Tim W

Boats 55, 56 and 59 were initially part of Chris's own Braunston Boats hire fleet. No. 59 Badger was sold to Concoform at Weeden in 1976 when Chris finnished, being one of two Barney Boat hire boats with the Concoform fleet, both retaining their Sabb single cylinder engines. No. 59 was renamed Chickweed in the Concoform fleet. Sold out of fleet in 1998 to me and renamed Hanna. I sold her in 2000 and last known to be on the River Medway. Knotweed was Concoforms other Barney boat which was sold out of fleet in 1997 and renamed Cockney Rebel.

Ah yes the RN was a little smokey .. but sounded very nice :-). Probably needs a full overhaul by now as the Mitchell's cruied extensively with her. No the AC was faulty altho the Mitchell's did contact us and offered to remove it for their new boat .. be was an AC consultant and contractor. We moved to East Yorkshire 4 years ago .. so not as far as you. Ps Do you know where she is now?

Ah yes the RN was a little smokey .. but sounded very nice :-). Probably needs a full overhaul by now as the Mitchell's cruied extensively with her. No the AC was faulty altho the Mitchell's did contact us and offered to remove it for their new boat .. be was an AC consultant and contractor. We moved to East Yorkshire 4 years ago .. so not as far as you.

I purchased Anonimity from the original owners in 2010, the Mitchell's, who had her built in 1990 and sold her after having a new replacement built, again with an RN. I sold her to friends in 2013. We moored her at Yelvertoft marina near Rugby. Our friends moored her at Reading and sold her in 2015 when they moved to US. Not sure of ownership after that. How long have you owned her?

Actually Anonimity was deliberately misspelt when named as new in 1990 as an example of phonetic spelling typical of some boat painters work in the working boat days .. Several examples can be seen on GUCCCo boats especially Star class boats. In my years of ownership only one person mentioned it to me tho.

Sorry to hear that sad news. Thanks for letting us know.

Thx for that .. it's actually Big Woolwich pair motor Darley and butty Alperton. Nice jig saw tho .. will have to look out for it. Cheers I bought the brass gear change wheel which had been cast from an original iron one from the Chandler at bottom lock Braunston .. for £40 but that was in 1980! It was a bugger getting the original iron one off the shafting but managed it eventually. As you probably know, Hawkesbury was part of the Union Canal Carriers fleet back in the day and based at Brauston so may have benefitted from a similar purchase assuming they cast more than one.

I owned Ascot from 1980 to 83 and undertook said work. I had the AS2 was top end overhauled and was a super engine. Fitted ascot with full new running gear and cloths following deconvertion and reskinned the back cabin after the Diamond range went out of control one night and the heat from the stove pipe burnt thro the cabin side. This was internally hidden by a large sheet of brass. The GU gear change wheel was changed to solid brass too. The utter plates were very thin but left at the time. The counter was very badly dented .. told by boatmen that this occurred when Ascot was a trainee boat .. however the dents were partly removed but needed a replacing really, but lack of cash prevented it at that time. Ascot towed butty Beverley back to Braunston in 1980 after Beverley had been salvaged from the River Trent being used as a mooring pontoon. She was very poorly with no equipment or cabin.

Ascot had a new bottom from engine room forward in 1981, new decks and cants too. However that was 40 years ago and she's now nearly 80 years old anyway. The back cabin is not original, rebuilt in 1970s by Malcom Braine I think when she was fully converted. Ascot was deconverted in 1981. Not sure who bought ascot from BW Wendover sales in 1968 but think it was Foxton Boat Services. The pennies in the back cabin step were installed by me in 1981.