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Paul H

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Everything posted by Paul H

  1. Renown. Looks quite a bargain! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165801062729?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=7GMDuMqhSGy&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Hhd93x6ORG2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
  2. I believe 6 of these boats were supplied to BW in the early 70s by Isaac Pimblott of Northwich. Paul
  3. Parry 2 had already deteriorated considerably before Hugh “gifted” it to the Boat Museum and it looks like the engine had already been removed. Although the Boat Museum is deservedly criticised, several wooden boats ended up there because their owners could no longer cope with them and there was no magic money pot to rescue them. Picture taken at the stink’ole at Harefield late ‘70s. Paul
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. The butty Ellesmere was out of the water at Oxford Cruisers, Eynsham for some years. I think it is probably still there! Paul
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. The boat is the FMC butty Grimsby, at one time Willow Wren’s Teal and since restored to working condition. Paul
  12. Are you sure? Ariel is a 45ft boat and based on the middle of an old working boat and Tryphina was apparently 50ft. Paul
  13. 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.
  14. Cut down Severner “Fir” https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/narrow-boats-traditional-for-sale/655585 Price seems a tad optimistic!
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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.
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. The photo is by John Liley and appears in his book Journeys of the Swan Paul
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