THANK YOU to Unison for your kind donation which helps us to continue to provide relaxing narrowboat cruises for people in the Community.
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It was very sad indeed to hear of the death of Ellis Homewood last December just short of his 87th Birthday. As one goes through life it sometimes happens that you are fortunate enough to meet a person who you wished you had met earlier and had known better. To me, Ellis was one such person. On his retirement Ellis was roped into the Baldwin Trust by the indomitable Anne Halsey, who was the widow of the Trust’s founder Bert Halsey. Ellis had taken his family on many canal holidays and was a competent helm and a good instructor. A couple of years later I was also press ganged into the Trust by Anne’s brother Malcolm. That is how Ellis and I met. In addition to crewing together periodically on the boats, we also had a chance to chew the cud at the various canal side boat festivals attended by the Trust. The humble golf ball was the catalyst, and an early memory of Ellis was his very enthusiastic ways of selling golf balls to the public to raise funds for the Trust. We soon found we had many common interests – the Church, an engineering background, the infuriating game of golf, boats and the early industrial architecture and engineering of the canals and railways. We were never lost for topics of conversation. Having only first met Ellis in 2002 I am very indebted to his son David and the family for the following biographical notes: - Ellis was born in Melton Mowbray in February 1934, the 7th of 8 children and educated at Asfordby Hill Primary and Melton Boys School. Very sadly his father died when he was just 12 years old. After leaving school Ellis was employed at Holwell Works and gained his Electrical Apprenticeship. He met his future wife, Rosemary, in 1954 and was called up for National Service the following year in the Royal Navy. He served as a member of electrical engineering team on the carrier HMS Bulwark travelling widely around the Mediterranean, the West Indies and north to Canada. On demob, he went to work at Brush Electrical at Loughborough and improved his qualifications by attending night school once a week for several years in Nottingham to achieve his HNC. In June 1960 Ellis and Rosemary were married in Welby Lane Mission School and after a honeymoon in Jersey, moved into their current home on Asfordby Road. They have three sons Michael, Jonathan, and David. Rosemary and Ellis celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary last year. In 1969 Ellis went to work for the MOD at the Old Dalby Technical Stores Depot as an Engineering Technical Draughtsman where his vast range of electrical and mechanical skills were put to good use. Old Dalby was basically one of the main REME workshops maintaining and modifying all manner of army vehicles and equipment. Ellis was very capable and skilled in many aspects of DIY and gardening and developed an excellent kitchen garden/allotment to provide all sorts of goodies for the pot. He was also always ready to lend a hand with family and friends when needed. He was very involved with the Welby Lane Church acting as Fellowship Leader and Property Steward for many years. Ellis was a devoted husband and father, so it was incredibly sad when he suffered a stroke in 2013 which led to paralysis down his right-hand side and deprived him almost totally of the ability to speak. The fact that members of the Baldwin Trust still talk about Ellis Homewood is proof enough that he made a big impact and is still sorely missed. I just wish that I had met him earlier and known him better.
Jeremy Skipper, Trustee of the Baldwin Trust |
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| A heartfelt thanks to all of Anne Halsey’s friends and family for their kind words and generous donations to The Baldwin Trust in memory of a remarkable lady. |
Anne was born in Leicester on 10th September 1939 and was christened Geraldine Anne Sutton. History does not relate the reason why her first given name was not used but it may be something to do with the outbreak of WWII. She was always known as Anne and despite her father being away a long time serving in the army, she had a very happy childhood with her mother and her brother Malcolm. Malcolm was eight years her senior, so took it upon himself to watch over 'little sis'.
Anne's father was from a very musical family and after the war, in his spare time; he ran a dance band, playing in many halls in and around Leicester. Anne and Malcolm both had good voices and sang in the choir at the church of St. Philip and St. James in Groby. Anne became very involved in the church, continuing to sing in the choir and becoming a server.
One of Anne's early jobs after leaving school was to work for Fenwick's department store, demonstrating Pelham Puppets. One can imagine her putting a lot of energy into this and singing all the while; sales must have soared! From an early age, Anne found herself being drawn towards helping people in the widest sense - she became a nursery nurse, a nanny and then a social worker. Later she became a funeral arranger, looking after the bereaved and making sure the details of the funeral conformed to their wishes.
In the late seventies, Anne and her brother Malcolm started a business and Professional Friendship Circle in Leicester to promote friendship after work between people in different businesses and to raise money for good local causes. About the same time, Mrs. Joan Halsey was a social worker at the Glenfrith Hospital in Leicester, working principally on the Baldwin Ward for the seriously ill. She had taken various small groups out for boat trips on the canals and found that the patients reacted in a very positive manner to the change of environment. She suggested to her husband, Bert Halsey, that it would be great to acquire a narrow boat for this purpose.
Co-incidentally, a friend of Bert's, Fred St. Claire had a daughter who was a patient on the Baldwin Ward and he asked Bert to head up the project, as he was a design engineer at English Electric. Fund raising started in earnest but very sadly Joan Halsey died in 1980. Bert had joined the B & P Friendship Circle and in 1983, he asked Malcolm and Anne to help him with fund raising and establishing a trust to run a narrow boat in memory of Fred St. Claire's daughter, who had recently passed away. The Trust was to be called the Baldwin Trust and the boat was to be named 'St. Claire'.
