Captain Pegg

I doubt the BCLM have anything to do with the offside. It’s more likely the DCT you need to contact.

Bottom of Stourbridge to centre of Birmingham is possible in a day. I think Stourbridge and Delph are quite hard work as narrow locks go, they are mostly very deep, particularly at Delph. The combined fall of the 24 locks is more than the 30 locks of Tardebigge.

There was a similar feeling - which was verbally expressed - in our hire car while driving to our family holiday five years ago when we finally crawled off the far end of the Morandi bridge in Genoa during a huge traffic jam. Sometimes such fears are justified.

In the case of Braunston I’d always thought it likely to be way of describing a form of construction where the embankment is formed from the material that also retains the canal water. A railway embankment - and presumably the major works on later canals such as the SU main line - would generally consist of a clay core overlaid with ash or soil to form the finished profile. Hence there is an engineered structure beneath the line of way (iron or water) above. In the case of Braunston the canal is carried over relatively flat lower lying land. I suspect there is no proper embankment structure beneath the canal and the construction is broadly two parallel bunds of clay laid on top of a prepared bed formed by localised cutting and filling as necessary, and quite possibly with a clay lining between the ‘banks’.

Not only that I think there’s a new bit of canal that never was shown on the map nearby as well. There’s clearly a lot of detail missing on the BCN, not least Smethwick Junction to Steward Aqueduct and Spon Lane locks. Maybe there’s an inset with more detail.

The TNC have been to Bawtry, of course. http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_02/Tour02_2.html

For three years between 2012 and 2015 from Mondays to Fridays I lived at one end of Mill Lane and worked at the other. I never realised it was on the line of a former canal, even though I was aware of the presence of a canal in Cardiff in the past. It explains something of the alignment and layout of the street.

Edited because iPad is on the blink and mashed up my typing. I can’t be bothered to re-type it all. My main point was to re-iterate that on a daily basis no boater need be much bothered about the RCR because it’s not aimed at boating activities or their safety. It’s a control on entry into market so very relevant to the question posed by the OP and about which they are now hopefully better informed and can make an educated decision to suit their own appetite for risk (which is the only one that matters here).

I have seen a hire boat give up and moor up between locks while I was descending one evening. The locks are more spread out as you descend but there’s no proper mooring. Be aware that it is a flight that’s prone to pounds draining overnight. If you moor overnight at the top doing 21 locks in one day shouldn’t be too much of a problem, unless you’re not used to single handing or not fully mobile.

I use linseed on the wooden leg.

On reflection that doesn’t hold since it doesn’t require EU law to be shadowed in UK law to enable compliance with the EU law. How else would every other country in the World outside of the EU trade within the EU if it did? If the RCR were deemed restrictive for the domestic market then it could be amended or indeed rescinded. It has no bearing on the status of the RCD for products exported to the EU.

No surprise there. I dare say most of the EU regulations that folk objected to being imposed on them will stay for similar reasons despite our ‘independence’.

That’s true but the RCD and BSS exist for different purposes. The RCD is an instrument of the EU whose objective is a specification that creates a single set of requirements for entry into the market. It’s principally about creating a level playing field for trade rather than a set of safety requirements. Now the UK has left the EU we have the ability to repeal the RCR (as it now is under UK legislation) but I suspect it probably won’t be high on the list of things for the Government to tackle post-Brexit.

Tony has answered well but you shouldn’t take the employment of a client’s representative as some form of sleight on the capability or character of the builder. It’s simply a process that pretty much any other manufacturing or engineering industry finds necessary for work of such value. If you were a builder doing major house alterations of values in excess of £100k you’d expect to be engaged by the owner’s architect and/or engineer. The very act of entering into a contract means the client is deeming the builder to be competent, but they will still be assuring the work.

It’s not about the specific competence of the people who physically build the boat. It’s about having a specification and a means of demonstrating conformance to that specification. Without such, any notions of ‘quality’ are purely arbitrary and subjective and therefore meaningless in any practical sense. A non-compliant boat may still demonstrate superb craftsmanship and look fabulous, but it could also present the buyer with a huge liability. No boatbuilder advertises themselves as incompetent and we see from other threads on here that even those yards with their detractors have others that will stand up in support of them. That’s why having someone independent to represent you that understands the level of ‘quality’ inherent in the technical specification and can measure conformance to that specification - in addition to the legal requirements - is a prudent decision.

