Ruston

I think it's pretty odd kids growing up locked in their bedrooms and not out playing, entertaining themselves, making dens etc!! My friends loved it, and regularly came over to stay, plus the lads at school who fished along our stretch got well looked after by my mum! Only challenge was toileting and washing, but they got over it eventually (or went to the pub!). One of the kids from the village who grew up in a family of 16+ was always on the bank from 5am at the weekend. My school PE teachers used to hire a camper boat from Braunston to Welford during activities week, with half kids walking / driving then switching, which helped to increase awareness. Another tea-break at our boats on the way past. In fact, such is the nature of boats and taking dogs for a walk, people were always dropping in!! A Radio1 DJ lived in the area and her parents / sister / daughter used to drop in frequently. Doubt I would have learned to speak and interact with people from across all ages, and just saying hello to strangers. Boat people were always keen to tell their stories and advice. I also learned how to make pocket money, 50p kindling, canoeing to retrieve fishing floats to flog back, cakes during the summer at Top Lock, fishing for windlasses and usually had a few bits / pieces for sale - lace plates, books etc. That doesn't happen in your regular street. I don't recall many children on the cut in the late 80s and 90s. - Andrew Kendall (Poacher) - a well known NME photographer and lecturer in London. Strange that as a hobbyist I've also had athletics photos published too - BBC, National Papers, Magazines etc!! We both got our only taste of electronics Nintendo Game Boys the same Xmas in Braunston! - Terry Clapham (cover maker at Weedon) - his boys went to Campion school, Bugbrooke. Think they had a river-class butty? - Russell Mundy (parents moored at Welton) - 2 or 3 years older he went to Guilsborough with me, walked past our boats on way to bus-stop at New Inn on A5.

Many thanks for the photos - the first time I have seen these. I grew up on Lyra with my sister Charity. My parents bought Freedom No4 from Terry Walden at Tring around 1988, downsizing from a large victorian house in Wolverton. I was 7yrs then and first thing I learnt was painting at one of the festivals (with Ron Hough?), before doing the pans and scumbling the back-cabin where I lived. Freedom had a Ruston engine from a crane, with a huge radiator. We travelled around a lot in those first years - the canals were still quiet and in some places shallow! We commuted to school for the last couple of weeks of term, before settling in Buzzard for a year where we first met 'Poacher' - Andrew was the same age as me. Charity went to ballet at Woollards at Old Wolverton, and fairly sure the husband of the elderly teacher ran the boatyard there. This was around the same time the card factory was pulled down and Tesco built in its place. After travelling around and my dad getting work in Northants, we moved to Buckby Top Lock next to Shirley Ginger. We went to junior school in Long Buckby and then 45min bus ride to secondary school in Guilsborough (even though Daventry was closer - they didn't offer transport). Needing space to do homework, and my parents wanting some privacy, they bought Lyra for us from Warwickshire Fly where she had recently been rebottomed. Charity was 10yrs and me 11yrs old then. Once again I had the back cabin, there was a kitchen / curtained bathroom / cast iron bath (totally inpractical) and my sister lived under the boarded covers. So it was strip washes and toilet in a bucket. We moved round the corner onto the newly dredged and piled Leicester Arm, next to the Toll Cottage my mum looked after. It had been converted from Mr Fielding's Salvation Army to a holiday cottage (now privately owned). 'Minnow' the little boat was reconditioned, but then disappeared. Jo and Nigel moored behind us soon after on their working boats. Understand they're now in Cropedy. Every Sunday morning I would get up early and accompany Tony Donnelly (lockkeeper) down the flight, checking the backpumps and then helping the holiday boaters through the sticky locks. I quickly became accustomed to the talk, different boats and engine sounds. My first job was at Thrupp Grounds on the farm, gardening and odd jobs, before a couple of summers at New Inn in the kitchen. I also cleaned the boats at Welton each Friday evening. Through 6th form onward I worked at Althorp House for Earl Spencer, and Charity joining me a year later. The manager had seen my application a year before, and seemed interested in our upbringing. I was pulled back for functions and events until a couple of years ago. Was always into running and well known for popping up miles away. My Sunday run from around 14yr old was over to Braunston, Daventry (past resevoir), Norton, Whilton and back up the locks. I then extended this by going out to Welton Hythe, across the fields / roads to Braunston. Also had some good loops across to Buckby. I just had to remember the towpaths, particularly the stretch to Braunston when it was getting dark after school! I loved my time on the boats despite being remote. It seems everybody knew us as the boat family, but I rarely noticed. It was only when we changed schools that it was assumed we were uneducated and placed in bottom classes. Otherwise being sporty, fit and strong probably helped mix in. Charity was very quiet. I was the first person in the family to go to University - Loughborough and then Coventry - that was luxury having running hot water! Oddly in 2nd and 3rd years I shared a room with a top GB athlete (now Olympian), among a flat of internationals. On the way to a World Cross Country all of my mates called into the boats to see where I grew up! From 2005 I have worked in athletics and this year coached my first Paralympian. My dad moved out and left my mum with the boats for a year or two. Charity had gone to University at this point too. So in 2002 we had to sell-up as it was difficult for my mum to keep the boats in order whilst working nights. Our neighbours were a great help and I forget how strong my mum was changing the gas bottles and moving around coal. Charity and I were supposed to have a boat each after Uni, but that didn't happen... I hope somebody helps Lyra back to her old self.