LOCAL man Ashley Jones, will be appearing on a BBC4 on a programme about the history of canals in Britain.
The episode will air on September 15th and is part of a series of programmes titled, ‘Canals – The Making of a Nation’.
Ashley said, “I am the international moving specialist for South and West of England for Pickfords Removals, a role I have held for the last 14 years but I have been with the company over 30 years.
“Since the early nineties I have been a collector of model Pickfords lorries and from this, have become increasing interested in the history of the company, to the extent now I am the unofficial historian and ‘go to guy’ for the company on any queries about the history of the company.
“The company received a request from the BBC for some information on Pickfords’ involvement with the canals as they were making a series of programmes on the history of the canals in Britain and about how canals came about and how they contributed to the industrial development of the UK. This request therefore landed on my desk from our marketing department.
“As there was not much in our archive, I spent a couple of days trawling the internet and other sources about Pickfords and their involvement with the canals. From this I produced a small research paper for the BBC. This then led to a request for me to appear in the episode on the development of commercial traffic on the canals focusing on the Grand Junction Canal which went from Birmingham to Paddington in London.
“I travelled up to Paddington Station by train and literally walked out the back entrance to the old Paddington Basin, which has been redeveloped as a mooring basin for modern day leisure users and is surrounded by offices – the old warehouses were knocked down to make way for the new office development.
“There I was interviewed sitting by the canal and talked about Pickfords’ role in the development of the canals in the first half of the 19th century.
“My role as the unofficial historian of Pickfords has led to another role for the company. I now give talks on the history of the company and the history of moving to local groups such as history societies, WIs and other groups. I have recently given a talk to the Westbury Local History Society and last year to the U3A group. So if any group would like a talk, I am happy to come and speak to them.”
The episode goes out on the 15th September on BBC4 and will be available on BBC iplayer.
