Paul H

The pic I posted is dated 1929 and the Beulah film despite being dated 1934 is certainly 1935/6 or later as it shows large Grand Union boats - 7 years is plenty of time to put a cabin stove in and I can clearly see an exhaust by the pigeon box. Reader's Letters & Queries: NarrowBoat, Spring 2010 Regarding the article on Sabey’s wide boats (Autumn 2011 NB), I often spent school holidays during 1941–43 with my grandfather and uncle, Sylvester and Arthur Wood, aboard one of their tugs. The tugs in use at that time were Accretion, Fastnet and Antelope. The wide boats were Sabey’s fleet plus two iron boats of William Boyer and a single boat of Kings of Hayes. The only other regular towed string of boats at that time were Clayton’s ‘rubbish’ boats towed by either Tyburn or White Heather bound for Yeading. My own favourite was the elegant Ruislip of the Grand Union Canal Company. Incidentally, getting a train of loaded wide boats around Bulls Bridge turn required much skill. T.J.S. Clark, Holyport, Berks… Yes there could have been other tugs in service earlier - Powerful, Panama, Buffalo spring to mind but they are poorly documented. A bit like ice boats… 😀 Paul

The tug is shown at 9.09 and is I think a Sabey’s tug, probably the Accretion. The tug in reality was much longer than the angle of the camera suggests. Paul

John and David Matthias now at Gailey.

Ellesmere was built as the open boat Lisbon for LMS in 1930 by Yarwoods of Northwich. Station boats, as these boats are referred to, had lower sides than most other working boats. They were designed to take light goods to railway interchange basins on the BCN for transshipment to rail. Paul

The butty Ellesmere was out of the water at Oxford Cruisers, Eynsham for some years. I think it is probably still there! Paul

Well this is confusing. Isn’t the video of a different and wooden Jasmine? I presume “Humphreys”, you are from John Humphreys family (he was chairman of the IWA) and the boat’s owner. And where does Clevanda fit in? Always looked identical in pictures to the original Jasmine. Paul

That picture is of Harefield Wide, what is now the Marina. It was the overflow storage for Bulls Bridge and all/most of the boats were removed. The abandoned sunk/buried boats are in the inner lake, Hawtreys Pit, which was only temporarily linked to Harefield Wide. Unless the water level is low I understand that there is little to see but a thrash in the undergrowth may reveal some remains. There was a row of butty elums (rudders) viewable in the 70s/80s but I suspect nature will have reclaimed… Paul

From a discussion about the crane at Audlem: “Thirdly, and importantly, I discussed the crane with our good friend Harry Arnold MBE, only months before he died in 2018. Harry was probably the best known professional canal photographer and journalist in Britain, who had travelled round the country taking photos and writing press reports for nearly 60 years. He was adamant that the crane at Audlem was one of the three moved by British Waterways from canal/railway transhipment depots in the West Midlands. That would tie in with the fact that the crane is of LNWR origin. There was a significant number of these depots, roughly half of which were built by the LNWR. British Waterways's chief architect Peter White organised the crane moves. The other two cranes were 'planted' outside the then new "Longboat" pub at Cambrian Wharf in Birmingham, and at Diglis Basin in Worcester. Harry said that he was in Audlem about the time the crane was erected here; I suspect that's true, as he worked on some of the woodwork inside what is now The Shroppie Fly when it was being converted.” https://www.audlem.org/news/mystery-of-canal-crane.html

The boat is the FMC butty Grimsby, at one time Willow Wren’s Teal and since restored to working condition. Paul

Are you sure? Ariel is a 45ft boat and based on the middle of an old working boat and Tryphina was apparently 50ft. Paul

River class Fal

It’s 1959!

I went to see Fir in 1995 but it was too much money - £40K iirc. It had a very interesting set up with the engine offset to one side of the engine room using a carden shaft running under the bed hole and table cupboard to the prop. This meant that it was much easier to walk through the engine room and you had full headroom in the back cabin. I’m not sure if this is a unique installation or what power losses there might be but it seemed pretty neat to me.

Cut down Severner “Fir” https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/narrow-boats-traditional-for-sale/655585 Price seems a tad optimistic!

Thanks. Great photos and mementos. For the record, although Nelson was gauged for the BCN, it was not a BCN boat. It was originally “Blue Lias” in the Chas Nelson, a cement company on the GU fleet - passing to S E Barlow from whom Michael Streat bought it for use as a hotel boat. I don’t think Max’s Son’s second pic includes Nelson - more likely to be Mabel and Forgetnenot. Paul