The Lady Katherine, a steam boat launched in Ellesmere’s Mere last year, has been travelling around the lake for another year to show visitors the sights.

The boat has been operating every day from 12pm until 5.30pm, but as the summer holidays come to an end the boat will now only sail at weekends.

The boat was built by Gavin Lewery, and his colleague, Felix Rowberry, said it has been a good summer.

“It has been going quite well,” she said. “What has been nice is although it has not been the busiest, because of the wet weather, we have still covered costs – which is more than we can ask for.

“We have been running every day all summer providing the weather was fine. We have had all ages come on the boat.

“Now it is the end of the summer holidays, we will only be operating at weekends and on bank holidays until the end of October.”

It follows news that she could have been chatting online to friends just hours before a terrifying blaze at the family’s country home.

It is understood that her conversations may have been interrupted by a power cut at about 1am on Tuesday, August 26. 

Police confirmed they were investigating Kirstie’s activity on her computer as part of their huge probe into exactly what unfurled at Osbaston House, Maesbrook.

It is thought that Kirstie, who attended Ellesmere College, may have been chatting with friends on a social networking site before firefighters were called to battle the blaze which had already destroyed much of the house.

Superintendent Gary Higgins of West Mercia Police said: “We are aware Kirstie had a computer and the use of that forms part of the police investigation.

“There is extensive debris at the site and it will take some days, possibly several weeks, to complete this part of the investigation. We will be seeking to build up a picture of the circumstances leading up to the fire.”

Detectives said every possible scenario for what happened was being considered. 

Meanwhile school friends of Kirstie have been posting messages on the internet paying tribute to the popular 15-year-old.

Kirstie’s friends reacted to the news by leaving poignant tributes on her page on the social networking site Bebo. 

One friend, Chloe, wrote: “I can’t believe that one of the bodys was your mam. RIP Jill Foster. I hope that the other body isnt your dad. An I hope they dont find any mor an your just havin a week somewer with your dad or sumink.” 

Another friend, Danielle, also referred to Kirstie’s three horses – Scrumpy Jack, Breezy and Bramble – which were found shot dead in the mansion’s outbuildings. 

She wrote: “I miss you soo much. My thorts are with you 24/7 and there are some points in the day i just wanna break down and cry. 

“Life feels weird without you. Please be okay, otherwise I dunno wat ill doo. RIP Jill and Jack and Breezy and Bramble.” 

School mate George wrote: “Plz b ok kirstie. We r all thinkin bowt u.” 

Lucy added: “Forever in our hearts, once there forever in our lives.” 

Kirstie wrote on her Bebo page that her horses were “her life” and posted dozens of pictures of her with the animals. 

She also included photographs taken with friends on school field trips and on her 15th birthday. 

ParkRight and parking enforcement will be on the agenda when the next meeting of Action: Whitchurch and Prees local joint committee is held on Wednesday, September 17.  

The meeting will be held at Tilstock Village Hall starting at 7pm, and all residents in the area are invited to attend.

Those in attendance will consider bids made for funding for the area’s youth opportunity fund, and decide which projects to allocate funds to.

It will again be combined with the Tilstock PACT (Partners and Communities Together) meeting, giving people the chance to meet officers from their local policing team and have their say on how the area is policed.

There will also be a further opportunity for people to suggest how the committee could spend its budget of £40,000 over the next year, to help improve the area.

Shropshire County councillor Tom Biggins, the chairman of the committee, said: “Action: Whitchurch and Prees really is making a big difference to this area. We have discussed a number of important local issues at our meetings so far, and this will be the case once again at our September meeting when parking issues are on the agenda.  

“I’m also looking forward to announcing which local groups will be awarded money from the youth opportunity fund, to help in their valuable work with the area’s young people. 

“I hope as many local people as possible will be able to join us on the night.”

Action: Whitchurch and Prees has a committee of local councillors from Shropshire County Council, North Shropshire District Council, Whitchurch Town Council, Prees Parish Council and Whitchurch Rural Parish Council.

At the last meeting, held on June 11, those present discussed community transport in North Shropshire.

For more information and notes from previous meetings, log on to the website www.shropshire.gov.uk/localmeetings.nsf.

Nancy Wilson, 77, is limbering up ready to take part in a zip wire challenge next month in aid of the Severn Hospice.

Mrs Wilson and four others from the town will zipwire from the top of the new Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury over the town’s river on October 5.

Mrs Wilson said she was afraid of heights, but was determined to take the challenge.

“I was going to do it last year off the top of the old Shrewsbury Infirmary, but the day of it fell on the same day as my Civic Service, so I could not do it. When I saw they were doing it again this year, I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to do it.’

