Max Sinclair

Les Allen, Oldbury, told me that when T& S Element entered the Canal Haulage business they did not own any boats. They would "borrow" a wooden day boat from the fleet moored at Salford Bridge and use it to carry Cannock coal to Stourport down the Staffs and Worcs.for the Power Station. This canal was notorious for its sandstone cuttings which ground the corners off a wooden bottom. When it got 'tender' they would return it to its owners. When one of the fleet mysteriously sank it would be docked for Les to repair and the foreman would mutter curses on the young Element brothers. He was well aware of what they were up to, but adopted a philanthropic attitude.

A COUPLE and their dog had to be rescued from their narrowboat this morning when it became stuck at Diglis Weir. Firefighters from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene by the lock keeper at about 8.05am, who reported a vessel had become stranded against booms with passengers on board. Crews from Worcester, a Water First Responder team from Malvern and rescue boats from both Evesham and Worcester attended, and brought a couple and their dog safely back to dry land at 8.35am. Severn Area Rescue Association is set to help the recover the boat later this morning.

I had the pleasure of helping with the Golden Age of Steam film which used some of my 9.5mm Pathe film. It was digitally improved and cleaned. Before the waterways swallowed me up I had a lot of fun with my narrow-gauge babies. I was so proud to see Gertrude which I purchased for £2 from Stewarts and Lloyds Bilston crossing through Portmadoc from the Welsh Highland to the FFestiniog. When we started using a narrow gauge line to dredge the Droitwich Barge Canal my friends worried it might join up with North Wales.

Join the Sailing Barge Research Society and the opportunity arises for long weekend and weeks sails on Keels Sloops and Thames Barges. I have enjoyed several of them as part of my research into the working of the Droitwich Salt Trows When I write enjoy a severe gale off Gt Yarmouth on Pudge was a bit testing and I hurried back to Canals..

Ling and Altair brought the last coal to Worcester Porcelain Works in 1961.Phpto in my gallery. I was working in the cabin on Vesta at the Blockhouse Lock when they came past empty. It was almost dark and I heard a bump. Climbing on deck I found a new Tip Cat waiting for me.Happy days. Max

In 1950 I was fined 10 shillings for cycling through Bournville with a flickering rear light. The wire from my saddlebag battery had frayed. Appearing before the Birmingham Magistrate the policeman said " When stopped the defendant said it would be useful to give policemen a wheel barrow full of tarmac to fill in Birminghams potholes". When I went to pay the Court Clerk said I was lucky it should have been £5 but the Magistrates were Solihull residents and were highly amused at my description of Birmingham roads. At about the same time I was cycling through Solihull and an elderley resident shouted at me Go slowly throuh the village. How times have changed. Max Sinclair

This is 2012 results 2013 senior doubles 1st Seaford Daniel Reading Canoe Club and West Stuart Worcester Canoe Club in 16:44:23 DW results

Visit your local garden centre and purchase a large tub of Rat Attack. Pile two saucers on deck under the canopy and keep replenished until it stops.

Terrible damage was caused on the BCN by the thick ice bowing down in the canal centre as water levels dropped pulling the brick lining out often in hundreds of yards lengths.Much of this was not repaired for years.On a spring cruise organised by the BCN Society the ice cut deep grooves in unsuspecting members boats.

The Salt Trows on the Droitwich Barge Canal were limited to sixty tons by the depth of the lock cills.The practise developed of following the Trow down to Hawford Lock on the Severn with thirty tons in a horse or donkey drawn narrow boat. With the Trow in the lock the bottom cill was ten foot deep to allow for a five foot tide until the Severn Locks stopped it. Using wheelbarrows the 'makeweight' boat was unloaded over the lock side into the Trow. The heaviest cargo loaded on record was 115 tons into the 'Harriet'If the river was normal a line was attached to the stern and carried forward to a pulley permanently fixed at the lock mouth and then back to the horse. With the bottom gates open the horse was driven up the towpath and the Trow shot out across the Severn to the mouth of Bevere Lock. If the river was high and reached a lockside mark the boatman would sail over the weirs and not pay lock tolls.This was all recounted to me by 80 year old Tom Cartwright who with his father Tom worked the makeweight 'Three Brothers' using donkeys Jack and Nellie. This all ceased in 1916 when the salt industry collapsed and the Trows had their masts removed and worked as dumb barges in Gloucester

