David Giggs, with support from lead volunteer Martin Gillate and training expertise from Derick Morse, the team has gone from strength to strength in a short period of time and are tremendous support to the operations in the area.

A strong culture of excellence in safety is clear to see, with thorough briefings and a willingness to support and train others. The team have liaised closely with ecologists, environmental scientists and contractors to ensure all works are carried to best practices standards and protect wildlife and members of the public. The team support a 5km stretch of canal at Crofton and have performed tactical vegetation work between Fobney and county locks. In addition to this the team have assisted engineers to gain safe access for surveys on the offside bank, supported craft and crew to repair cabling in Reading and enabled the movement of craft and materials to key worksites.

Lead Volunteer of the Year: Sally Hodnett

Sally has volunteered with us for over 10 years and has contributed over 31,000 hours through her volunteering. As the first lead volunteer for the Explorers programme in the region, Sally brings her skills and experience as a qualified teacher, as well as extensive local knowledge about the canal. She not only does the lead school and group visits, she has helped to develop curriculum-relevant activities and sessions, leading engaging and impactful sessions for uniformed organisations such as Beavers and Rainbows.

Her commitment is clear to see, through her leading four-hour school sessions, as well as preparing resources and following up with a debrief with her team to ensure key information is relayed and the team’s impact on young people is measured. Sally has been recognised through feedback from teachers about the excellent quality and relevance of our Explorers on the Kennet & Avon. Her contribution is outstanding and she has made and continues to make a huge difference.

Yorkshire & North East

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Philippa Gibbons

Philippa has been a volunteer lock keeper for four years. She works primarily at Bingley Five Rise Locks assisting boats through Yorkshire’s Wonder of the Waterway, as well as volunteering for a whole host of tasks in a variety of locations in the local area.

Philippa is involved in lock keeping and general upkeep, with activities such as kebbing out debris from the canal, painting, weeding, grass cutting and trimming vegetation. She helps many people to understand how locks work and assists countless boaters through the locks. She's enthusiastic and passionate in talking about us, and this has led her to become a local media star! Philippa appeared on Channel 5’s ‘Rich Holiday, Poor Holiday’ which clearly showed her welcoming, supportive and inclusive approach to lock keeping.

More recently, Philippa played a hugely significant role in the planning and delivering the Bingley Five Rise Locks 250th year celebrations. She recognised the potential of the canal’s impact on the local economy, and in engaging local communities, Philippa secured funding for the event through external partners. Her local knowledge, understanding of the Trust and her ambassadorship of the town were vital in identifying the needs of the community and delivering this incredible event.

Volunteer Team of the Year: Chesterfield Canal Towpath Taskforce

This group, consisting of volunteers from diverse backgrounds, bring incredible knowledge and expertise. Among them are engineers, masonry experts and building inspectors, all of whom have been volunteering collectively for over seven years. They dedicate three days a week to maintaining the beauty of our Chesterfield Canal, with some even taking on multiple roles such as lock keeping and reservoir inspecting.

The taskforce not only tackles significant projects like bridge installations, path improvements, and boat movements. They recently installed a 22-metre long bridge with handrails on both sides, the largest ever delivered by volunteers on the Chesterfield Canal. The volunteers came together, planned meticulously, and completed the project within budget, to high safety standards and showcased the incredible skills they bring to the Trust.

During the winter, our volunteers focused on cutting back overhanging branches and vegetation to maintain the width of the canal. Some volunteers with forestry backgrounds shared their expertise to manage this task efficiently. After receiving training on the use of wood chippers, the volunteers chipped down the resultant brash and collected it into many tonne bags. An innovative idea of a volunteer was to use the chippings to shore up the soft canal banks - a fantastic idea that combined environmental care with practical maintenance. The commitment and care our volunteers show not only enhances the canal, but also sets a shining example of what volunteering can achieve for the local community.

Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25): Antonia Geldard

Antonia first joined the Selby Towpath Taskforce when she was 15 as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award. Three years later, she continues to fit in volunteering on Saturdays and Tuesdays during school holidays. Antonia has a wonderful ability to get along with everyone, connecting with others on a range of topics from books, films and television to using cloud patterns to predict the weather.

