magpie patrick

It is, but one would have thought a good producer would spot the discrepancy - I have a friend who made his first (and probably his second) million by eradicating exactly that kind of glitch Mind you, I did say a good producer...

The Montgomery had a number of them, especially south of Berriew, some found their way onto the Stratford Canal, allegedly conveyed in camouflage vans in the dead of night... I'm guessing they were an SU innovation, they allow for the situation where the paddle shutter and rod is at the edge of the coping whilst allowing the operator to be side on to the canal rather than facing it. If the paddle rod and shutter is set back, such elegance is not needed, as the paddle post can be directly over the rod

I recall the PF with some hydraulic gate paddles, and the Caldon, but never hydraulic ground paddles, which are found on the Ashton and the HNC. So Mr Haskins must have stuck to his guns as the PF was a restoration project and had the ground paddles replaced. I assume ground paddles (which were the main subject of my question) were also Brian Haskins initiative? Did BW Northwich develop the design?

Not arguing! And I'd like it on the Coal Canal when Combe Hay Locks are restored! But was it a canal company innovation or a BW one? Had the Macc been as busy as the Shroppie in it's commercial heyday I don't think the double top gates would have survived

Attached two pictures of paddle gear at Marple. When boating as a kid and as a teenager this was "standard" paddle gear and other types were "different", some obviously so (Leeds and Liverpool, Hatton) others more subtly so. Over the decades since I've realised that it's largely confined to Cheshire and the North West and that it isn't really traditional. Overall though it seems to be very satisfactory, unlike the other "innovation" of the period, hydraulic paddle gear. Where did it come from and why?

Lutine Bell spent a winter at Thrupp, had there been a permanent mooring on offer, she might well have got no further! Splendid place, lovely people, but trips on the bus into Oxford did feel a bit like an Inspector Morse theme tour...

It's an odd thing about web forums - to me (and I guess to most of us) most of the other participants are a forum name, an avatar and typed words on a screen, and yet we feel we know people who post here, they have a personality, they are real, and it's brought home when we realise they will never post again. RIP Dor, I hope there are canals and boats wherever it is you have gone

Known amongst BW men as "the wavy navy" apparently - I've a few bits of memorabilia with it on, and a boat in the garage It once appeared in an April Fool joke with BW rebranding as "Aquantis" - when I get far enough through MY WW collection I'll post it

It goes back at least to WW2 and the North Atlantic convoys, this version is attributed to Captain Hamish Blair, who seems to have spent more time at Scapa Flow than was good for him - Bloody Orkney https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~tf/poem24.html As with most folk songs and poems it could be a lot older

Effective repair but unusual technique - 1988, hire boat from Chas Hardern, Saturday evening we found the engine bilge full of water as we went into Adderly Top Lock. Chas came out and found a weld between the Uxter plate and the swim had sprung. He put some vaseline over the leak (by reaching through the weedhatch so it was on the outside) and said he'd be back in the morning. Following morning we were moved, without starting the engine, to a boatyard in Market Drayton. Chas about to weld with the seam in the water when the boatyard owner produced a 30 foot long beam from a dutch

I remember them, I was just about old enough to hire and was intrigued by the idea of boating on the BCN, but went to Chas Harden instead. I'm sure somewhere in my stack of early Waterways World magazines there will be an advert for them. If I find it, I'll post it

It's certainly a strategy they look at, but CRT need funding to take new (to them) canals on. As it happens this is where my deliberations started. The Swansea Canal is CRT, the Neath is not, and the challenges of future management are very different, both have their frustrations! I was curious as how they had ended up taking different ownership routes in 1948

I think it's fairly obvious that a canal that is restored doesn't automatically become part of the CRT network, some canals (as opposed to rivers) have been transferred to CRT/BW on restoration (Droitwich, Rochdale for example), others haven't (e.g Basingstoke). Some derelict canals were nationalised, presumably because they were caught up in the assets of otherwise viable transport enterprises. Some were restored (Caldon, Peak Forest, Ashton for example) some transferred out for restoration (e.g Chesterfield to Derby Council). Some didn't fare well at all (Newport Branch SU).