About Us

EAST ANGLIAN WORKING NEWFOUNDLANDS (EAWN) are a group of people who meet every Sunday, from April to October, to train with their Newfoundland Dogs in water rescue at Mepal Airfield lake Cambridgeshire. The Newfies in the Club, although from a working breed of dog, are above all family pets. There are some thirty or so EAWN dogs who attend water-training sessions on a regular basis. The group do not portray themselves in the role of lifesavers in any respect and do all the training as a hobby, whilst trying to promote the good aspects of dogs in general but the Newfoundland in particular. EAWN was formed in 1989 to preserve the working instincts of the breed. The Mepal Outdoor Centre was the training water for a small group of Newfie owners. They used to train on Saturday evenings after the centre closed at 5.30. The only boat they possessed was made of fibreglass and belonged to Elaine and Phillip Messer who used to have to row it from the other end of the water where it was stored. It was then decided to form a Club and the first meeting of the Club was held on 7th October 1989, but it was not until the second meeting that the present name was decided upon. The first year was a busy one with Operation Warmglow on New Year's Day raising £473.00 for the Northern Newfoundland Welfare Scheme. Later in the year saw £1100.00 being raised for Telethon. The Club also helped at AD1990; which was held at Hinchingbrooke Country Park where it gave its first Water Demonstration. The second year saw the Club move training water to Hinchingbrooke where they had access at the weekend. The start of the next season saw the Club without a training venue but thankfully some water at Block Fen was found, a little pond opposite the boat shed. Within a few weeks the Club had secured Block Fen. After some 16 years it was time to move onwards and upwards to Mepal Airfield lake in 2007. Over the years many requests have been received for water displays and when water is not available a short land based demonstration has been provided. During this time many thousands of pounds have been raised, directly and indirectly, for many charities. Some of these will always be remembered e.g. The American Theme Park at Derby for Childline, Wells Lifeboat, Hemsby Inshore Rescue, Sennowe Park for Quidenham Childrens Hospice. One example is the Wells-Next-The-Sea display, which the group was first involved with in 1995. The display in 2004 was our tenth consecutive year at one of our favourite display sites. Over this period, due to the generosity of the spectators, the group has raised over £6,000 for the Wells Lifeboats. EAWN continues to perform at Wells each year. For the past seven years, over two weekends in December, EAWN has worked with their carts at the Elveden Estate Christmas tree sale. The first year we raised £1000 divided between Camvet and PDSA. The second year £2000 was raised for Woodgreen Animal Shelter and £250 for Newfoundland Welfare. In 2003 we raised over £1900 for Newfies in Need and in 2004 we raised £3000 which was split equally between Caister Lifeboat Appeal and East Anglian Air Ambulance. The club returns to Elveden each year and has raised over £12,000 in donations for their selected charities in the last 3 years. The Club has had seven trips to France, two training with the T.N.S., four to the Newfoundland International (1994, 1998,2002 and 2006) and one in 2001 for an official river twinning. The members who have taken part in these trips will never forget them. 2007 saw a stunning short film made by the BBC for their internationally broadcast Crufts programme and also a fantastic article was published in December's Countrylife magazine. Previous television appearances have been Telethon 1990 and Animal Country in 1992 as well as several spots on the whats on and news programmes. We have had radio interviews as well as many articles in newspapers and magazines. We have always realised that to be successful we must have the equipment and members have come up with many ideas to raise money e.g. car boot sales, swear-box, pub cards, bets, barbecues, competitions, tombolas, making and sell equipment and novelties, hiring equipment to name but a few. This has allowed the club to purchase and maintain all the equipment used over the years. Hopefully the Club has given a lot of pleasure to the members of the public who have watched us at the various events and demonstrations. Most importantly must be watching the dogs get so much pleasure every week either at training or at an event. We hope you will be able to come and see the dogs at work at one of the events listed in the Section.