John Brightley

Photos from Waterways World's Facebook page below. I see what you mean Dave -a labour of love for you. Well done !

I know the Arbury Canals quite well (I wrote an article about them for Waterways World in the '80's). They're unusual in that they are completely within the Newdigate family's private estate, financed only by them and solely for their use. They served several purposes -they were (and still are) partly a decorative folly as suggested above. We would also perhaps call them a status symbol these days as they showed the owners were able to afford the latest fashions and were knowledgeable about the latest technology. But they were also a practical experiment in the very early days of canal building and did inform the family's involvement in other waterways schemes (they were involved in the promotion of the nearby Coventry and Oxford canals, for example). So if we see them as a 'prototype' for the Coventry and Oxford canals maybe they aren't so pointless !

Thanks Richard. If you look in the background of the photo of Corolla you'll see some of the rally stalls ! One point of interest in the photo is that much of the boat's paintwork is from its Brummagem Fly days, except where someone's painted some of the panels blue.

Here's a photo from 1983: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/gallery/image/7382-corolla-brummagem-fly-water-wagtail-22nd-may-1983-foxton/

I would recommend that you obtain a copy of 'Waterways Journal' volume 20 (spring 2018) from The Waterways Museum Society. Contained within it is a very detailed article about the early British Waterways hire boats, including Water Viper. There aren't any photos of the boat, but the article does give the following interesting information, which I hope the author won't mind me copying here: "In 1959 (Delhi) was moved from Birmingham to Gloucester for conversion to a 4 berth tiller steered hire boat, Water Viper. The choice of Delhi for conversion was strange. A vessel with a 6ft 10in beam apparently could not be obtained, so Delhi, with a width of 7ft 1in, needed to be reduced to 6ft 9in before any further work could be carried out. This was done by cutting longitudinally through the bottom plating and drawing the craft in, over her whole length. The bottom plating was then welded and strengthened by back straps, the swim end stern was fabricated complete with the skeg bar and stern tube. This was far more difficult than originally envisaged. Further strengthening also needed to be done and this, along with difficulties using Gloucester Repair Yard with no available dry dock and where the staff had no experience of this type of work, the high quality finish with additional minor improvements and the Enfield '85' air cooled diesel engine, pushed the cost of conversion up to £3459, much in excess of the £2750 proposed in December 1959. The conversion was undertaken in the Boiler Shop and to float the vessel it had to be moved 200yds on bogies to the waterside, necessitating the services of 10 men for 1 day. In a letter on 29 November 1960, the Mech & Elect Engineer RF Hatton admitted to the Divisional Manager that "in the attempt to produce a really creditable conversion, the Gloucester Repair Yard may have aimed at a higher standard of finish than was strictly neccessary". He added that "we may yet find that the additional expenditure has not been wasted for it is worthy of note that at the end of this season the general condition of the Water Viper is appreciably better than the average and her winter overhaul should therefore be less expensive". This was Gloucester workshop's first conversion and I believe, the last. Water Viper was available to hire from Middlewich by the end of April 1960 after featuring in the Pleasure Craft Display in Birmingham"

The application isn't a conventional planning application, but an application for a 'certificate of lawful use'. This suggests to me that the applicants believe planning consent isn't required, but the local authority's planning officers believe otherwise. Therefore the applicants have made the application to clarify / regularise the situation.

We hired a brand new Elysian 27 centre cockpit (Sunstar 1) from Bridge Boatyard of Ely in 1976 and I understood at the time that it was one of the last centre cockpits to be made- I think all the centre cockpits were made by Appleyard Lincoln and they stopped building boats about then. I think the only boats built by other people were the aft cockpit version and that the moulds went first to Bounty Boats before going to J G Meakes. According to the Bridge Boatyard website Sunstar is still available for hire and they will probably know more about the history.

Yes- Elizabeth is almost certainly the oldest surviving pleasure boat conversion (1936). Also one of the last boats to cruise the Grantham Canal before it was closed. Seems to be a bargain at £30k.

A bit of googling finds 2 videos of the peniche move:

This image from http://collections.canalrivertrust.org.uk/bw200.1.2.2 shows that the two canals at Marston were the same level in 1953 and the gates were still in place.

The photos above that Ray has just posted are Bert Dunkley's from 1963, so at least we know that the stop by the pump house didn't have gates at that date. But I'm fairly certain that I've seen a photo somewhere from the 1950's with gates in place. But also I'm fairly certain that Doerflinger must have confused Hawkesbury with Marston, as the gates there were in place until I think the early 1970's.

I suggest you contact Bridge Boatyard of Ely who specialise in these boats. I think they still operate some in their hire fleet.

No, there isn't any connection as far as I'm aware. Brookline Narrowboats was set up by the Quinlan family.

I guess you must be looking at the Landmark Trust cottage at Lowsonford. Usually there is a good number of boats passing by whatever the time of year. A great spot for exploring canal and non-canal related attractions (don't miss Baddesley Clinton and Packwood House) and a good pub nearby.

Here's Whitby and Pictor going round the turn single handed at Hawkesbury in 1980. Who it is steering I don't know though.

In the 1960's my dad had a home-made magnet (well strictly speaking work-made -he was an engineer) which we used for fishing out windlasses. In the1970's he bought a Sea Searcher magnet (which were quite popular then), and I still have it.

I saw it on the Weaver at Northwich on 9 August.

Here's more in the same set, and the second is Llangollen: https://www.flickr.com/photos/142205834@N04/32750485974 https://www.flickr.com/photos/142205834@N04/33552668046 https://www.flickr.com/photos/142205834@N04/33552668376

As regards the moorings at Castlefield, when we were there a couple of months ago, the basin on the south side (which I think is called Grocers Wharf) was completely full of what looked like long term moorers. It was also very difficult to turn at the end, so don't even attempt going up there. But in the basin on the north side (next to the YMCA and Liverpool Road) there was plenty of space, and a good working water tap (difficult to find as there aren't any signs, but it is under the railway viaduct). It's a nice mooring -the only downside is the noise of the trains if you are a light sleeper.

From our experience of boating through a couple of months ago, Sale is quite a decent mooring before Manchester. On the Ashton side, I was very pleasantly surprised how nice the stretch between Fairfield top lock and Guide Bridge was, though I probably wouldn't leave a boat unattended along there. We moored by the junction at Portland Basin and it was fine and convenient for shops and pubs.

There's no reason why designating an area a conservation area should cost CRT anything at all. The intention of the designation is only to protect the character of the area, so unless CRT plan to change the canal or its surroundings dramatically, they won't be affected.

Conservation Areas -at least in theory- protect the character of whole areas, though they aren't intended to prevent development completely. One great advantage of conservation areas is that they can be designated by the local authority quite quickly with little 'interference' from other agencies/ government bodies. Long lengths of canal are designated as Conservation Areas -such as the one along the Grand Union in the Warwick area. https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/info/20004/planning/1264/canal_conservation_area

The British Waterways shop and information centre on Kingston Row was open up until about that year, so you could have bought your maps from there. When it closed the general store opposite took on the role of selling a few canal related items.

It was still the Longboat until at least the early 90's, and you're right, as far as I can recall there wasn't any heavy metal played there when it was called the Longboat. BCN Society meetings were held there in the early/mid 80's.

Well, we only saw one other boat on the move between Ashton and Stalybridge in a whole day last Sunday. Not many others moored either.