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FRED DAVIES`S CORACLE
Written by Chris Partington Treasurer of The Coracle Society |
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This Coracle was made by Fred Davies and used by him and his nephew John Davies to recover footballs kicked into the river Severn during a match up until 1979 when an inflatable was acquired for the purpose. Mention Coracles in any part of the world and you will be told it's a little boat used for getting footballs out of a river.Its amazing how word of mouth has carried this story into everyday speak and will probably carry on doing so until the edge of time. Coraclers made their craft to suit their stature. Fred was slight in stature in comparison to his nephew John and made a Coracle of fairly small proportions and shallow draught. A point missed by The Greenwood Trust when they initially learnt Coracle Making off Fred Davies and subsequently held their own Coracle Making courses making Fred Davies sized Coracles. Many people who attended the first Greenwood Trust courses now teach Coracle making themselves and the Fred Davies Coracle is one of the country`s most popular models which is fine if you are slight in stature but liable to sink with all hands if you are not ! (Fortunately during the 90's under the tutelage of Terry Kenny, The Greenwood Trust offered two different coracle sizes.) Nephew John made a far more substantial craft to suit people of all shapes and sizes. So Fred has had the last laugh, despite that inflatable! Coracling in and around Shrewsbury has carried on for over 200 years
predominantly for the purpose of poaching fin,fur and feather. Up until
the 1950s the Severn above The Welsh Bridge was divided up into 5 equal
lengths for night line eel fishing by five Frankwell Coracling families.
One of whom is pictured on page 192 of J.Geraint Jenkins book Nets and
Coracles published 1974. The memories of the Coracling tales I was told about in the 1980's of
exploits involving poaching pheasants on the Berwick Estate and escaping
from mystified keepers in Coracles has inspired me to incorporate a pretend
poaching incident in my race here called The Millers Mile.Contestants
paddle against the stop watch up my mill stream.Get out onto land and
run as though a keeper was after them with Coracle over their shoulder
and relaunch into the River Lugg and paddle furiously downstream to the
finish line. This race has been put forwards to the Olympics Committee
as a suggestion to be the official Coracle race at the 2012 Olympics! |