About the Club

The club

Westhoughton Canoe Club is a fairly small and friendly club based in the Westhoughton / Atherton area of Greater Manchester, although many of our members come from outside this area. The club has a friendly, social feel to it and have a wide age range of members, who include all levels from complete beginners to experienced coaches.

The club continues to become more active, with two official club trips each month aimed both at novice and more experienced paddlers - see the calendar for details.  We run regular trips to Burrs, Halton Rapids, the Rivers Dee, Derwent, Calder, Rothay, Eden and Tryweryn. Members have also been on various courses throughout the year and have even been sea kayaking off Anglesey. Reports from all these trips are on the forum. Upcoming activities are shown on the calendar and are also arranged on the forum. As well as the official monthly trips, there are also many informal peer-group trips arranged on the forum - you can usually find somebody going somewhere every weekend!

We usually meet on Wednesday evenings. In the summer we meet outdoors, usually at the Burrs site in Bury where there is a flat water training pool and a section of grade 2 moving water on the River Irwell. In the winter we retire to the warmth of the pool in Westhoughton Leisure Centre, ideal for practising rolling and a range of strokes. See our training page for more details. 

Brief History

The club was founded as Westhoughton Canoe Group in 1997, initially to cater for any Scout Association members in the Manchester area to learn or improve their canoeing skills. Since that early start the club is now open to any persons who wish to learn how to paddle in good company.

The founder member, Graham Brooks, is a BCU Level 3 Coach having over twenty years experience in canoeing. Several members have followed in his footsteps and we now have several qualified coaches.  

Contact

Emails are sent to all club members (and anyone else interested) as and when the site is updated. If you aren't getting these emails and want to (or if you are and don't want to), then please email the Webmaster.

Any reports, pictures or anything else for the site are very much appreciated - please email, or pass to me in whatever form you can.
For more information, please check the links on the left.

For general enquiries please email: info@westhoughtoncanoeclub.org.uk

  Committee Members

(September 2011 to August 2012)

  Downloads

(2011 to 2012)

Constitution                                     The club's constitution, ratified at the AGM, 15 July 2009

Club membership form                  For completion for the 2011 - 2012 membership year

Participant information form          For non-members to complete on club events

Paddlepower flyer                          Awards scheme for junior members (up to 14 years of age)