In the press

As coracles are quite unusual, they tend to get a fair bit of attention. Below are some of the articles that have appeared in publication

Welsh Assembly should support and promote the coracle fishing tradition
Chance to paddle your own ... coracle
Coracle Convert gets regatta visitors in a spin
Paddle back in time
Coracles in Yorkshire
It’s coracles ahoy on the Square

Welsh Assembly should support and promote the coracle fishing tradition

The traditional coraclemen of West Wales are living national treasures, as much a part of our Welsh cultural identity as our rugby heroes. I read with disquiet, the news that on the recommendation of the Environment Agency, the Welsh Assembly has had to agree to reduce the number of licences available for coracle fishing. I am more concerned, however, to hear reports that official attempts have been made to bribe the netsmen to give up their ancient rights to fish the river Tywi altogether. Whilst everyone would agree that the dwindling salmon stocks need to be protected from over-fishing, no-one, except Mr Mike Elias of the Carmarthen Netsman's Association seems to be concerned that the authorities also seem to want to completely destroy this important part of our Welsh Heritage. Why did the Welsh Assembly sanction the Environment Agency's easy but culturally damaging solution to this difficult environmental problem without proper consultation with the coraclemen? Why aren't the departments of rural affairs and heritage helping to find a way to protect and preserve the coracle tradition during this time when salmon stocks are in crisis?

Coracles have been used to net salmon and sewin on the rivers of Wales for at least two thousand years - are Welsh Assembly members prepared to allow this most ancient and unique part of our Welsh heritage to disappear forever because of a short-sighted solution to a difficult conservation problem. The coraclemen, it could be argued, are more of an endangered species than the salmon - with just one licence allowed now on the river Taf, twelve on the Teifi and now only eight on the Tywi. Almost within living memory, the various river authorities, landowners and the angling lobby have relentlessly driven local people off the waters they have fished for generations and successfully eliminated coracle fishing from over a dozen Welsh rivers.

There are now only three small stretches of river left where the ancient tradition and knowledge survives, in the safekeeping of just a handful or so skilled coraclemakers and netsmen. When these men have gone and their frail boats and hand-made nets are relegated to museums it will be too late to regret that the Welsh traditions, crafts, skills and knowledge that they have passed down from father to son, since the time of the Romans, have been forgotten and lost forever. We almost lost the language because of this sort of lazy bureaucratic indifference, so now the Welsh Assembly has a statutory duty to protect the Welsh language - but doesn't it also have a moral duty to protect threatened Welsh cultural and rural heritage? Isn't it time for the Assembly and its Heritage or Rural Affairs department to step in with funding and expertise to pro-actively help Mike Elias and his fellow fisherman with support to protect and promote their coracle traditions and our unique national heritage?

It seems to me that the Assembly should make a commitment to protect the coracle fishing tradition from those parties who actually want to see it die out. It may be a more difficult problem to solve – but isn’t it worth trying harder to find a way to preserve both the salmon and the coracle for future generations.

adapted from original letter written by PW Jones, published in the Western Mail – 15 April 2008. © Western Mail

Chance to paddle your own ... coracle

People can try out the world's oldest water transport at a family fun day taking place at Ripon Canal Basin on Bank Holiday Monday, August 28.
Coracles will take to the water on the fun day – as well as rafts and baths! – all in aid of Ripon charity Scuba Diving For All. The coracle demonstration is being staged by Ripon City Youth Arts in association with Ripon College.

Dave Purvis, the joint founder of Ripon City Youth Arts, is an expert coracle maker and will be among those taking part in the demonstration, along with grandson Euan Raffel, a student at Ripon Grammar School. Dave said coracles are the world’s oldest water transport and are rapidly becoming a popular leisure pursuit in this country. “It is very exhilarating,” he said, adding people aged ten years and upwards will have the chance to try out the sport on the day.

As well as the coracles, there will also be raft racing for children and adults, with a number of pubs already entering and prizes for the best design and winner of the race. There will also be a bath race - sponsored by Bathstore.com - featuring three specially made racing “bathamarans” made from welding two normal baths together!

The fun day will run from 10am until late and kayaks, pedellos and canoes will also be available to hire. On dry land, activities include a barbecue, stalls, a raffle, tombola, children’s games and guess the weight and name of a Shetland Pony!

“There is going to be plenty to do,” said event organiser Heather Greenwell, a volunteer with Scuba Diving For All, which helps those with special needs and the disadvantaged access the sport.

