KATH Hatton is vice chair and fundraising director of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust, which aims to restore the historic canal. Her most recent projects include helping to secure £575,000 in grants to save a 1.25km stretch at Studley Grange. Retired civil servant and widowed mother of two Kath lives near Westbury. She speaks to BARRIE HUDSON

 

“I DON’T recall any great ambitions as a child,” said Kath Hatton.

“I went to teacher training college but I gave it up because I didn’t like teaching. I’ve done a variety of jobs over the years.

“I lived in Canada for four years and worked in a bank, the Bank of Montreal, which I enjoyed. I’ve sold houses, I’ve done accounts, I’ve managed a cinema in Shaftesbury – I did that for three or four years at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties. The cinema’s gone now; it was all knocked down and changed into flats. It’s sad.

“In between bringing up boys you can only work so many hours, so I did things to fit in around them, really.”

For the last dozen years of her career, Kath was a civil servant, retiring as a Higher Executive Officer Accountant in 1999. Latterly she had worked at Government Office for London, auditing Training and Enterprise Councils.

Being no stranger to the workings of officialdom and having a ‘can do’ attitude are handy when it comes to securing grant aid.

“Just try and do things step by step. When you’re trying to raise money for a project, you’ve got to be clear about that project before you raise the money. You’ve got to get the planning permission and you’ve got to get the engineering design and you’ve got to get all the studies done. It’s thinking things out in advance.”

Kath is originally from Wokingham in Berkshire. Her father worked as a manager for the Westminster bank, which eventually became part of NatWest. Kath has a brother and a sister.

Like many people over the age of 40, her first experience of a canal was during the era when neglected, long-abandoned waterways scarred many a town and city. As a young adult, however, a holiday showed her a different canal experience.

“We used to go shopping in Reading, and I remember seeing what was then the Kennet and Avon, but it was in a pretty poor state. That was a just glimpse from childhood, really, but the real first experience was hiring a boat in 1966 with my husband. We went down the Oxford canal, and that was quite an unusual thing to do in 1966. There were still working boats about and I wish I’d taken more note, really, but it was all new and you tend not to notice things that you should.

“That prompted other boat hires as the boys grew up. When I came back from Canada I found out about the Kennet and Avon Canal, which they were just starting to restore then. That was in 1972.

“I joined that trust and was with them for 20 years, as a member. Then they opened the Kennet and Avon. I read about the Wilts and Berks Canal and thought they would probably need my help more than the Kennet and Avon, so I switched my membership in 1993.”

Kath maintained her membership, but didn’t become more directly involved until much more recently. She retired early because her husband wanted to live in France, and the couple made their home in the south west of the country from 2000 to 2008. They returned to England in 2008 after he became ill. He died five years ago. The trust was in need of money and Kath was ready to do her bit.

“I started fundraising for the local branch – someone suggested I might help and gave me a couple of books on fundraising to read. I wrote a few letters and had a small amount of luck. The then chairman asked me if I would do some fundraising for the whole trust."

Kath has been fundraising chief for five years and vice chair for about four. By 2025 the trust aims to have restored all 65 miles of canal, stretching from Semington to Abingdon and from Swindon to Cricklade, making it navigable by boats and opening its towpaths for walking and cycling.

“There are very few canals in the south of England; there are a lot in the north but in the south you just have the Kennet and Avon running across, so opening up other routes here would be marvellous for the tourist industry and bring great economic benefits.”

The trust sees Swindon, lying as it does among not just the Wilts and Berks but also the Cotswold and Kennet and Avon canals, as standing to benefit greatly from a boom in leisure and visitor numbers.

“Swindon will be a destination in the middle of that hub of canals. When you restore a piece of canal you see the reaction of local people. They absolutely love it. They can walk, cycle, take the kids, get in a canoe. There’s loads of wildlife, it all appears amazingly quickly when you restore a canal.”

The trust currently has 2,580 members, many of whom volunteer to work directly on restoration projects. Its website is wbct.org.uk