Having spent a quarter of a century representing client interests on engineering contracts ranging from a few thousand to many millions of pounds I consider the idea of employing professional representation when spending a six figure sum of money in a field of which you have no technical knowledge is simply good, sound advice. It’s also a direct answer to the question posed by the OP to get back to the actual thread, and in any case I personally doubt there is a better value source of information and knowledge about canal boats in general than what Tony provides for free and with great patience on this forum. So (some) boatbuilders may not like it. I’d say when attaching a six figure sum to your to product that’s tough. It isn’t tenable for the canal boat building industry to retain its cottage industry roots when placing such large sums of money at risk, which is the reality of what any contract does no matter the attitudes and skills of the parties involved. It will end badly for all parties sooner or later because the nature of the beast is that things do sometimes go wrong with even the best of suppliers and both they and the buyer need proper legal and financial protection when big sums of money are at stake. Hence what @Tony Brooks says resonates with me. To me it strengthens the argument to buy second hand.

So @Ray T’s information explains the link to the Shropshire (Union) canal that others have identified. Thanks Ray. I have information on many Cheshire/Staffordshire boating families but still no link to Barnett. Another avenue to explore. However there is no obvious link on the census information for the people in the OP to long distance boating, nonetheless it may still be the case or it’s the same wider family. Usually when looking at census information over a period of time it becomes clear whether a working boater lived predominantly at home or on board. @Barnetttheboatman As for boats, if your ancestors worked boats as long distance carriers I suspect there would be evidence in the census as to the boats concerned. That there is no evidence of them ever being resident on a boat is why I suggested your ancestors were engaged in day boating or ‘joey boating’ as it is often referred to. Given they were resident on the Birmingham Canal Navigations there will be easily accessible records of the boats concerned via the BCNS website but how those can be linked to your ancestors I don’t know, that may be difficult.

Although I’ve got lots of family boating connections in the places you reference I have no record of any Barnetts. I’m interested as to how folk on FB come to conclude your family were engaged in carrying on the Shropshire Union. The entries in the census suggest day boat work to me rather than long distance carrying and that is how by far and away the majority of canal boat workers were employed. It appears to me the entry suggested as “R. Railway Co” above actually says “Canal & Railway Co” and has been added to the census record in a different hand, and in pencil rather than ink, across two columns. Noting that Edward Barnett was born at Lapworth and his wife Sarah Jane at Newport (by balance of probability of some variable records) it does suggest some sort of boating family link and with a Shropshire connection but there appears to be no canal connection within the Barnett family while at Lapworth. Do you know otherwise for either Edward or his wife and do you have any other family names associated with canal work in your tree?

That’s the private road to the service block used by CRT, that’s not strictly a general access point to the canal although I have seen it left open. It is possible to moor on both sides but I think the only official access to the outside world is via the gate that @doratheexplorer refers to. It’s there to prevent public access to the BCLM by the back door. I think it’s pretty much always possible to walk from one side to the other via the swing bridge between the BCLM and DCT but it might require vaulting or moving a barrier or two.

That suggests you’re referring to Warwick station which is a reasonable walk from Saltisford simply because the road layout isn’t particularly direct. Warwick Parkway station is much closer, turn left out of Saltisford’s main gate and over the canal bridge then right along the industrial estate. Leading off the road a couple of hundred yards later there’s a path that follows the offside of the canal under the A46 and comes out at Hatton bottom lock which is adjacent to Warwick Parkway station.

There are moorings and services at the BCLM/DCT. Take the Dudley Canal toward the tunnel from Tipton Jn on the Old Main Line and they are a few hundred yards down there. The official moorings back on to the BCLM and are behind a locked gate that needs a CRT key. There is access to the museum at the end of the moorings opposite the DCT. You can sneak in for fish and chips and/or a pint at the Bottle & Glass. Some folks prefer to moor at the ‘John the Lock’ moorings which are on the offside at Tipton Green on the Old Main Line which is a short walk away from the museum and DCT.

So quick I didn’t know it had been closed. Used it on my way home last autumn and on my way out this spring. It usually ends up closed to road traffic if damaged because there’s a pretty easy diversion. Hockley Heath drawbridge had some problems but that was over a year ago.

North Stratford? What’s wrong with that. Cruised it last week. I can’t comment on northern canals but the Midlands is OK.

To clarify the reference to ‘Lorna’ in Heartland’s post above, that is Lorna York, CRTs family history expert, herself a descendant of boating families. She would be a good point of contact for further information. I can link the Theobald (or Theobold) family to the main Cheshire/Staffordshire boating families and beyond through Samuel Theobold, the half-brother of Thomas Theobald mentioned in your post. You may already have that information. I don’t have information on your direct line.

Hence the last sentence. I’m not sure fairness comes into it. It wasn’t an actual competition. In reality boating involves little stops for PNBs, water, rubbish, Elsan, grabbing an ice cream from a lock side shop, making a brew and the like. I don’t think I properly moored up other than for overnight stops until Day 6.