Christmas 2005

Our Chairman Marcial Boo won the Kent Volunteer of the Year award in the Environment category. This was presented to him by Barbara Sturgeon at a ceremony in Maidstone on the 29th November 2005.

Marcial Boo being presented with the award by Barbara Sturgeon

Six foot posters were put up in Whitstable and Canterbury West Stations in October, helping to get people into the route of the line.

Architects are working for the Trust to submit a planning application to re-build the bridges over the railway at Whitstable. Canterbury City Council is negotiating a small land purchase to make this happen. Once the planning application is approved, which we expect, we will begin a major fundraising drive to build our “bridges fund” from £50,000 today to the £400,000 we will need to make this happen.

We have submitted proposals to the Whitstable Harbour Board to redevelop the old Goods Shed there, using £200,000 given to the harbour by the developers of the off-shore wind farm.

T-shirts have been produced with our snazzy Peter Firmin designed logos, on sale to members for only £9 plus p&p.

Supported by CCC, residents of Clare Road, Whitstable conducted their second Big Clear Up of the land adjacent to the route of the Crab & Winkle Line. Two large tipper truck loads of rubbish were removed from the area.

Summer 2005

Heritage open day – The Trust once again participated in the Heritage Open Days with a talk given at The Goods Shed Canterbury. A summary of the history of the line was given followed by an update on the Whitstable bridges project. Seventeen members of the public turned up for the talk. Our thanks to the Goods Shed for allowing us to use their premises for the presentation.

Robin Townsend (The Trust Secretary) explaining the history of the Crab and Winkle Line in 2005