Dav and Pen

Solid bulkhead on our boats. When the first safety certificates were required for hire boats and houseboats I was a bit concerned about this because the camping boat steerer slept in the back cabin. Strangely enough the surveyor was not bothered about the lack of another access as the person sleeping in the cabin was crew not passengers. If the was a door or hatch the gear rod and the engine beds would have made it difficult to use.

We went on Vic 32 with a group from the Ashby Canal Society some years ago. Stayed one night before joining the ship in theCrinan hotel and it turned out to be the Queen mothers birthday so the owner cafe us all pink champagne. It’s a great canal as is the trip on Vic especially if you can charter it as a group.

It was never the practice to black the underside of the working boats and we never even thought about it. We did try and keep the inside of the bottom red oxided as thought the rainwater would cause corrosion from the inside. The original bottom plates of the Town class were of 3/8th inch shipbuilding steel and in the case of Tadworth lasted nearly 40 years since then she has had 3 new bottoms so something has changed. Our Dutch barge was built in 1917 and it was claimed that steel produced before 1920 was of higher quality before all the scrap steel from the First World War was available. The hull was 5.5mm steel and a lot of it was still above 4mm in 2001 but it had some overplating on the bilges and pitting on the waterline having been unused for some years in the brackish waters of Amsterdam harbour. It is certainly the general practice to black the bottom of all the barges on the continent and they were always high enough when in dock for someone to get underneath. This was one job I was pleased to pay somebody to do.

The way the plaster has been renewed makes me wonder if there’s been a flood in the house.

I knew an old boatman who had an AS2. Whenever he went in the engine hole to use the bucket he’d say just going to see Sidney. Never measured our Town class Grand Unions but only lock ever was at Barrow on the Soar and this was a few inches short and you needed to single out and get the bow across before you could open the bottom gate. The main thing to check is how straight it is and many narrow locks have slight bulges.

Real mixture then. I knew I had seen the one of the Tunnel entrance but memory is shot. Went there with the late Graham Palmer of WRG about 45 years ago and we looked at the Thames and Severn as WRG had been offered a hull which was laying on the bank somewhere around Stroud. Afraid the boat was beyond economic repair.

It’s a Facebook group called Peniche.

Can’t sort out a link think it’s a problem with the iPad not having a clipboard. Some more photos

That’s clever I didn’t know about that possibility. It certainly looks like the old Erie Canal. Will try but I haven’t had much luck before.

There are 32 photos posted with these and they are all titled as being in Angleterre. It doesn’t really matter but I would have liked to have been able to post a response. I did think that they were mixed up as some are narrow and others wide. Thanks for your comments.

These photos are from a French waterway site. They mention Clipstone mine in Notts but that is someway from any canal or the Trent. I am totally out of touch with the restoration scene but it looks like some preservation work is going on. Thanks

When we had our NB in Ireland it was suggested we put newspaper over the carpets to help nullify the effects of the more humid climate there when we left it for the winter. With our barge in Burgundy, where it is not unusual to have temps of -15 I ran the water down to below half turned off the feed at the tank and ran the pump with all taps open until air came out. Drained the gas water heaters and left the drain plugs out, put anti freeze down the sinks and toilet and drained the mud box. When arriving back in the spring turn on valve at the tank replace drain plugs in heater and then start pump until water came out of taps whilst checking for any leaks from joints.

Strictly speaking the Name was Crittal Hope from Essex. They became well known after WW2 because wood was in short supply and the windows were fitted in nearly every new house. They were really terrible and in the new house we moved to in 1949 the condensation upstairs was tremendous and in winter there was ice inside. They were also dangerous and my younger brother managed to run into the corner of an open one whilst playing outside. Cut his head open and spent night in hospital, as it happened I was in there with a broken elbow and had been kept in. The sister came and said we’ve got your brother downstairs!

The Banbury stick was needed because the balance beams are on the off side and you couldn’t get back on the boat from that side once the bridge was up. On the Nivernais canal in France they have electrified the lift bridges and they have managed to put a control on both sides and in effect walkers are very happy to press the button when they see boats coming.

Or cul de sac.

Bikes certainly get stolen in France and Belgium. In fact it’s the most common thing taken off boats. I had an old upright bike which had no gears and a back pedal brake. It cost the sum of 12.50 euros. Over the years it carried gas bottles and loads of shopping and never went missing even though I wasn’t bothered and I left it at railway stations all over France when I went to get the car and it was always there until one day I got back to the station to see the local scrap man loading it up so that decided it. Brought a nice folding bike with gears and took it on the train with me.

This station recently featured on an episode of Architecture the railways built on the yesterday channel.

Those are the nice new mules. Young first timers were given carrots to feed the mules when going through the Panama. Always good for a chuckle.

Would have had even more fun trying to back out a loaded boat could have taken all day. Seriously the old Thames conservancy men were with the odd exception great people and we had a very good relationship with them but occasionally it was good to wind one up but only if they weren’t customers. Life can’t be all serious.