The Droitwich Trows used sweeps 22 feet long as oars to row if the river current or tide wasn't favourable. We found one holding up the roof of a cottage in Vines Park with Isaac Harris burned into it.

Vesta was frozen in at Ashwood for several weeks but because it was wrought iron it would still rock slightly while steel boats were trapped.I bored a hole in the ice at Ashwood and Diglis Basin Worcester and they were both 2ft 3inch thick.We built an igloo in the garden and the children played in it for some time but it gradually got smaller. In the December I drove all round Scandinavia on business and there was less snow than in England.There were drifts for weeks several feet deep and rock hard.

A boat is a ship if it can stay at sea for more than seven days self supporting. Naval definition.

Yes its all too easy to forget in 1941/47/63/82 it lasted for over two months.Canal skating is lovely, but it doesnt freeze in tunnels as the Pardoe twins found out in Dunhampstead Tunnel.

Yes barge was universal on the BCN. In the 1960's Les Allen ,Oldbury, asked us to take Vesta to Salford Bridge and bring back a day boat.When we arrived the children untied the bow and stern lines but it wouldn't move. We then became aware of a little man on the opposite towpath shouting " You can't move it, its got a boat on it" as he jumped up and down. I pushed Vestas bow over to him and he leapt on board and ran down our gunwhale jumping off the stern onto the Joey.Reaching down between boat and bank he pulled up a long length of chain fastened with a nut and bolt. Borrowing my spanner he undid it and freed it for us to start the tow. All the time he referred to our boats as barges. Oh for a video recorder.

Turn the engine off and use your starter motor for a few yards to get out of trouble. Swedish tip.

Correction Red sky in the morning, Shepherds warning

My H & W drawings for Vesta specified Hingley's Wrougjht Iron B plate for construction. It doesn't rust or freeze. Your stove could have been a Hardy and Padmore Worcester Foundry model" Guidwife".

Butty Bach already registered.

Richard Parsons is still boating, his last message to me came from the Russian border where he was battling with bureaucracy.

Enter the English Heritage Angels Award web site to see the Droitwich Canals consortium entry for their winning award.Interesting films of all the entrants projects and the celebrities who judged the events including Andrew LLoyd Webber and Melvyn Bragg Good to see Canals getting National recognition after literally years in the wilderness. .

Yes but your 18th and 19th Century canals were being progressively abandoned and filled in by succesive Goverrnments and local authorities. Without the IWA Campaigns inspired by Rolt Aickman Hutchings and a bit of help from me we would have lost much of our freedom.Stourbridge started the freedom campaign.The massive use of the Droitwich has confirmed its worthwhile recovery.

My linkC Construction of a giant Meccano style footbridge over a canal in Bolton is underway. The steelwork bridge has been designed by public artist Liam Curtin. The original walls and abutments for the canal bridge, at Nob End in Little Lever, have already been rebuilt and the construction of the metal work using scaled up Meccano style pieces in now underway. The bridge will be built on the site of an old disused horse bridge and it will stand 1.3m high and span 6.4m across the canal. The scheme is intended to create better links between Little Lever and Moses Gate Country Park. Artist Liam Curtin, members of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Society and local volunteers will be constructing the bridge. Work is expected to take a few days to complete and could be finished by Tuesday. Hope the kids round there havent got spanners, you never know what they will make out of it next.

Why do they keep quoting Brindley can neither read or write when there is plenty of evidence in his notebooks and estimates that he could. His spelling and grammar may be different to ours but it was contemporary to the age. Certainly his peers would have understood him.