“I am scared of heights, so I will just shut my eyes. When I was younger heights did not scare me, but I think when you have children you become more conscious about things. I am determined to do it though,” she said.

Mrs Wilson added that to make the stunt more interesting she will do it in fancy dress, wearing an old-fashioned swimming costume over her clothes.

She has also had to clear time in her busy schedule to undertake the stunt, and will be making a quick change after spending the morning of October 5 singing in the choir at a harvest festival church service.

She said she has raised over £200 so far for the Severn Hospice.

“From what I can gather you sit on a cross bar and you are strung up, but they will have all the safety measures in place so I feel confident. I think it will be similar to the flying fox playground ride.

“I’m looking forward to doing it, and I’m determined because it’s a good cause. I’ve had so many friends and family and acquaintances who have been in there that I know the sterling work they do. 

“They really are hard pushed where finances are concerned, so the best of luck to them, I hope they can raise a lot of money from doing it,” she said.

To sponsor Mrs Wilson call 01939 233563.

Tom Beaver will be attempting the Enduro Man Arch to Arc Challenge this week in an effort to raise £10,000 for the charity Missing People in memory of Blake Hartley, the former Ellesmere College student and army cadet who went missing in 2004.

The challenge will require Mr Beaver, from Walkmills, near Leebotwood, to run the 87 miles from Marble Arch in London to Dover, swim the Channel and then cycle the 180 miles from Calais to L’Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Earlier this year he took part in the London Marathon, running in a beaver costume to promote the website he set up for the Arch to Arc Challenge.

Also this year Mr Beaver did a triple marathon, running 80 miles in 23 hours around the Dorset coast in preparation for his record attempt.

Mr Beaver said last week: “Hopefully I’ll be leaving on Wednesday but it’s weather dependent. The weather has been rubbish for swimming lately but hopefully it will be okay. I’m looking forward to it. 

“My training has been going well and the fundraising is going well too. I’ve raised £4,000 so far.”

Mr Beaver should begin his challenge this morning. To follow his progress visit www.enduroman.com, or to sponsor him visit his website at www.runningbeaver.co.uk. 

Practice staff found their systems were down when they arrived for work in the morning and had to wait up to three hours before they came back online. Emergency appointments were being scribbled down by hand until the problems could be resolved.

Bosses at the Shrewsbury-based Shropshire Primary Care Trust said the problems came about as a result of disruptions to the electricity supply to the IT server room at their headquarters on Tuesday night.

As the Chronicle went to press, PCT bosses refused to rule out further disruptions until the problems were sorted out once and for all.

Speaking yesterday, Julie Thornby, director of corporate affairs for Shropshire County PCT, said there were disruptions during the night which meant 80 per cent of practices across Shropshire were affected.

“We have a lot of electricians trying to fix the problems to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she said.

“It’s very frustrating and the practices might be disrupted again later in the day until things are sorted properly.”

Morvan Jones, practice manager for the Bridgwater Practice in Whitchurch, said: “When people ring we are taking contact details down and then we’ll get back to them although in an emergency they can come down.

“We can’t view all the records. It’s a nuisance but patients are still being seen as normal and we can still take details down although we might not get prescriptions done by midday.”

Harjeet Chawla, practice manager at Prees Medical Practice, said: “We’re asking patients to ring back later, but if they need to see the doctor they can call in as we’re holding an open surgery.

“The doctors are having to write everything out at the moment and we can only view the written records.”

A spokesperson from Wem Medical Practice said that their IT system had also  gone down.

But staff from Ellesmere Medical Practice said they were unaffected.

A consultation period has been opened to halve the speed limits on five stretches of road around Marchamley, near Hodnet, from 60mph to 30mph.

The application was made by members of Hodnet Parish Council, which covers Marchamley, after residents and councillors raised fears over the speed of traffic through the village. 

It has been claimed that as heavy lorries now use the Hodnet bypass cars can travel faster on country roads.

The consultation is being carried out by Shropshire County Council and would be applied to part of the unclassified road from Hodnet to Prees Higher Heath, part of Long Lane, part of Rookery Lane, School Lane and part of the road leading to Marchamley Hill.

Stephen Howell-Jones, Hodnet Parish Council clerk, said: “Since the Hodnet bypass was built in 2003 heavy traffic uses the bypass roads now so some traffic goes rather fast as it’s not slowed up by lorries.”

He added that the parish council had not been officially informed about the consultation, although notices went up on Wednesday, August 27.

A county council spokesperson said: “The end date of the consultation is September 17, 2008.”

• To raise an objection write to the Traffic Management and Regulation Team (Admin Section), The Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ND or email traffic.engineering @shropshire.gov.uk.

