black cap

Gordon Bennet this has created some chat, WHY NOT just ask Vince or Rob, out of interest, Vince's wife Cheryl is English, borne I believe on the IOW.

Lorry tipping is , S.Jones Ltd., of Aldridge, looks like a Leyland Octopus, drop sides were fitted to return load London Bricks, a lot of scrap was also return loaded, this was the thin end of the wedge for boats afterthe M1 opened, another interesting point, what happened to the 2 or 3 open wooden boats that lay under the sheds in the early Sixties, they were very nice little boats

The last traffic on this branch was D/S nuts for the boiler at the Oriental Tube Works, Joe Palin, single motor for Leonard Leigh Ltd.

I have to confess age must be fogging my mind, I honestly did not recall the yellow paint, I do remember tadging out a foot of concrete to put in the new bottom at Humby;s yard, the old Wells wharf opposite Wulfruna Coal, and putting in the JP3 and new cabin, a good few ton went down the Soar that was;nt recorded or paid, you could struggle to get off when loaded, she often dropped another 3 inches when you slid off, just a thought, I hope the person that nicked all my tools from the engine room made good use of them

Dunno about Willow Wren style, more like BCN tidy it up and get it to work style

green red & white

For someone who was largely responsible foe laurence's introduction to the world of canals, I am utterly amazed that the many people who knew, including his ex. wife, members of the BCNS and god knows who, no one had the decency to let me know, modern world eh !, R.I.P Laurence, think on when you are counting your friends, RIP Alan Brown as well, last met him at Ricky lock in the laste 60's

That National is not in the standard GU format, with a Brunton gearbox, looks like the gearbox is on the flywheel end, possibly ex road roller or gen set, the set of the boat , the counter and patches look typical Harris Bros, and Hingley's were only a bridge or so past Bumble hole, I often wonder what happened to the railway boat I fetched out of Netherton basin and got Harris to put a counter on, I asked for a round counter, but they put on a more or less square one with a slight curve, I sold this without any further work, it was collected from the old "hospital" length at the Grove, cannot remember to whom I sold it, never knew Joan the second had a National, I think she had a Fordson petrol parafin for a while, but may have ended up with a 3 cyl. Bolinder, incidentally, I did know the lady who she was named after

J&S Tonks were coal merchants in West Bromwich, one main customer was Accles & Pollocks tube works, Oldbury, I seem to recall W Cresswell did the steerage, no idea if there is any connection

Not sure on Starling, but I will check later today, Icarus is still there, with regard to Heather Bell, my father used to meet her occasionally on the SU, when he wad on the coal run to Knighton and also loading at Anglesea and Walsall Wood, , circa 1940/43, also Charlie Ballinger and his 2 mules, among the stories he told to me as I was growing up, as it happens I was not a big enough target for Hitler, or just lucky may be

Hi, Now live at Gedney Drove End, Nr. Sutton Bridge, used to be at Worlds End Farm, Silt Rd., Nordelph, 2 things you might know about, that little boat "Icaurus" intrigues me, also one further along at Outwell, that hales from Shardlow and has not moved in the last Seven years !, whilst I was at Nordelph the "Heather Bell" was sold to someone in the South, have not heard of it since, she was high and dry next to Doubledays farm, Outwell at the time

Good to hear she is still Ok., I have not set eyes on it since it left Lane Head, she replaced Monarch, which I purchased from Roland & Tom, Pat which was in use for a short while as well, but was too deep, plus the 30hp Bolinder was a pig to start, the remains of her are still at Lane Head in the reeds, she came off Mallabeare & Prince, who went bust piling the Trent & Mersey at Alrewas, she was a shortend up Severner, Two old lock gate balance beams were bolted in to combat vibration, but the bilge pump still had to be on all day !, anybody know if the Severner motor which served as a landing stage at Stourport, and was subsequently purchased by Leonard Leigh and had the top of the stem post cut off at Joe Worsey's to enable her to pass under the Cobbles belt at the Grove colliery, I cannot remember the name of this boat, Leonard Leigh sold it to a guy named Geof Heritage, from Shortheath ???

