Paul H

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

She may have been visiting but I believe she is now based on the River Weaver. Hardy is at Banbury awaiting restoration, Fornax is at Barnton on the T&M and Dane (the Clayton) one was for sale and is need of work. The others are long since gone but the ironwork for William and Victoria are supposed to be at Puttenham. Paul

Nancy became a houseboat at Battlebridge Basin in the 1970s but I believe after its sale in the 1980s sank in deep water in Regents Canal Dock (Limehouse Basin) and being by then very rotten was broken up. The former owner now has the Swan. Paul PS from memory the first boats to occupy the Battlebridge moorings included the wooden Formalhaut, Bangor, Dane, Sweden, William, Nancy, Hardy, Fornax, Antares and Victoria of which less than half now survive! I had the William.

I think she left last year. Current incumbent appears to be a Dr Becky Peacock. The museum is of course temporarily closed and although the staff are working from home you may find decision making slower than usual! 😀 Good luck. Paul

Capricorn is my boat so I naturally take an interest in its history. Subsequent research suggests it was actually sold off by BWB in 1961/2 and reduced to 49ft at Charity Dock to form a pleasure boat. In 2015 I had it stretched to 57ft 6ins at Brinklow Boats using some of the original sides which had been stored at Bedworth and later at Long Itchington for over 50 years! Paul Edited just now by Paul H

Oops wrong thread!

The photo is by John Liley and appears in his book Journeys of the Swan Paul

I always knew it as Trakmark but they seem to only do “plank effect” deck coverings nowadays and Treadmaster seems to be similar to the covering I remember. However I think the BW hire cruiser conversions predate this product and they used either fibreglass or canvas. Somewhere I’ve seen a very detailed spec of the cabin work for these boats. I can’t remember where but feel sure the source was found in the Ellesmere Port archives. You might want to contact Cheshire-rose on this forum who has done some research into these boats and obtain a copy of Waterways Journal Vol 20 (avail

Yes I think it is the Roama/Roamer/ Tug No 1 built by Yarwoods in timber in 1938/39 with a Russell Newberry It survived until fairly recently but Now seems to have disappeared although there are confusingly two steel replicas which often get mistaken for it. Paul The above pics show the original tug, the first not long after it was built and the second in preservation in the 80s or 90s when visiting Ellesmere Port.

( Indeed - owned by an employee of Brinklow Boat Services who is restoring it in his spare time. The “floating classroom” boat is the Tucana. Taygeta AKA Severn Dolphin was on hire from BW to a iirc a David Thompson and was used in the coal trade later returning to maintenance in the NW. Paul

Matched Pair? Only if the other boat is the “Swan” - which it isn’t. 😀

It’s called Conway - looked quite smart when owned by surveyor Ed Boden a few years back. https://hnbc.org.uk/boats/conway Paul