Tacet

Was not the steerer able to see the leak from the gates before the boat entered the lock? If so, he could have kept to the back of the lock - or, if he didn't like the look of it at all, kept out.

If that is grease showing on the threads, it is less likely to have been in a pocket for any length of time. Unless the pocket was full of grease.

City Mill River 2012?

Isn't cycle thread 26 tpi?

It is not a toll island. I am reasonably sure that when the north circular road was widened, the aqueduct was reconstructed in two channels, such that one channel remained open for most of the time. There may have been a period when it was closed to boat traffic, but the contractor had to crane boats around. It was a marked success of waterways campaigning at the public inquiry that the Paddinton branch was not closed for the best part of a year - which was the highways preferred option.

7/8 Whitworth is 9TPI

Nice photo. The steamers and the new diesels rang together for a short while. At busy times, there were three ferries on and they didn't work to a timetable. The steamers could complete a cycle quicker than the newer ferries as they loaded less and, at that time, both were using the alongside pontoons built for the paddle steamers. So the last hurrah of the paddle steamers was to whistle impatiently as they caught the slower counterparts; such joy. As a young boy in the 1930s my dad was put on the ferry on the Woolwich side to be collected by an aunt at North Woolwich; but there was no waiting relative. A little thought brokered the possibility that he may have dawdled in the engine room a little longer than time allowed, and he had made at least two crossings of the river. His alternative theory that perhaps he had emerged from the engine room before the ferry had cast off was widely derided by those that knew him well.

The paddle steamers always came in against the tide, as you say Mostly the vehicles embarked one side of the ferry and discharged from the other. But when the tide turned, they came alongside on the other bank on the same (port or starboard side) with the vehicles therefore facing the wrong way, which was a bit of a problem. The deckhands loaded that trip with a little space, so that there was sufficient room turn a car and as the deck cleared, the lorries could turn too.

John Benn was a paddle steamer (and named after Tony Benn's grandfather); John Burns was a diesel ferry - and named after a trade unionist. No Ben Gunn and no names common to both steam and diesel ferries.

It could be the Fooner Spamily?

The proper Woolwich Ferries had two inverted V twins - one serving each paddle. Very manoeuvrable and never capsized. Rather heavy on coal though; the lorry used to travel back and forth while the coal man tipped the load down a chute from the vehicle deck to the bunkers.

The next of kin may be unwilling

All good advice, i am sure. But is not OP's particular problem that the bow of the boat getting swept around (and re-straightened) as the vessel turns across the stream? If so loading the bow won't really help.

4 stroke outboard were few back in the early 1970's. There was the Ocean, which comprised a 4hp (there was an even less common 8hp) lawn mower air cooled motor on top of a crude leg and a very heavy Bearcat with, I think, a car engine Honda brought out its B75 in around 1972 and pretty much cleaned up for small boat use.

It is not that planning permission isn't required for a materiel change of used for less than 28 days - it is that permission has been granted by the GDPO for (most) short term uses. I will caveat this for the even more pedantic, a change of use between two uses within the same Use Class is deemed not to be development and is therefore not within the ambit at all. Yes. And you could have any number of caravans within a field for up to 28 days too - putting aside the Caravan Sites legislation As soon as a material change of uses occurs (that is not within the GDPO), an enforcement notice could be served; you don't get the first 28 days free. In the context of a mooring, it is improbable that anyone would be aware of your intentions in the first month,. But if you take up permanent residence, you are open to enforcement action the moment you do so. Quite possibly you may say that it is/was not permanent - but the point remains.

Not quite as simple as that. Mooring, within limits, is an ancillary use of the canal - and whether it is residential (fixed or moving) or leisure use is not entirely decisive. Once beyond the reasonable limits, it is no longer an ancillary use and/or you may have created a fresh planning unit such that it is no longer part of the main canal. The rather vague, reasonable limits of ancillary use are more readily breached by fixed location, full-time residential use. But it doesn't change the principle. For example (and without case law!) An employee keeping an essential eye on water levels or whatever, but living in a fixed location might well be an ancillary use of the canal - and not require separate planning permission. On the the other hand, if you jam-packed a mile of canal arm with leisure boats such that no-one could reasonably leave to use the canal for cruising, you may have over-stepped the mark.

I first read that book maybe 50 years ago - and since wanted to make the same journey. The current proposals will connect the Bridgewater Canal with the Manchester Ship Canal; I don't think there is any current expectation of re-opening the Runcorn and Western Canal

Much loved for running on paraffin when it was cheaper than petrol - with or without much modification

Private Mooring would be my first choice

Or, for the brave, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Valor-oven-unusual-bygone-Turn-a-hob-in-to-an-Oven-with-Valor-111/203001608833?hash=item2f43d6ba81:g:Bg0AAOSwmBRey86C

This type of oven was reasonably common at one time. Like this In my limited experience, they were used on top of a wickless, non-pressure paraffin burner and quite capable of cooking a respectable roast dinner or a milk pudding. I imagine that using one on a Primus type burner might be trickier as maintaining a low heat can be troublesome. A spirit burner might be OK