Paddlers Tales January 2024 – Rising Stars Paddle sport Instructors

Foleshill Paddle Warriors

A group of volunteers from Rising Stars Youth and Community group based in the greater Foleshill area of Coventry partnered with Mercia Canoe Club in Coventry over the Summer to complete the British Canoeing Paddlesport Safety & Rescue Course and the Paddlesport Instructors Course.

The 7 volunteers, 4 men and 3 females were greatly assisted by Mercia Canoe Club based at the Canal Basin and the Paddletastic Kayaking  Club which meet at The Xcel Centre.  The training for the qualification involved 8 gruelling weeks of learning to master canoes, kayaks and paddleboards, most of the group had no previous experience of paddlesports. The group met every Sunday morning for training at the Canal Basin, to undertake 5 hours of training with Mercia Canoe Club plus further training every Thursday evening with Paddletastic Coaches.

Ayaz Maqsood Chairperson at Rising Stars explained why the group undertook the course ‘Rising Stars which is based in Foleshill for the past two decades has always been about providing sporting and leisure opportunities that people from Foleshill don’t usually get the opportunity to experience.  Although the Canal Basin is located at the top of the Foleshill Road and Mercia Canoe Club had been round for decades there were not enough people from Foleshill, particularly ethnic minorities and women taking part in Paddlesports’. 

The group were overwhelmed with the support that was provided by the existing paddlesport community in Coventry.  Ayaz Maqsood commented “It was heartwarming to meet and be supported by the local paddlesport community represented by both Mercia Canoe Club and Paddletastic canoe club.  We are particularly grateful to Nigel Wooltorton and Paul Smithers from Mercia Canoe Club who gave up 5 hours each Sunday morning over 7 weeks to coach and train the group”.

With funding provided by British Canoeing the Rising Stars Group embarked upon the task of training to become Paddlesport Instructors.  It was felt important that people from Foleshill needed to become instructors to encourage others from the community to take part.  Nigel Wooltorton from Mercia Canoe Club commented “We were very pleased to provide our facilities and training for the Rising Stars group.  We had been concerned that there were not enough people from our local area taking up paddlesports particularly from ethnic minorities and specifically women from these communities.  Rising Stars provided us with a great opportunity to get greater participation from these groups.  I was very impressed with the dedication from the Rising Stars Group and so pleased that they all passed this very tough course”.

Annette Allen from Rising Stars commented “I hadn’t realised how tough the course was going to be, but most of it was fun.  The particular fear we all had was practicing rescues in Coventry Canal, but after we went into the canal once it was fine, but oh so cold!”

Rising stars provides many social and sporting activities for the communities in Greater Foleshill including youth clubs, badminton, wrestling/self-defence classes, hiking, cycling and walking groups. They were the group that was behind the idea of providing Coventry’s first ever Women’s Lifeguard Course and Women’s Swimming Instructors course.

Sarah Ashique from Rising Stars commented “after our experience in leading with women only swimming, cycling and self-defence/keep fit  sessions in Foleshill, we realised women and girls form our community from every ethnic background were more encouraged to take up new sports and interests if they were led and run by women. Rising Stars provides the ideal community platform for women to train and lay on activities for other females”.

Rising stars have been in undated with individuals and groups wanting to take up Paddlesport sessions at the Canal Basin.  Three members of the group hope to complete the Paddlesport Leaders award which allow them to take groups on rivers and in the sea.

Ayaz Maqsood

Chairperson, Rising Stars Group

September 2023

Paddlers Tales July 2020- The Canal 1980s and earlier

We often take for granted our once industrial surroundings. Paddlers leaving the Canal Basin have a short straight of around 200m before a left-hand bend. Then the left bank is rises to what become high sides, of metal pilings. Fairly insignificant until you read into the history. Possibly as you get older these things become of interest!

 I have reproduced the following as an edited extract from Coventry’s Waterway, A City Amenity, by Coventry Canal Society, Revised 1984. I have made some changes to sections that have now altered. Not everyone has had on opportunity to look at this booklet, so whilst paddling is fairly limited at the moment, take a look around you from the water.

Going out through the bridge, on the right stood the tiny Toll House, which backed onto the curved retaining wall of the bridge. To reach his outhouse, on the other side of the canal, the toll clerk had a plank bridge, which was swivelled across the water. Circular marks remain on the stones. Beside the Toll House stood the blacksmith’s shop, ready to shoe horses setting off on their long journeys to Liverpool to load sugar, Manchester for chemicals or up the Ashby canal to collect coal from the Moira coalfield.

