Dear Jonty

Thank you for contacting the Canal & River Trust with your request for
information received on 27 February 2023. I have dealt with this under the
Freedom of Information Act.

You have requested the following information:

I am looking for any information you hold on the British Waterways "Kerr
Cup", and the piledriving competition that was part of it.

This was at least held in 1959, as documented by the "prize length of
piling" that can be found alongside the canal in Ealing. You can find a
picture of it here:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

The exact location of the plaque is 51.49915, -0.33778.

I understand that the Canal & River Trust is now the correct organisation
to be approaching, however if I am mistaken I would appreciate any
assistance you can provide in directing my enquiry elsewhere.

Following receipt of your request the Trust has conducted searches to
locate any information held that is relevant to your request and we have
been unable to find anything. I am sorry that we cannot be of assistance
to you on this occasion.

The Canal & River Trust provides you the right to request an internal
review under its review procedure and in line with The FOIA 2000. Internal
review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of this
response and should be sent by email to:
[email address] or by post to Information
Governance Team, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier
Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW.

You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner if you so wish,
details on how to contact them can be found here:
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/, although please note they would
usually expect you to have gone through our internal review procedure
prior to contacting them.

Best wishes

S Raven

Information Governance Advisor

Legal & Governance

From: Jonty Wareing <[FOI #954612 email]>
Sent: 27 February 2023 01:19
To: Information Request <[Canal &amp; River Trust request email]>
Subject: 1 - Request

Dear Canal & River Trust, I am looking for any information you hold on the
British Waterways "Kerr Cup", and the piledriving competition that was
part of it. This was at least held in 1959, as documented by the "prize
length of piling"

Dear Canal & River Trust,

I am looking for any information you hold on the British Waterways "Kerr Cup", and the piledriving competition that was part of it.

This was at least held in 1959, as documented by the "prize length of piling" that can be found alongside the canal in Ealing. You can find a picture of it here: [1]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

The exact location of the plaque is 51.49915, -0.33778.

I understand that the Canal & River Trust is now the correct organisation to be approaching, however if I am mistaken I would appreciate any assistance you can provide in directing my enquiry elsewhere.

Yours faithfully,

Jonty Wareing

-------------------------------------------------------------------

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[2][FOI #954612 email]

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show quoted sections

Dear Jonty Wareing,

I’ve sent an email to the boating team; I will respond back to you with
any information we have apologises for any inconvenience.

Kind Regards

J.Fellows

J.Fellows

Information Governance Assistant

Legal & Governance

[1][IMG] [2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG]  

Canal & River Trust

Canal and River Trust, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South
Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW

[5]canalrivertrust.org.uk

Sign up for the Canal & River Trust e-newsletter
[6]canalrivertrust.org.uk/newsletter

[7][IMG]      
[8][IMG] [9]@canalrivertrust
[10][IMG] [11]/canalrivertrust
[12]/canalrivertrust
   

We understand customers can sometimes become frustrated and we do our best
to listen,

understand and help, however from time to time our people experience
behaviour which is

unacceptable, and we encourage everyone to speak up when this happens.
Threatening or

abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. This includes threats and abuse
received directly or

indirectly verbally, in writing, text messages or appearing on social
media channels, chat rooms

or other electronic media. The Trust will maintain records of all
threatening or abusive behaviour

and where it is appropriate to do so will take immediate action to protect
our people to address

threats and abuse from individuals or groups.

From: Jonty Wareing <[FOI #954612 email]>
Sent: 13 March 2023 20:11
To: Information Request <[Canal &amp; River Trust request email]>
Subject: Re: FOI 35-23

Hello, I have subsequently found this tweet from the "The Canal and River
Trust boating team" that seems to have a little more information:
https: //urldefense. com/v3/__https: //twitter. com/CRTBoating/status/1199602628520529921__;!!LHav0979W1rwZ6kzRg!7LedenvnylmSiwqY1l9T3s2d4WpoY0Sgthn2bG4oS0MAlmUQcx2GlvHOCGY9Nme_0NAcU9nyRK8PVxO6VCubzddnCz5JZOPkbzYd-d5yRglIubJp5x6BlA$

Hello,

I have subsequently found this tweet from the "The Canal and River Trust boating team" that seems to have a little more information: [13]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://twit...

They say it was a "Competition between different gangs of British Waterways maintenance operatives to install the best length of piling along the canal".

Is it likely that this team may have more information about the Kerr Cup, and would it be possible to redirect this FOI to them?

Yours sincerely,

Jonty Wareing

show quoted sections

Dear Jonty Wareing,

I’ve been in contact with the Trust’s boating & license support teams in
regards to your request and we have little more information that we have
managed to gather in relation to this.