Coracle Convert gets regatta visitors in a spin
Ancient cave paintings of men sitting in round objects have been interpreted as the first sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, but Dave Purvis has a more down to earth answer - he believes they were simply coracles. For the last two years the tiny craft, reputed to be thousands of years old but still in commercial use on some rivers, have come to dominate his leisure time.
Over the weekend Mr Purvis staged two mini regattas to demonstrate to a wider audience the craft's simplicity and efficiency.
Yesterday he took his cockleshell fleet to the River Ure at Haylands Bridge, Hawes, where people attending the Upper Wensleydale Gathering - a traditional music event based at the Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw - were invited to go for a spin.
Mr Purvis became interested in coracles through canoeing while living in the Scottish Borders and admits to being "a bit of an eccentric". Some of the coracles in use on the River Ure were built as Duke of Edinburgh projects by Ripon College students, who copied ancient sills to create a green ash frame, woven basket-style covered in calico and sealed with bitumen.
Mr Purvis, a Coracle Society member, has also begun to collect different styles of coracle from the 22 different types around Britain. He said: "All the rivers in the coracle areas have their own types of coracle. We already have two or three, including one built in Lincoln in the River Tefi style famous in Wales and another made of cow hide."
adapted from original article written by Brian Dooks, Yorkshire Post - 29 July 2002 © Yorkshire Post

Paddle back in time
The ancient art of coracle building has made a comeback at Ripon College, a secondary modern school with technology status, in Yorkshire. Steve Carrigan, head of design and technology at the College, was asked by Dave Purvis if he could run a coracle-building class. He took up the challenge and was hooked.
About a dozen of the schools Year 9 and 10 pupils - mainly boys - took up coracle building as part of their skills section for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. They have now produced their coracles, and they are all a step closer to their award, having learned a good deal about design and technology - and even a little needlework and history - along they way. Carrigan sees the exercise as "a great way of blending old and new technology".
Local firms came up with help and materials. A timber yard provided thin, 12ft-long ash laths which were soaked for about a week in a tank constructed by a local plumbing firm. By then they were sufficiently pliable to bend into the correct skeletal shape. Calico was used as covering. Traditionally, hide would have been used, however, which would have cost £300 to £400 for each coracle, whereas calico costs about £15. The calico had to be stitched into position to take out the wrinkles.
Once smoothly in place, the fabric was given three coats of bitumen. This was done one Saturday and, by Sunday, the craft were sufficiently waterproofed to be launched on the nearby canal. The paddle handles were made of broom shanks. The actual paddle was made from marine ply and the whole paddle held together with waterproof glue and galvanised nails.
The craft are quite water-worthy, provided they don't get punctured by stones or other sharp objects, which is why they are stored upside down.
As well as the satisfaction of building the coracles, which all the children took to enthusiastically, they had a great deal of fun with them once they were afloat, learning the necessary "sculling draw stroke" to propel the craft. And they don;t go anywhere fast. The old-time fishermen who used then weren't going anywhere fast either, but they could clear a river of salmon very quickly.
adapted from original article written by Jessie Anderson, TES Teacher - 1 November 2002 © Times Educational Suppliment

Coracles in Yorkshire
About 1650 Andrew Marvell, writing about Lord Fairfax’s house at Nun Appleton on the River Wharfe, noted:
And now the salmon-fishers moist
Their leathers boats begin to fold
And, like Antipodes in shoes
Have shed their hands in their canoes
How tortoise-like, but act so slow
These rational amphibians go!
which might suggest that the Yorkshiremen then walked in a more bowed, less upright position than is usual on the Towy and the Teifi. But always a coracle must be so carried that the rim does not trouble the back of the bearer’s calves.
edited from original article published in The Times - 28 May 1965 © The Times

It’s coracles ahoy on the Square
Ripon College students were demonstrating their boat building skills on the Market Square at the weekend. The display was one of a number of events taking place as the Coracle Society held it’s AGM in the city on Saturday.
The programme of events included a demonstration of Coracle Building by students, with assistance from Ripon resident and coracle expert Dave Purvis
“There was quite a bit of interest on the Market place with lots of spectators” said Mr Purvis. “We had about 20 coracles on the square and tourists were coming across in droves to have a look.”
adapted from original article published in the Ripon Gazette – 11 July 2003 © Ripon Gazette

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