Page published 4 October 2003 

The Locals' Guide to the Ashby Canal
and its surroundings

Compiler:	Douglas E. Maas
Publisher:	Inland Waterways Books, 1 Bridge Cottages, Snarestone, DE12 7BY (in association with the Ashby Canal Association)
Available by post from:
Format:	An A5 staple-bound glossy cover book, has many sponsors advertisements and is illustrated with a number of colour and black and white photographs, line drawings and hand drawn maps.

General Comments:

This book has a splendidly "Chunky, Cheap and Cheerful" feel. Indeed, this is the publisher's own description of it. Justifying it because the non-profit basis on which it was produced means that more funds can be passed to the Ashby Canal Association and because it will be easier to update in the future.

When you examine it you see the evidence that it was indeed produced by the old fashioned way - by cutting and pasting individual pieces of paper onto master sheets and having it printed photographically. So you do wonder if the second reason really will apply when the next edition comes to be put together, as surely, by then, a volunteer could be found to produce it with a word processor or desktop publisher! It was unfortunate that doing it the cheap and cheerful way has also meant that reproduction of many of the photographs has suffered.

In keeping with the cut and paste production method, the guide has a "magazine layout" feel to it with may "box-outs" containing little snippets of information, related to, but not included in, the main text. Quarter and half-page advertisements from local news agents, stores, off licences, pubs, and even the local preserved railway, also appear scattered through out the book add to this effect.

As for the text itself, well if you think "it's only a short bit of canal running through boring fields with a few cows", then the guide is packed with reasons to make you think otherwise. So says the guide, and rightly too! It encourages you to make progress slowly and take joy from the undramatic rural scenery, which changes more with the season than location on the canal. And for those who suffer "lock starvation" suggests you try a week-end cruise to Polesworth and back, giving you 22 to travel through!

I enjoyed reading the ghost stories and wondering whether it really was accurate to describe Hinkley as a port. I read it many months after I had spent a few days on the southern half of the canal. I really do wish that I had had it with me at the time!

Reviewed by: Greg Chapman