Christopher James is named after Christopher James Rosser, grandson of the founder, when Roland Wood used it on the Weldless Tube contract, fitted a new set of piston rings to the Armstrong, it spent a lot of its time on the Wolverhampton Power station job.

When I purchased Bilster, 1963, lying at Hatton yard ,no engine, I fitted a National, she never had a PD2 fitted by BW, this was One of Six Nationals, I purchased from Bulls Bridge, together with 3 gear boxes, one National ended up in Towy, dropped in at Sherbourne Street, One I dropped in Hampstead at Bulbourne, Andy Rothern had one, the rest were used for spares, including a set of mounting feet "sold" to Narrow Boat Trust, for Alton, memories ??, there you go boys, to put icing on the cake, I offered a complete working 15hp Bolinder to a well know canal man, sadly no longer with us for £15.00, yes £15.00 ! my offer was declined (he had Two working at the time), hind sight is a wonderful thing, if I still had it it would be my retirement fund, ah well, we live in a different world.....

What an interesting forum item, supprisingly I didn't notice it on here before the E bay advert, I was seriously going to go for it, glue eh. ! mmm, is it still on the market ?, with an honest survey, I would think, not that important if you know what you are looking at, a useful bit of kit

Fred Gibbs had Shad, with Aberystwith for a while until she started to leak, Fred a good old Wednesfield lad who worked for Roland Wood before going cabin boating, sad old pictures, memories of days gone, look at it now and what we have got........................... even sadder

They are not towing from the mast,rather from a steel peg in the butty hatches, using running blocks, as you would for example when "long lining", standing in that position allows the butty steerer to slip the line and thus control the snatch, preventing breakage and allow a marginal increase in "get away", to some it was a prefered method to a long snubber as long as the butty was not dragging the bottom

Fair play on the Grove Springy, the pitch roof high level belt was put in by the NCB to fill the two road hoppers, the D/S being alongside the basin and the Pea hopper at 90 degrees accessed via a water level bridge over the second basin next to the fitters stores. There is a chance the picture pre dates the building of the washery, incidently the grove was the first road loading hoppers on the Chase as far as I can remember, Hilton Main had hopper loading for slack only, Mid Cannock and Littleton much later, otherwise it was a shovel job unless the rail was on strike, then they allowed you to back under the screens, back to boats, I am not sure what Conduit boat loading arrangements were, still looking for further old photo's

I could be wide of the mark, but the first picture has a chance of being the Grove, the last picture is from the sixties, the others being much earlier, the tug alongside the two boats of D/S nuts in the last picture is probably Christopher James, boats being loaded for Weldless Steel Tube Wednesfield, The loaded wooden motor could well be Silver Jubilee and the boat alongside {both loaded with washed peas) possibly destined for Bellis & Morcomb, the wooden tug behind may well be Judith Anne. Notice the rake back on the stem of what appears to be a motorised butty, not all history was recorded, no idea why it would be at Anglesea, but it might be a Simpson Davies ??, the motor loading slack under the screens might even be Princess Anne for GEC, she was shortened and lengthened at various times, one thing is sure there is a good few years between the photographs, the steel tug could well be Helen, number of possibilities, but if she was taking the boat alongside, that is loaded with bakers nuts, which would go to a coal merchant, by the way, do not place complete reliance on BCN numbers, they did wander about a bit!

looks a bit different to the last time I saw it emptying at G.E.C, i assume it is advertised or the owner is contactable

Another good man down, condolences to his family, just found out on one of my infrequent visits to the site, thought someone might have told me..........

Pure guess, From the angle, but it could be Bilster and Angel, pig of a job shovelling down the chute from the rail truck, it was dust rather than slack, if it is what I think George Harris loaded same day, we shared the loading, leastways me and Janet with George supervising and helping with his hand !, promptly to be told by Doris at Suttons we had to go none stop, because Colne Valley was almost out of fuel, happy days.......

Crosses my mind Laurence, how did Mr. Baker get his Hampton boats to Lucknow, or were they for his relative at Bradeley

Both Severners I reckon, regarding the small dock Laurence mentions, to my knowledge this was run by Tom Pearsall, until recently there was an old workbench at my old house at Pelsall Stop, made from boat bottoms off this dock, Mr. Pearsall's main activitywas breaking worn out boats