Fred primed the fund in memory of his daughter with a generous donation to get things going. Five years of tireless fundraising resulted in a fine new 70ft narrow boat entering service in 1988. The sign writer working in the boat yard misspelled the name "St. Clare", but the mistake remains the same to this day as it is considered by some to be unlucky to change the name of a boat! The joint effort of trying to raise tens of thousands of pounds for building "St. Clare" brought Anne and Bert much closer together and they were married in 1984.
It was an extremely happy marriage, during which they saw the launch of 'St. Clare' and really laid the firm foundation of the Baldwin Trust on which it proudly stands today. They travelled extensively, including by Concorde, and Anne not only continued to work but was also a member of many organisations; founding the local branch of the Lionesses and becoming its president. She was a member of Rotary, W.I. U3A and many more. She found she had a talent for public speaking and gave many fascinating accounts of her travels with most talks raising money for the Baldwin Trust. Very sadly, Anne's marriage was a short one when Bert died in 1992. She immersed herself in continuing all her good works in helping others. She took over the presidency of the Baldwin Trust, which she guided from strength to strength, culminating in the addition of the second boat "Dandelion" to the fleet in 2002.
Anne had abounding energy and the talks she gave reflected the breadth of her travels, many of which were undertaken with disabled people and which she continued into her late seventies. They included 'Eyes in China', Sri Lanka, the Island of Paradise', 'California here I come!', 'Egypt and the land of the Pharaohs', 'Rails and the Rockies in Canada' and the 'Colour and culture of India'. In addition, two of her staples in the UK were the 'History of the Baldwin Trust' and the 'Funny side of the funeral business', which was extremely amusing!
The Baldwin Trust’s new Flag Ship - “Halseyon Days”
Anne Halsey receiving a Birthday Bouquet from Trustee Ellen Reeve
The Baldwin Trust, and so many other people, owe an enormous debt of gratitude to a lady of great charm and unbounded energy for all she achieved. The Trust was delighted to be able to mark Anne's 80th birthday last year, by throwing a party at the Marina and inviting her to name the new boat "Halseyon Days" which, with the play on words, will proudly carry hers and Bert's name on the local Leicestershire waterways for many years to come.
Thank you to all National Lottery players and the National Lottery Community Fund for your grant support, which will help The Baldwin Trust cover the costs of maintaining our boats, whilst we are unable to operate, safely carry our clients or fundraise, due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
We're really looking forward to welcoming our wonderful volunteers and passengers from our community, back onboard our boats, Halseyon Days and Dandelion, for a relaxing cruise on Leicestershire's waterways, when it's safe to do so. #NationalLottery
We hope you and your families are all safe and well.
The Baldwin Trust are continuing to monitor the situation and are following the Government guidelines. Unfortunately, we cannot currently operate our narrowboat cruises – we will keep you informed when we have more information and we look forward to being able to recommence our cruises when it is safe to do so for both crew and passengers.
If you have a booking with us, we are constantly reviewing these and will contact you directly about your booking several weeks in advance.
Not being able to operate our boats in what should be our busy time, raises many challenges for us, as we still have ongoing standing commitments for marina, insurance, licence, utility and maintenance costs.
If you are able to support our charity in anyway, your help would be appreciated:
This will enable you to choose a charity, select The Baldwin Trust, then what ever you buy on AmazonSmile, The Baldwin Trust get a donation from Amazon for your purchase, at no cost to yourself.
Each time you log onto Amazon you choose https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/515488-0
We thank you for your support.
The Baldwin Trust
During the last few weeks, the Trustees have been following the news updates and government statements regarding the growing risks of the coronavirus pandemic. The risk to all is now becoming extreme, particularly to many of our clients and volunteer members who are in the “at risk category”.
The Trustees have therefore, reluctantly, agreed to suspend all activities on our boats for March, April and May. No trips will take place before the end of May and all clients with bookings for this period, will be contacted directly and advised of our decision.
To reduce the risk to all, including our volunteers, we will not be holding any meetings nor carrying out any training on the boats during this time. We will, however, keep a very close eye on the situation and heed the advice of the experts so that teams may be allocated for routine maintenance and “deep cleaning” of the boats prior to the end of May. We then hope to be ready and raring to go as soon as it is deemed wise.
Please direct all questions on bookings to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the bookings phone number 07923 817 718. Please refer to our web site for more links – www.baldwintrust.co.uk.
The position will be reviewed by the Trustees on or around May 15th at which time a further statement will be made.
Thank you for your understanding at this time of nationwide concern.
The Trustees
The Baldwin Trust
c/o. Syston Volunteer Centre
18 School Street
Syston
Leicester
LE7 1HN
Bookings:
Email: bookings@baldwintrust.co.uk
Phone: 07923 817718
Volunteers:
Email: volunteers@baldwintrust.co.uk
Phone: 07763 736906
General Enquiries:
Email: secretary@baldwintrust.co.uk
Phone: 07933 148952
Charity No. 515488
