David Schweizer

Deleted.

Pisces at the 1964 Stratford IWA Festival of Boats, moored alongside Joe Skinner's Friendship. Joe can be seen standing on the foredeck of Friendship in the B &W photo.

Yes, but usually on something not very important, and I aways double check before pressing the confirm button. Pressing the wrong digit, and not checking it could result in some sort of legal action being taken against the innocent "offender" Would you be happy if that happened to you?

The last year we visited the rally was 2022, and felt that it had lost direction, and reports of the two subsequent shows seem to mirror that impression. Admittedly our enthusiasm has waned somewhat, with us no longer having a boat, but along with the excessive car parking charge, it is unlikely that we shall attend in the future. Shame really because it used to be such a good rally.

We managed to create a much bigger queue of boats at Somerton back in 2007. Our boat was a tad over 7ft wide and we managed to get lodged between the bottom gate and the post on the opposite side of the lock, caused by a lot of deris on the cill not allowing the gate to return into it's recess. Unfortunately the long handled keb which was normally hung on the fence alongside the lock was missing, and our keb handle was not long enough to reach the cill. Someone had noticed some BW people working at the lift bridge and ran along the towpath to seek their help, they duly arrived with suitably long poles etc and after we had reversed out of the lock and got a cruiser stern boat to enter the lock enabling them to remove the debris and clear the cill. Apparently it was the third time that week that they had needed to clear the cill !! Fortunately everyome in the growing queue was good natured and sypathetic.

Almost certainly not Uxbridge lock. We moored Pisces immediately below Uxbridge lock on the offside during the 1960's/70's, so I know it well. Whilst the bridge in the photo is just below the bottom gate as at Uxbridge, it also gives the impression that there are two arches, one for the canal and one for the towpath. The towpath at Uxbridge does not pass under the bridge, but across the track at the end of the bridge, and photograhs in my collection show no indication of a blocked off second arch. Unless the bridge was substantially altered or rebuilt between the time that the photo was taken, and the 1960's, it is most unlikely that it is Uxbridge lock, there are other factors which support that suggestion, but they are minor detail differences rather than major structural variations.

The T stud on Butties was used in exactly the same way as described by RayT, except the "strain" was from the motor. Rose Whitlock used this method on Lucy, I am fairly certain that she was the last person to do so on a carrying working boat.

Maybe. I was one of them, our small Northwich was just round the corner in the lock!

Outside the Greyhound in 1968:-

What absolute rubbish. There are plenty of fit and alert people over the age of 62 being payed to work on construction sites, all well within the law.

Yes, that is where they moored Raymond

It may have changed in more recent years. I just know that I used to drive over to Hanam Lock every year to renew the canoe licences , but that was something like thirty years ago!!

Yes, I should have mentioned that the "New Cut" from Netham Lock which takes you through the floating Harbour is also normally Non Tidal. It is not part of the River Avon as such, but can be affected by spring tides when the river can have some tidal impact up to Keynsham lock. It may be worth consulting your insurers as to whether they consider the floating harbour and the Avon up to Keynsham Lock as tidal. There are actually two "huge locks" below Bristol either side of Cumberland which are only opened at high tide, allowing vessels downstream into the Tidal river or upstream into the Floating Harbour. In order to minimise disturbances to recently built residential accomodtation alongside the Floating Harbour, these openings usually only take place during daylight hours when the river level was high. I worked in the former Dock Labour Board building on the "island" above Cumberland basin between the new lock and Brunel lock for about ten years, and observed some interesting boats coming through, including many tall sailing ships. With reference to having to pay for moorings, it is perhaps useful to mention that the River Avon becomes the responsibility of the Bristol Harbour Authority below Hanham lock, and boats wishing to progress need to pay for short term licence, obtained from the Lock Keeper at Hanham Lock.

It is possibe to moor and turn at several places between Bradford on Avon and Bath, we used to turn a 72 ft trip- boat immedately after Avoncliffe aqueduct, and also after Dundas Aqueduct, there is also a signed winding hole about a mile downstram from Dundas. There is towpath mooring in may places along this stretch, the easiest being between Dundas and Sheepwash swing bridge, although you may have to compete with liveaboards. The river Avon does not actually become tidal until it reaches Netham Lock, which is well into Bristol, immediately below the junction with New Cut. If you wish to progress into Bath that would be fine, and there is plenty of width in Bath to turn, there are also chargeable moorings on the river in Bath by the Leisure Centre, but they have been closed for safety work, so you need to contact Bath and North East Somerset Council for the latest position. There are also canal moorings at Widcombe, but they are very popular, so finding a space can be an issue. If you do get a mooring there, it may be posssible to turn below the lock, or go down to the river and turn there.

That is Athur Bray on the former Samuel Barlows Butty Raymond, which was paired originally with Roger, and later Nutfield and worked for Blue Line of Braunston. They were one of the three pairs which carried coal to the Kearley and Tonge Jam factory in Southall. After the run finished in 1970 the Brays retired, and lived on Raymond moored on the towpath outside Braunston Marina. This photo clearly comes from the days after carrying finished. The Brays came past our mooring in Uxbridge every week in the 1960's, and we got to know them quite well.

They were ashing the gates the first time I came down the K&A in 1998

As a matter of interest who did you use for the work, or did you sort it yourself?

The best Marine Engineer in Braunston is Jonathon Hewitt, based in the pump house at Union Cananl Carriers below Bottom Lock.

The opening top gates were a pain especially when single handing, because they opened before I reached the other end of the lock. I ended up making two rope lines and carried them with two stakes and a mallet which were deployed to hold the gates in closed position, only removing them once the lock had started to fill. I moored over winter only a few miles from Bath near my home, and had to navigate the K&A every Spring and Autumn in order to access the main system. The lock gate issue was just one problem, there were also swing bridges that were impossible to open/close along with their offside landing stages, and the complete lack of lock holding moorings. I grew to dislike the K&A, and after a few years took a winter moring in the Midlands, and never returned to the K&A. When I started on the Grand Union in the 1960's, non boaters were required to purchase a towpath cycling licence, which I seem to recall cost five shillings. There was also a towpath walking licence which cost less, although I never met anyone who actually possessed either licence!

That is what I also recall, you were even required to close the top gates, empty the lock and leave the bottom gates open when going uphill. I was told by a retired BW worker who had worked at the former Lock Gate Workshops in Devizes that the reason was because the bottom lock gates were not very sturdy, and as the top gates had a habit of swinging open if the lock was full, there a was a risk of closed bottom gates collapsing under the weight of water coming downhill. The K&A was not very busy in the 1990's and you almost prayed for a boat coming in the opposite direction when locking uphill.

My observations of 1960's working boat practice is based almost exclusively on the Grand Union Canal, where it was normal practice to leave gates open when leaving a lock. The only exception I can recall was one lock on the Chiltern summit, where boats were expected to leave the lock empty if operating late evening because leaking lock walls caused the lock keepers cottage cellar to flood overnight. I cannot recall the name of the lock, but I believe that Alan Fincher's brother worked there in the early 1970's.

I was not suggesting that the owners of Historic boats should not abide by current accepted practice. I was just making an ironic observation.