The stone wall on the towpath side is a reminder of the stone quarrying areas further north on the canal. Drapers Fields on the opposite side was a coal and timber wharf. So much coal fell into the canal that the Canal Company passed a byelaw preventing citizens from raking or searching for coals.

As the canal turns left there was an old canal arm of 60 yards in length. In the 1800s it was the wharf for the Coventry Cotton Factory and then the Daimler Motor Company, who took on coal for their steam driven machinery. Later these were roofed over and became Cartwrights timber yard. Timber came from Limehouse Basin in London’s dockland.

The Coventry Cotton Factory had two, three storey mills and on December 3rd, 1891 they caught fire. The insurance companies fire engines could not save the top two storeys, even with the water out of the canal. The insurance company rebuilt the buildings, but they were never used.

In 1896 a wealthy speculator, Harry Lawson gained a licence to manufacture Daimler Cars in Britain. The 13-acre site was converted into Britain’s first full scale motor manufacturing plant. The first car was made in 1897. It was a 2-cylinder, 4 horsepower Daimler, with solid tyres, tiller steering and an average speed of 10 – 11 mph. It could travel 60 miles with one change of oil. The Great Horseless Carriage Co Ltd was also set up on the site and some cars were designed and built there too before liquidation.

Superb workmanship was required and it was said that imperfect parts were dumped in the canal. In the 1920’s after a boat ran aground, the canal was dredged. Cylinder blocks and a complete chassis was removed. More recently this was the site of Coventry Climax, who built engines and were also known for forklift trucks and racing cars. Coventry Climax factory filled in the old canal arm.

The site of Coventry’s first power station or “electric light works”, started in 1894, is next on the left-hand side, chosen as a site because of a plentiful supply of water and coal. The building now displays a record of the number of properties supplied increasing over several years. At one time the station supplied 5 different voltages to its customers, down to 100 volts and DC for the electric hoists in the warehouse.

From pipes carrying water over the canal, steam was generated by the City Council Refuse Department on the opposite side (now housing from 2015) and then returned to the power station. This area was in perpetual mist, so a high wall was built off Aldbourne Road. The canal water here was always warm and many learnt to swim at this spot.

See you on the water.

What is your float plan?

Your float plan has all of the important details about your outing. Share the plan with whoever will miss you the soonest if you don’t return in a reasonable amount of time.

  • Include the names of everyone in your party along with their contact information.
  • Specify where you plan to put in and take out.
  • Indicate both your launch and return times.
  • Suggest what your contact person should do if you don’t return at a reasonable time.

This useful tip was brought to my attention by a young internet follower and is reproduced from a series of safety tips from Seattle Yachts.com basic safety tips for boating and kayaking. A different resource.

Community Champions

In November I was invited to the GoFoleshill Showcase event at the Coventry University Techno Centre. I was privileged to accept a Community Champion Award on behalf of the club, for the multiple paddling sessions that we had run in 2022, with many different and diverse groups that came from the Foleshill area of the City. The aim was to encourage residents of Foleshill to become more active. There were many stories of participants taking up cycling for the first time, covering a weekly community mile in one of the parks, starting female only swimming sessions and even training their own lifeguards. Broad Heath school were indoor rowing champions but had never been on the water, so maybe that is something we rectify next year!
Sport England were there to support the programme and keen to develop schemes that had a self-sustaining legacy after the funding stopped. I even had to go on the stage comfy chairs, to talk about our sessions! However, all the right people were there to keep up our profile, in their minds.

Club Operating – July 19th onwards

The club will continue to operate with the existing restrictions in place after July 19th.

Please sign in, clean surfaces and your hands, no visitor sessions and limit time inside the club.

Please stay away from the club if you have any symptoms or have been notified that you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive.

Please note that the Covid symptoms are currently more cold like and include headache, runny nose, sneezing, sore throat and loss of smell.

Respect other people’s space in and around the club. Keeping 1 – 2 m away is good.

If you are having a chat, do so outside of the club.

Wear a mask inside the club and ensure ventilation by keeping the doors and toilet window open when accessing the facility.

Wash your hands regularly.

Get double vaccinated and still follow the above.