Hastings
-
Posts
286 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Blogs
Store
Posts posted by Hastings
-
-
Lots of photos of canal cuttings and embankments up to the late 1960s (i.e. during the period they were used commercially) show few trees, and railways were the same. Maintenance staff got rid of them when they grew. With canals, the emphasis was probably on avoiding slippages like we see in Easenhall Cutting. With railways, there was of course another concern - avoing steam locomotives setting fire to bushes and trees. I remember Woodseaves Cutting on the Shroppie (possibly the longest deepest canal cutting) being virtually bare in the 1960s. Now it's full of trees - may be pretty, but probably not a good thing!
-
9 hours ago, agg221 said:
There is a cash machine at the Co-op so it shouldn't be too much of a problem for sales. The excellent Indian (and everything else!) take-away also prefers cash so it is handy for that too.
Alec
But the "everything else" takeaway does take cards. And, as a shop owner in Audlem, I know that around 90% of our sales value now comes from cards.
-
4 hours ago, jam said:
A little bit of misinformation there. The pub is actually owned by the Stonegate Pub Group who are the largest pub group in the UK with around 4,500 pubs. The current (new) leaseholder is the Nomad Wine Company whose registered office is in Stoke on Trent. They also run a hospitality business and also own No.63 Cafe & Wine Bar alongside the canal in Market Drayton.
Don't forget the pub has a manager as well and I would presume he would live in.
He does live in the flat.
-
On 04/01/2024 at 16:17, Cheshire cat said:
The owner of the Audlem chippy died suddenly last summer. No idea what the current situation is.
The licencees of the Combermere moved on to face new challenges. Their replacements would have been facing a massive task to match their predecessors and satisfy the pub group owners. According to the locals the licencees were lacking in interpersonal skills and the plub closed again fairly quickly. The current licencees have only been going since November 2023.
Interestingly the pub is owned by the Nomad pub company (based in Torquay) and their accounts are overdue at HMRC.
Paul, the brother of the previous owner (George) who died getting on two years ago, took over the Village Chippy. Still excellent, though if you go, note that cards are not accepted - cash only. (Surely, they must be missing out on sales?)
-
The stairs up to the apartment are in one corner of the lounge area. They led originally to a restaurant area upstairs, close 20 or 30 years ago.
-
2 hours ago, Pluto said:
Not originally, with canal company owned fleets developing to combat railway competition from around 1840.
True, but on the Shroppie it developed to the stage by the last quarter of the 19th century that most boats were 'company boats'. SURCCo is believed to have operated several hundred boats - in numbers of boats terms, it was probably bigger than GUCCCo and FMC ever were.
-
23 hours ago, Pluto said:
I have just come across this, suggesting the protection was added after construction, in the Engineer's reports for the Lancaster Canal:
William Crosley reporting to the Lancaster Canal committee in 1819… I am having cast iron guards made for the abutments of the bridges on the towing path side, these I trust will answer the purposes intended better than rollers and will not I think be more expensive.
This ties in with my suggestion that Shroppie bridge guards were not installed at building, but were (in modern parlance) a retro-fit feature. Until the canal had been used for a while, one wouldn't know exactly what was needed, or where.
-
The outfits might date the photo around the 1920s. I don't know now, but there is/was an alleyway from the main road that crosses the bridge down to the river here, so the wood might have gone up it? But wasn't there a timber wharf here before the houses were built? I was brougth up in Marlow in the 50s, and it was houses then. Incidentally, the towpath stops here by the bridge, and restarts below the lock, about 1/4 mile away. Horses were led along Seven Cornered Alley (its name well describes it!) to Mill Lane, where they could meet the boat at Marlow Lock. The boat would be poled along this stretch - hairy past the long weir when the river was in flood.
-
1
-
-
There's been some comment that there are grooves quite low down on the cast iron bridge guards. One reason will be that fly-boats, the primary (and extremely prolific) traffic till 1921, were drawn in the main by smaller horses than were often used elsewhere. This is because of the height/profile of the Shroppie bridges; a normal height horse just won't fit. The boatmen called them half-legged horses, as you can see in Jack Roberts excellent book "Shropshire Union Fly-Boats". He was a fly-boat captain before the first world war. The very recent recreation of fly-boating with Saturn uses a wonderful small horse, Flower. I suspect that the operators knew to do this.
I've boated up and down the Shroppie on and off for nearly 60 years, and I've never seen or heard of replacement bridge guards. I'm convinced they are original, though I think it was David Mack who made the point earlier, they were probably installed when stonework started suffering, probably later in the 19th century, rather than when the canal opened in 1835.
-
2
-
-
2 hours ago, Goliath said:
That’s bad news
Ive been enjoying watching the boats make their way towards you.
And Saturn was pulled past by horse here too.
So Saturn won’t make it this year?Hi Glenn. Saturn won't make it to the Gathering at Audlem. But wait a moment - it's a fly-boat. Maybe it can fly down the flight and land in the Town Pound....
-
The poor state of the top gate heel post at lock 7 at Audlem means the flight of 15 is closed - two days before the Gathering of Historic Boats. Up to half the entries would have come this way. But it will still go ahead, even if with fewer boats.
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:
The notice does explicitly say
"The charge will be levied on event applications received from 1 June 2023."
So the trigger point is apparently the date when the application is received, not the date when the event takes place. So on a literal reading of the notice, you should be able to book events for any time in the future and would not have to pay the charge, as long as you get your applications in before 1st June.