She brings some much energy to the group, sharing her perspective and eager to hear from others. Antonia will soon leave the area to head to university, and we wish her all the very best of luck with her studies. She has been a real joy to have in the team and we want to celebrate her lasting impact.

Lead Volunteer of the Year: Paul Richardson

Paul has recently taken up the role of lead volunteer on the South Yorkshire Navigation and has been supporting us for four years now. Paul is also a lock keeper at Thorne Lock, assisting passing boats, cutting the grass, general lock maintenance and caring for the new garden (which he personally supplied the flowers for!). Paul is dependable and is always ready and willing to help, especially in times when the canal is at risk of flooding, such as assisting with lowering flood defence gates.

Paul consistently supports and has racked up over 1,000 hours a year and is someone who goes above and beyond for the benefit of the Trust and local community. He demonstrates great leadership, organising task-specific tools and equipment, participating in monthly team talks and acting as a skills assessor for other volunteers and colleagues. Paul is much admired and respected, and his contribution is pivotal to the team’s success.

North West

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Karryn Brooks

Karryn joined us in 2021, initially to support us by leading tours and groups through the site. From then on, she has offered to help with anything and everything. Recently she has taken on the transfer and implementation of new risk assessments and is working closely with the health & safety team, alongside collating masses of paperwork and training records for our trip boat to keep us in line with maritime law regulations.

She is always happy and positive and regularly goes above and beyond to support not just the customers, but the managers and team. Karryn has been the driving force across the destinations & attractions project group to update and review all the risk assessments. With her expert knowledge and invaluable systematic thinking, Karryn has really supported everyone in the project and we could not have asked for more.

As a volunteer, she has not only shown great commitment to destinations and attractions and the Trust as a whole, but her skillset has been so complementary to our current needs that we could not have completed this project without her.

Volunteer Team of the Year: Wigan Water Safety Education Volunteers

Our first team of water safety education volunteers began delivering the programme in January 2024 across Wigan and the surrounding areas. In just five months, the team has delivered face to face water safety sessions to 4,852 children in primary schools, at Brownies and Beavers, at safety events and to under 5s (and their grown ups too!). These interactive sessions help children to understand the dangers around open water and how to help in an emergency - not forgetting our important SAFE message too (Stay Away From the Edge).

The team is made up of five dedicated volunteers, all of whom bring invaluable skills and knowledge on water safety. They are fantastic ambassadors for us and the work they are doing on our behalf is no doubt helping to save lives. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to reach the number of children we have, and the many more we continue to reach, with important safety messages.

Young Volunteer of the Year (under 25): Adam Kearsley

Adam is currently studying at Myerscough College, who specialise in land-based studies and off his own back, contacted us to become a volunteer. Adam has shown a fantastic commitment to volunteering, attending all sessions since he signed up just short of a year ago. Adam has fitted into the Chorley Towpath Taskforce superbly. Adam has really excelled and picks up tasks extremely well and has developed into a very valued member of the team. Skills he has developed have included dry stone walling, towpath repairs, hedge laying, canal lock operations and maintenance to name but a few! Adam’s commitment has led to a partnership between the Trust and Myerscough College in the local area to develop volunteering opportunities with their students and promoting sector-leading courses.

Lead Volunteer of the Year: Barbara Sharples

Barbara has been a lead volunteer for a number of years now, starting the Hyndburn Towpath Taskforce. During this time, she has been instrumental in creating an amazing team of volunteers performing numerous tasks within the area. Her strength, knowledge and can-do attitude is second to none! Barbara takes great ownership and leadership of an amazing team, with an ability to lead the team on a personal and professional level which is outstanding.

From completing risk assessments and method statements to ensuring each individual enjoys every session. Barbara has become an Assemble champion and has not only mastered the use of the new volunteering management system, but has taught numerous other volunteers to use it too. The numbers of volunteers have increased steadily under Barbara’s leadership and the interest just keeps on going! Whether an individual volunteer is interested, or Barbara has developed a relationship with a local employer, she is a great ambassador and has generated much-needed funds for our charity which deliver public benefit to the local community. Barbara’s impact on the Trust, her strong values, her love of the local area and the support she gives every individual volunteer are incredible.