Lizzy J

Our boat Glenfield is half of what was or had been a spoon dredger when she was raised from the Wyrley and Essington Canal in the early 1960's and towed to the Bumblehole yard for conversion/restoration. We believe she is an 1880's Bantock Mk1 and she has a rivited iron hull but nolonger has the elm bottom she had when recovered. I have been unable to trace any history revious to the 1960's although I keep trying. I don't have a name or any identifying BCN number unfortunately.

whoops, typing error, I was thinking about flower shows too! Fortunately I did read Stockport Councils website.

As someone who has recently looked into the planning issues very close to this spot in Marple I know that it is also a Conservation Area. Southport Council's Website has quite a bit of information about what they are likely to permit and I wouldn't imagine this plan would fit in with their ideas. They are, quite rightly very keen on their important canal heritage in Marple and have a very active local society. Also as someone with a boat moored on the Macclesfield, it will be long way to facilities in several directions without Marple yard and may put a number of people off exploring this lovely bit of the canal system. Liz

Ah......just realised as I started watching this, I saw it yesterday! My parents bought us several DVD's for Christmas and this is included on one of them. We sat and watched it with a hope that Water Vole would appear, she didn't but the interiors of the other boats were very familiar to them. Fascinating stuff. Liz

I think you are right, I was thinking along those lines as there are not that many lock 18's in the right area but I couldn't find a recent picture to compare. Many thanks Liz Ps. re Health and Safety, I thought I spotted a small squarish bollard in the other picture! Many thanks for confirming that, it means they got a lot further than I imagined. Now I have traced the route I can take them back to over it. Regards Liz

[quote name Any chance of me copying your pics to my site in the section about early hire boats please? Yes, that is fine, glad to be able to contribute to the heritage archive at last! Liz

At last I have a couple of photo's. They are digital photographs of a slide at the moment so not perfect. Can anyone identify the places in these two? I am trying to pin the route down now. The lock in the second picture has '18' on the balance beam "> Happy New Year to all Liz

That is great and also the link on Pluto's post to the old brochure. My parents will be fascinated, the more I have pressed them the more interested in what has happened to the boat they have become. As soon as I see them and am able to convert the slides they have borrowed to digital I will post some. Cheers

Finally got a bit more information. The trip was in 1963 and my parents didn't navigate into Stratford, it hadn't been 'cleaned out', they got a train from somewhere adjacent! The boat however was a BW one and called 'Water Vole' and definately went from Gas street basin. As fare as I can tell, mainly from previous threads on this forum, Water Vole was/is Kelso and was cut down by BW in the late 1950's. There are about 15 pictures on slides which when I get to see them (they are on loan) I will hopefully scan and see if there are any identifying features of both the canals and the boat. Regards

See my post from last October on the rules regarding this. http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php...st&p=171026

We have one with a 'piezo' thingy which I always have great difficulty in using.(It doesn't seem to work half the time) I suspect the model may be the same, it certainly isn't new. We have boated in winter quite a bit and know the water in the tank is often very cold but have never had a problem with the Morco heating the water. It is however rather temperamental and often requires a shout from the shower to turn it up or down. It has a habit of lurching from hot to cold for no apparent reason. Not that this post will help you but I do sympathise!

Thanks, I have a default to only include UK pages so hadn't found it. Regards

Your link was direct to the photograph, can you give me a clue as to how you found the item on ebay? 'old postcards' comes up with 11,000 items and despite various search words I haven't been able to find it Cheers

Thanks for the confirmation that I do need the rope. I have taken it back to bare metal in the grove and was assured that the rope I bought this time was correct! I had read of people removing the core of the rope before but wasn't sure how to do this or why it should be neccessary. It seems ridiculous that in a commonly fitted stove there is not a rope which fits it readily available. Regards