noddyboater

Didn't I read that empty barges would go down the deep end of Averham Weir to avoid Newark town and Nether locks? Does sound a bit unlikely to be honest.

Going back to the original question, people often don't want instruction as they already know it all. I had the good fortune to watch a chap who'd refused any guidance - as he'd "done it all before" attempt to leave the hire base mooring in West Stockwith basin with the Morse control in the neutral position.. After 20 minutes of much revving and no movement he decided it was too windy to leave that day and would wait til the morning!

There's also the possibility of differing quality of the same fuel from sealed bags. Yards that sell Homefire for example can have it delivered in bulk then bag and seal it on site, in printed bags. So the nice dry, dust free bags you bought from Bob's Solid Fuel could be completely different to the same stuff from Charlie's Coal Boat.

It always saddens me to see the inside of places like this. I thought that ripping the fixtures and fittings from period houses was a thing of the 90's, but it's still going on now. When will people realise that original architecture adds value to a place, and when it's gone it's gone for good. It's often ok til you get to the kitchen, then it goes tits up with the IKEA reject bin look, apparently timeless. I'm not saying you should live in a museum, but why not employ proper craftsmen and make an effort? Look at the Landmark Trust holiday properties to see how well it can be done.

Like dredging the rest of the navigable length for instance?

That would be a great business to run wouldn't it? Leave a pair of boats on the towpath for months and get paid for it. Or alternatively, they could have been hired for a day to carry out survey work and left there pending the job starting.

T&M having a bit done above Fradley too.

Until some scrote puts a hammer through one..

But the point I was making is the cooking and heating can be free with a bit of effort, which you've said in the past you do. If the price of oil goes through the roof you're tied to one fuel. I guess you'd just plug some electric heaters in if that happens.

Why put all your eggs in one basket though? The price of kero is bound to rise in the future, but with the Rayburn on s/fuel you have the option to go down river and stock up on free fuel to keep you warm and well fed. Smokeless fuel and bought logs might get harder to obtain cheaply but with a bit of effort there's enough to see us lot out.

I have one in "as new" condition that I think will be available soon. I was going to replace my aging Epping with it but will probably restore it instead. Just to confuse things further my Epping is actually a Classic, I believe they carried that name in the 80's before going back to the Epping. Which is why Midland Swindlers produced the Class1c of course.. Parts aren't available for the Class1c, including the cast top plate. Unlike the Epping (or Classic) the body of the stove is fabricated from mild steel.

Definitely is a Class1c, well known for the cast top plates cracking. Probably due to the over large firebox!

David Parrot makes traditional exhausts and chimneys, top quality but has a waiting list I believe. You can contact him through his son Matt, who runs the Northwich dry dock company on the Weaver.

We had the bridge get stuck there one Christmas eve, it was nearly down but not quite although the barriers had lifted. We did what we could to alert motorists not to risk it but the clever tw@t who chose to ignore us ripped his sump off! Laugh? I had to open another bottle of whisky.

Yes I realise that's how things "work" these days, but it doesn't mean it's value for money. Get a company in to do a spot of dredging, they actually haven't got the gear so they get someone else involved who has, but they supply labour as well. Meanwhile the CRT staff turn up and watch, staff who are capable of doing at least 70% of the job, with their own equipment. A bit of training and a day or two of maintenance on the dredger and it could have been done in house which would have saved a fortune.

What about the huge amount of money that's wasted when maintenance actually takes place? I was on a dredging job last year, down south. First day a massive crane arrives with a team of men, then all the kit arrives on trucks from up north - tug, hoppers, pontoon and 360 to sit on it, at a cost of many thousands (This is for 5 days work). The job is based at a CRT yard, and guess what's sat in the water where the kit gets craned in? A CRT tug, pair of hoppers and dredger. Too many people are lining their pockets from the dwindling pot under the current system.

I've only met Conner once when I watched as his dog jumped off and had a crap next to the water point. Maybe he got around to cleaning it up later, (Conner, not the dog) but it certainly wasn't his priority at the time.

The Sheaf Quay pub closing was really the nail in the coffin for the area. No free parking anymore for families to come and have a wander around the place. Plans to pedestrianise the basin to the market area came to nothing so it's stayed out on a limb, circled by busy roads. Sheffield council is concentrating its bizarre plans in the "Kelham Island" area instead now, lucky us.

From when the basin reopened as the "Quays" until around 2005 I think. You could walk in and ask about moorings, book passage down the locks, buy cards for the showers etc. That was also the time of 24hr security with an office on site. Not that they did much of course but at least it was a deterrent for the local scum.

They were indeed. CRT staff manned (womanned?) the office next door and lived in the accommodation above. Imagine such a thing now!!

Is that near the woods with the "chained oak"? I was trying to follow the line of the canal when we stayed at the station recently but in some places it's hard to see which side of the old track bed it's actually on.

Sounds like a less gross variation of the toilet arrangement on a boat I recently moved. That had a lovely new electric flushing loo in the bathroom, as you'd expect. But to remove the cassette involved emptying a kitchen cupboard of pots and pans before pulling out the false back.. delightful. Why nobody sells a cassette toilet that loads from the front is beyond me.

My only head first dunking from my own boat was also due to a handrail gap incident!

I wouldn't say this was a Spencer, the bow and hull height to cabin don't look right. More like a Malcolm Pearson.