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Richard T

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Loughborough
  • Occupation
    Retired
  • Boat Name
    Tyto Alba
  • Boat Location
    Sileby Mill

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  1. Who might have painted the very battered water can, hand bowl and cabin block in these pictures? They are part of the display in the exhibition on canal boating in Loughborough. They are all on loan from the Leicestershire Museums service but no attribution is given. To my eye the hand bowl looks relatively modern but i could be wrong. The exhibition organisors would like to know who might have done the painting. Sorry about the quality of the photos but they are in display cabinets which makes taking photos difficult. Thanks Richard
  2. Leicestershire County Records office have a collection of drawings by William Jessop for the construction of the Leicester Navigation. These include details of locks and bridges. I have a copy of the bridge details but not the locks. The locks are broad but the principles will be the same. The catalogue details are below.
  3. That looks like Kimberley. I hired Lindsey in 1976 with a group of scouts.
  4. Not easy to do =if it doesn't work be prepared for a big bill. Welds failed on our ss tank - I didn't get much change out of £2k for having it replaced with a rigid plastic one. To get the ss one out the sole plate of the cockpit had to be cut out, the tank cut up in situ, new tank(£660 +vat) fitted along with new filler and connections. Sole plate refitted and all repainted. Remember the tax man adds 20% to costs.
  5. Our first hire was in October 1974 when we hired Larch from Willow Wren Kearns at Middlwich. This was and maybe still is a 50ft wooden topped boat sleeping 8. We were a group of 7 and took it to llangollen and back. It was powered by a 3cylinder Lister. Cabin heating was by a catalytic gas heater. Willow Wren at Middlewich subsequently became Middlewich Narrowboats which was run by Chris Cliffe and his wife for many years. Chris is still around living in Sandbach we met him about 3 years ago at Glascote moving a boat south, he was still wearing a Middlewich Narrowboats boiler suit! They had a fleet of wooden topped boats with steel bridge guards on the front. Overtime they acquired some all steel boats. From memory there were three 70ft 12berth boats - Oak, Beech and Sycamore - I have seen the latter fairly recently at Weedon. There was then several 50ft either 6 or 8berth boats, these included Larch, Pine, Cherry, Ash. There was also a camping boat Rowan. I have some photos of these boats which will need scanning. Others are on my Photobucket page which they now want a ransom to allow me to access them. The yard at Middlwich was distinctive with its canopy. Some of the wooden tops are visible in this photo. As I've said in another post hire boats from the 60's and 70's are poorly represented in the current fleet of boats. If a suitable one had come on the market a few years ago I would have bought it and restored to its hire configuration but I'm a bit too old to do that now.!! I've now found some photos of the wooden tops. The photo of Pine was taken after it had been sold and was moored on the Dee branch at Chester. Ash was on the K&A.
  6. Tempting - if it had been a Willow Wren wooden top I would have had a look at it. What should have happened is that it should have been restored to as near the condition it was in when UCC had it as a hire boat. There is a definite gap in the boating history - early hire boats are rarely kept in their original layout and finish.
  7. I went to the opening of an exhibition put together by the local studies team at Loughborough library this morning. Its called Where the Boatmen Dwell. It's quite interesting with photos and commentary. There some artefacts on loan from the Foxton Inclined plane museum and some from Leicestershire Museums. They include a very old and battered Buckby can and a hand bowl, No attribution as to the painters were given to these. I will go back and try and get some photos to post so that the forum experts can try and give one. If in town its worth spending half an hour looking at the exhibition.
  8. This is the entrance to the Mira river in Cape Breton island. It is navigable for small boats for about 40km.
  9. Yes it is Loughborough Town lock taken a few years ago.
  10. Which navigable river does this swingbridge cross. The bridge has now been replaced as it became unsafe with a high level one. My other post might help you out
  11. Which lock is this having new gates?
  12. Nearly right Matty, It is Blackbrook resevoir. It was originally built to serve the canal with an earth dam which breached. The site was then reused to construct a new masonry dam around 1900 to improve the water supply to Loughborough. The photo and further ones show the construction of this dam around 1900 - the resevoir opened for use in 1906. The photos can be found here http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/quickSearch?CSRF=alf5xRxUluB9HrlqWHJi&newSearch=true&quickSearch=true&includeImplicitCategoryMembers=true&keywords=blackbrook
  13. I Have been to Barrow on Soar today to check on a plot of land that the Scouts own, its between the railway line and the river below Pillings weir. The land is fine. The sunk wide beam appears to have been refloated as its no longer there. I also went to Barrow bridge. The sunk boat is still there but with care a narrow boat can squeeze past it to get under the bridge, one did whilst I was there. Refloating the boat will not be easy, the stern is almost out of the water with the bow in the navigable channel. Some big air bags may well be needed. From the last photo you can see the bridge buttresses which caused the boat to roll on its side. Air bags under it so it was lifted off them may have prevented this from happening.
  14. The drained resevoir of a canal which was officially abandoned in 1846 but was disused by around 1800. There are still some small sections still in water.
  15. Firstly I'm not certain who dictated that this thread had to be exclusively related to British canals - my post is certainly not the first North American one in it. The first photo is the St Peter's canal CapeBreton island Nova Scotia. It is only 800m long and links the Atlantic ocean and the inland sea Bras D'or. Both are tidal but the times of their tides are different hence the lock having 4 pairs of gates, which pairs are used depends on the state of the tide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peters_Canal The second image is the Canso Canal, this links the Atlantic ocean with the St Lawrence seaway. It was built when the Canso causeway was built to link Cape Breton island with mainland Nova Scotia. It was built to the same dimensions as locks on the St Lawrence seaway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canso_Canal Cape Breton island is a lovely place to visit especially in the autumn when the colours of the trees are wonderful and they have a Celtic music festival each year. It is one of the few places in the world where gaelic is spoken!!
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