DaisyJ

"Roger Hanbury did the archives the biggest dis-service possible by removing them from Gloucester and losing Caroline Jones who had rapidly gained superior knowledge of what they had." - why thank you Laurence, nice to know someone appreciated what I did in Gloucester!!

I have a hand cranked Jones and a Frister Rossman, look in junk shops or the biggest junk shop of them all ebay!

No problem with that Andy, being an archivist I understand copyright issues, anything I have posted feel free to make use of.

I researched Rentons history when I acquired it for the H&GCT. They have full copies of all the work I did at the Waterways Archive. As far as I remember, the conversion was done in 1943, the blade was cut off at the same time as the current cabin was added in 1978, the blade is stored in the front of the boat as ballast. The trust have no intention of unconvertings it, it is to be kept as a workboat.

Hi Laurence, glad to see you're still on form! Also glad that you know who is out of the picture. I'm still in touch with Linda and if she asks for help I am always gald to do what I can. CJ

I tried to start this when I was archivist as did other archivists before me, the figures we worked out were a lot higher than this, but we were qualified proffessional archivists wanting to be doing the job 'properly' to current standards. Some of the collection is digitised, the thousand or so images I digitised are there electronically and the Arthur Watts images are also more usefully described as I did them not a member of staff with no waterway knowledge. Perhaps they should have kept me on??

Well done

Thank you Richard, Alan if you look at the H&G website they should have the whole history of Renton as researched by myself using original documents in the Waterways Archive as I was then archivist there! Renton was a town class, converted to an icebreaker by Ministry of War Transport and kept by BW as a maintenance vessel until we took it over, now we use it as a maintenance vessel! I would imagine the person responsible for maintaining the boats at Gloucester will be the overall museums bod, sorry don't know her name, and she's probably based at Ellesmere Port. When I left in December 2011 I was also acting curator at Gloucester and neither of my roles, ie archivist or acting curator has to my knowledge been replaced! Before I left I did put costings together for the upgrade of all the boats to a decent standard, this was I understand for a future lottery bid, possibly the one they've just got. If the current bid is to include the musuem looking at more local stuff then it will include the Severner 'Oak'.

Renton, along with Alder and Bosley have been in the care of HGCT since I negotiated their transfer from BW and in the case of Alder and Renton collected them. On collection by lorry from Devizes, Alder was put on the bank at Over and welded up by my husband before going back in the water. Renton my family and I motored to Gloucester from Marsworth, it was in a not too bad condition with a leaking cabin but we got it to Gloucester where the musuem allowed is to moor it until we could get it into the basin at Over. The paint job is Trust colours and is all done by our volunteer boat team who have made the boats watertight and safe and will this year be refurbishing the cabins.

I've heard that Zander are tasty and are considered a pest on the Gloucester and Sharpness where I believe you are not allowed to put them back?

Hyia, I'm a dressmaker, I can make costumes including bonnets, also crochet, patchwork and rag rugging. I do sell, but I sell a dressmaking, alterations and repair service as well as teaching dressmaking, patchwork and rag-rugging locally in the Forest of Dean. Always interested to hear what others are up to. I'm also a member of the Waterways Craft Guild, we can always do with more members especially in the boating community, to pass the word about traditional techniques and practices.

Either way CRT have the knowledge re who is responsible for what. The Waterways Archive (owned and managed by CRT/TWT)holds a full copy of the 1963-66 Comprehensive Engineering Survey which gives full details for all structures including bridges and says who held responsibility then and more than likely does so now.

From memory that image is in the Waterways Archive collection, I think it is Hasty and it was on maintenance by then.

We're moored at Tewkesbury and use the Avon Navigation Trust websites 'River Watch' pages at http://www.avonnavigationtrust.org/

If you ask the Waterways Archive, now at Ellesmere Port they had a document which gives the correct RAL code for both the blue and the yellow.