IWA Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch and the inland waterways recently lost a good friend with the passing of Denis Farmer on 21st October 2022, just two months short of his 92nd birthday. Denis and Janet Farmer were long-standing members of the branch committee and at the 2015 branch AGM there was a presentation to them to record their contribution to our waterways over twenty-five years. Branch sales, social events, Shroppie Fly Paper … the Farmers made a huge contribution to the branch over those years. In 1997 Denis started a three-year stint as branch chairman after which he was branch treasurer until Denis and Janet retired from the committee at that 2015 AGM.

All this was recognised by the then-Western Region of IWA with the award of its Victoria Cup in 2008 and then by the Association’s national Richard Bird Medal in 2010.

Denis and Janet were keen supporters of the Montgomery Canal restoration, especially at successive Head of Navigation Rallies as openings progressed southward. Denis joined the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust in 1999 and remained a trustee until recently.  Denis and Janet were also regulars at the Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch stand at Shrewsbury Flower Show and at open days, rallies and celebrations – events supporting what the IWA seeks to achieve for the waterways at large.

[The photo, left, shows Denis and Janet after receiving their Richard Bird Medals at IWA’s 2010 Annual General Meeting held at Market Drayton.]