Yes, we did own 1511.
We bought it from the Birmingham Salvage Department in July 1965. I still have the receipt. We had £100 wedding present from one set of parents and £20 from the other, we had £5 of our own. We tendered £121 but for number 1511 only. We had been and looked at the whole fleet, which was being sold by Birmingham Council, and 1511 was the only one without sore knees. When we picked it up, it still had quite a lot of Birmingham Salvage in the hold, so that was the first job to clean it!!!
We brought it down south with a 2hp seagull on the rudder, and nothing but a bicycle lamp to get us through both tunnels. I remember it took a whole day to get through Framers Bridge by the time we got all the detritus out of the locks so that we could get through.
The intention had been to take it down to Kensal Green, but when we moored overnight in Berkhamsted, Charlie and Madge who were the land lords of the Crystal Palace, were so warm and lovely to us we never moved on. Locals kept us going, dropping food into the bow cockpit from the local allotments, our neighbours helped with the conversion.
We started by living in the day cabin on the boat, which was tiny, but it had a dead mans stove to keep us warm. Rosie Bray even made us bacon rolly polies (one of her specialties – she even invited me into her cabin to show me how she did it!). Bill Whitlock painted roses for us in the cabin; we still have the cabin stool and buckby can he did for us. Some day I will write up the six years living on 1511, and the passion that led us to starting Bridgewater Boats in 1971. Building and running the fleet, which started with just one boat, was very hard work, often 17 hours a day, always 7 days a week, but never regretted and still a great memory.
Lindy