Sorry, not true. The email I (and no doubt mny others) received from the Events Team announcing the charges says "Please note we are not accepting applications for events taking place in 2024 until after 1 June 2023." It doesn't say you can't apply for events from 2025 onward, but I think I can anticipate what the reply might be!
-
2 minutes ago, Rob-M said:
CRT have attended Audlem for many years with the pair Scorpio and Leo operated by the Heritage Working Boats group of volunteers although given the distance to travel we've not been to the last couple.
And a well-known Chief Exec usually attends every year, so CRT certainly know about the event!
-
Jen-in-Wellies and MtB both have admirable ideas, but I still have a feeling that CRT might notice 30 historic boats that have coincidentally arrived at the same time, and not be best pleased if we haven't filled in forms and paid!
-
We at Audlem Mill organise the Gathering of Historic Boats at Audlem every July, which attracts lots of visitors to the canal (Education, history etc.). It has alway been a strictly non-commercial event, with no income whatsoever (and there's nowhere to put stalls anyway). We pay nominal costs ourselves - signage, leaflet etc. - but the new CRT rules mean we'll have to pay around £225 to £300+ on top. Looks like that could be the end of an event that started in 2009.
-
1
-
-
The Lord Combermere at Audlem closed a couple of days ago, having reopened a few months before. But it did not attract many customers for quite a while. On the contrary, the Shroppie Fly is getting very busy, and tables are often fully booked (and there's no boats yet). Friendly staff, good food, clean, comfortable - and warm. Opens at 10.30 daily for morning coffee etc. Muddy dogs (and muddy owners) welcome.
-
1
-
-
10 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:
My (very faded) memory is also that the team at Brinklow Boat Services, (so including Steve Priest) were responsible for saving her at the last moment, but I never knew any details. I don't think she is at their yard on the Stretton arm, (they are usually pretty strapped for space there).
I'd suggest contacting Steve, Simon or DaveThanks, Alan, I'll contact them
Peter
-
Some distance away, I know, but I lived in Marlow, Bucks, on the Thames till the early 1960s, and there were various small streams running into the river that were navigable for quite some distance, leading to posh houses with boathouses. In fact, the Abbotsbrook estate in Bourne End even had a skiff lock on it. See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Repair_work_on_the_smallest_lock_-_Abbotsbrook_Estate_-_geograph.org.uk_-_302159.jpg and https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322976811390 (which incorrectly says Bourne End, Herts instead of Bucks,)
-
1
-
-
21 minutes ago, matty40s said:
No, it was Steve Priest, so it's probably near Napton/Stockton on hard standing.
Thanks for the information, Peter
-
Does anybody know the current status of GU 'Town' class BELMONT? I'm about to publish a book of colour photos taken all round the canal system in the 1950s-1970s. One photo, taken in 1965, shows STANTON and BELMONT breasted up just having worked up through Lot Mead Lock at Rickmansworth. They are painted in Blue Line livery, having recently been acquired by them. I know that STANTON is still around, and regularly attends events - but what is the current position for BELMONT? I saw it when it was a static exhibit many years ago at the now closed Snibston Discovery Park in Leicestershire, and it was in a very sorry state then. Did it survive, and, if so, what's the latest? I'd like to put a brief comment in the caption to the picture.
-
Bookings are being taken for this gathering re former working narrow boats built up to 1962. Further information at http://www.audlemmill.co.uk/audlem-mill-gathering-of-historic boats.html ; contact Peter on 01270 811059 or email info@audlemmill.co.uk
-
On 06/01/2023 at 13:22, mark99 said:
Thanks bucc. I tried both Waterstones and the Canal Bookshop Audlem. Both out of stock.
Not just out of stock - the sole distributor has sold out of all stock, so instead read "out of print". Peter, CanalBookShop, Audlem Mill
-
13 hours ago, MtB said:
Besides it used to have the back end of a butty for the bar
Still there, unaltered.
Also, contrary to poular opinion, there isn't really a quick succession of landlords at the Shroppie Fly. In the last 9 years, since in was renovated in late 2013, two have been there for 3-4 years each. Admittedly there have been two or three short-term temporary people, and a six month period of closure. But it's not as bad as suggested!
-
7 hours ago, Goliath said:
I expect you’ll be gone by the time I’m over that way again.
so I’ll take the opportunity here to say Good luck and best wishes 👍
I only seem to get as far up the Shropshire as the Anchor now 😃
Thanks, Glenn, for your good wishes, and all the best to you for the future. I perhaps understand why you don't seem to get further north on the Shroppie than the Anchor, but you really ought to try to get to the Shroppie Fly now, which now has all the makings of being a very good canal pub now! Peter
Land Slip - Easenhall Cutting, Brinklow, Oxford Canal
in Stoppages
Posted
In general, copyright in photographs normally ends 70 years after the death of the photographer, so a 1910 image could well still be in copyright. Let's assume the photographer was born in 1885 (so the photo was taken at age 25), and lived to 90, dying in 1975. The photo will be in copyright till 2045. Indeed, it's possible, though extremely unlikely, that an 1890 photo might just still be in copyright.
I agree with the point about museums etc. who have copies of photos. Buying a collection of photos, even if curated and from a good source, doesn't automatically give you ownership of the copyright. That only comes if it was transferred in writing by the copyright owner.
As a canal book publisher, I'm always conscious of these issues!