Gaynor Jenkins, from Wem, has been helping at Wem Youth Centre with the 11 year-olds’ session  Phoenix for the past term. 

She had been working with children to create a float for the up-coming carnival – a first for the centre – but has stood down after receiving no responses to permission slips sent out to parents.

Youth centre staff have been forced to pull their float from this weekend’s carnival, the town’s 30th. 

They are also set to hold a crisis meeting to find a replacement session leader.

The club’s float was on loan to the centre from the town’s White Lion pub.

Youngsters had decorated it with models of a phoenix, a griffin and a dragon – the names of the three groups within the youth centre.

Mrs Jenkins said: “I have had no support from any of the young people and their parents. 

“I sent out forms to all the parents. 

“Not one person sent the form back.

“I am really, really upset about the carnival because we had done lots on the float and now it will just sit there until it goes back to the White Lion.”

Peter Hanna, chairman of the youth centre said: “This would have been our first float in the carnival and it was Gaynor’s initiative.

“Obviously we now have to meet to see where to go. ”

Pauline Dee, Wem Mayor, said: “That is sad, but perhaps someone who wants to be in the carnival can join in with someone else’s float.” 

Jane Drummond, who lives in the town and has been town clerk for more than 20 years, was discovered in Wem Town Council offices in High Street shortly after 10am on Tuesday morning. 

An ambulance was called and Mrs Drummond was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, where she has been undergoing treatment. Hospital officials confirmed she was being treated at the hospital, but were unable to comment further. Her current condition is not known.

Town councillors said that Mrs Drummond had been ill for a while but battled on with her work at the council. 

They added they were shocked to hear she had been taken into hospital and hoped that she got better soon.

John Murray, town and district councillor, said: “She has been on the town council for many, many years. 

“We are all rooting for her and hope she gets better as soon as possible. 

“She has been an absolute star and is wonderful.

She is an ambassador for the town.

“She is a great help to everybody.”

Pam Highmore, town councillor, said: “She hasn’t been well for quite a while but she has carried on with her job as clerk. 

“She is so good and it will be a loss without her being there. I wish her all the best.”

A spokesperson from West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed that an ambulance was called to the office on the High Street in Wem shortly after 10am on Tuesday. 

• Wem news – page 16 of the North Shropshire Chronicle, September 1, 2008.

Town travel to Notts County on Saturday and to Morecambe the following weekend with a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first round trip to Exeter City sandwiched in between on Tuesday night. Simpson acknowledges it’s a testing schedule for the early League Two leaders but feels it’s a challenge his confident players should embrace.

“It will give us a really good idea of where we’re at,” he said. 

“We’ve had a good start and want to keep it going as long as possible. But we’re not daft and know there will be setbacks along the way.

“We’re there to be shot at every game regardless of where we are. But I’d much rather be where we are than be down at the wrong end of the table.” 

One of Simpson’s main aims this term was addressing Town’s poor away record which saw them win just three times on the road last season, and they started this year’s away fixtures in the right way with a 1-0 win at Exeter a fortnight ago.

He took the chance to watch Notts County, Saturday’s opponents, as they were knocked out of the Carling Cup with a 4-0 defeat at Premier League Wigan Athletic on Tuesday night, but he expects a different Magpies side this weekend.

“They made a few changes but it was a decent game and I saw a few things from them,” said Simpson. 

“They’ve got a good stadium, a lot of history and in Iain McParland they’ve got a manager who is very ambitious and wants to get them at the right end of the table.

“They’re going to be a good test for us and they’ve got young players out wide with plenty of pace. 

“They’ve also got a goalscorer in Jamie Forrester, who didn’t play at Wigan, and Delroy Facey, an experienced striker at this level.” 

Simpson, who was set to field a strong side in last night’s reserve team clash at home to Sheffield Wednesday, added he wasn’t expecting a flurry of transfer activity at the Prostar Stadium before the window closes this weekend. 

He said he had no plans to enter the transfer market for reinforcements despite injuries taking their toll in the early weeks of the season. Graham Coughlan, Richard Walker, Paul Murray and David Hunt are all currently sidelined, but Simpson is satisfied he has enough strength within his squad. 

The Town boss admitted he would be prepared to loan out some of his fringe players to give them first team football, but young keeper Jasbir Singh, who has joined Bridgnorth on a temporary basis, is the only one to head through the  exit door so far.

“There’s not been any movement on any of our players,” he said. 

“I think it would do some of them good if there was an opportunity to go out and play a few games.” 

l Former Town striker Andy Cooke has announced his retirement from football after a 16-year career.

l See page 85 for more Town news including the views of experienced defender Graham Coughlan.