There are some photos in our National Waterways Archive of some of the
prize winning piling but that’s about it. One Trust colleague can vaguely
remember something in an Alan Faulkner Grand Union history book about this
– probably related to the concrete piling plant that used to be at
Marsworth and the then South East Region of BW back in the 60’s?

We have found a set of photos in the archive dated 1965 that relate to a
National Piling Competition (the Kerr Cup?)

According to our Waterways archive Sir Reginald Kerr was a significant
person in relation to the British Waterways Board but we are not aware of
any information beyond that.

Please find a link below to a Series of 20 black and white photographs
taken at various locations documenting the National Piling Competition in
1965. These photographs are on pages 97-100 of the C N Hadlow photograph
album.

[1]https://collections.canalrivertrust.org....

In fact searching the archive reveals at least three national competitions
(65/66/67) and possibly some regional ones, maybe the Kerr Cup was a
regional thing?  A Trust colleague seems to remember a photo that used to
hang in the Brentford office that related to this piling competition.

[2]https://collections.canalrivertrust.org....

And there was also the Ritchie Cup
[3]https://collections.canalrivertrust.org....

I would suggest you contact the National Waterways Museum archivists on
the following email address [4][email address] and I would
advise you to review all the standard history texts of canal history such
as the works by Faulkner.

The tweet on Twitter that you refer to below that referenced the Kerr Cup
would have been one of our many Throwback Thursday Tweets with photos
obtained from the online archive but we don’t have any more information
beyond what I’ve outlined above.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards

J.Fellows

J.Fellows

Information Governance Assistant

Legal & Governance

[5][IMG] [6][IMG] [7][IMG] [8][IMG]  

Canal & River Trust

Canal and River Trust, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South
Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW

[9]canalrivertrust.org.uk

Sign up for the Canal & River Trust e-newsletter
[10]canalrivertrust.org.uk/newsletter

[11][IMG]      
[12][IMG] [13]@canalrivertrust
[14][IMG] [15]/canalrivertrust
[16]/canalrivertrust
   

We understand customers can sometimes become frustrated and we do our best
to listen,

understand and help, however from time to time our people experience
behaviour which is

unacceptable, and we encourage everyone to speak up when this happens.
Threatening or

abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. This includes threats and abuse
received directly or

indirectly verbally, in writing, text messages or appearing on social
media channels, chat rooms

or other electronic media. The Trust will maintain records of all
threatening or abusive behaviour

and where it is appropriate to do so will take immediate action to protect
our people to address

threats and abuse from individuals or groups.

From: Information Request
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2023 3:28 PM
To: Jonty Wareing <[FOI #954612 email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 35-23

Dear Jonty Wareing,

I’ve sent an email to the boating team; I will respond back to you with
any information we have apologises for any inconvenience.

Kind Regards

J.Fellows

J.Fellows

Information Governance Assistant

Legal & Governance

[17][IMG] [18][IMG] [19][IMG] [20][IMG]  

Canal & River Trust

Canal and River Trust, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South
Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW

[21]canalrivertrust.org.uk

Sign up for the Canal & River Trust e-newsletter
[22]canalrivertrust.org.uk/newsletter

[23][IMG]      
[24][IMG] [25]@canalrivertrust
[26][IMG] [27]/canalrivertrust
[28]/canalrivertrust
   

We understand customers can sometimes become frustrated and we do our best
to listen,

understand and help, however from time to time our people experience
behaviour which is

unacceptable, and we encourage everyone to speak up when this happens.
Threatening or

abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. This includes threats and abuse
received directly or

indirectly verbally, in writing, text messages or appearing on social
media channels, chat rooms

or other electronic media. The Trust will maintain records of all
threatening or abusive behaviour

and where it is appropriate to do so will take immediate action to protect
our people to address

threats and abuse from individuals or groups.

From: Jonty Wareing <[29][FOI #954612 email]>
Sent: 13 March 2023 20:11
To: Information Request <[30][Canal &amp; River Trust request email]>
Subject: Re: FOI 35-23

Hello, I have subsequently found this tweet from the "The Canal and River
Trust boating team" that seems to have a little more information:
https: //urldefense. com/v3/__https: //twitter. com/CRTBoating/status/1199602628520529921__;!!LHav0979W1rwZ6kzRg!7LedenvnylmSiwqY1l9T3s2d4WpoY0Sgthn2bG4oS0MAlmUQcx2GlvHOCGY9Nme_0NAcU9nyRK8PVxO6VCubzddnCz5JZOPkbzYd-d5yRglIubJp5x6BlA$

Hello,

I have subsequently found this tweet from the "The Canal and River Trust boating team" that seems to have a little more information: [31]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://twit...

They say it was a "Competition between different gangs of British Waterways maintenance operatives to install the best length of piling along the canal".

Is it likely that this team may have more information about the Kerr Cup, and would it be possible to redirect this FOI to them?

Yours sincerely,

Jonty Wareing

show quoted sections