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Derek R.

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Everything posted by Derek R.

  1. "It"?? Looks like Lady Capel's you've just come through, and the wier above going under the M25 spur.
  2. Egg rationing finished in 1953? Hence your arrival soon after? Maybe that's what you meant. Bit slow off the mark this-morning.
  3. Sounds almost too practical for a 'Ministry decision', but sound conclusion. I remember the entrance to 'rivets' and their long title sign. Harked back to Dickensian almost. Seem to recall a decent coal yard thereabouts too.
  4. Looking at old ordnance survey maps online show nothing of any significance. 1930's HERE. You'll need to scroll down on the right hand side for map 1932 - 1935, then click on that and wait for the download. Edited to add: Older maps show just a field, and the 1960 one shows little more.
  5. Bradshaw 'wrote' 'Lengths and Levels', there's a copy available online HERE. It shows the lengths and levels of canals, rivers, and some railways associated with 'Bradshaw's Northern Maps'. It is not a guide in any form, but a detailed account of datum as surveyed. Dated 1832.
  6. We had a weed hatch on YARMOUTH, fitted by 'someone', which when opened had just half an inch of dry side - inside the hatch. It got interesting when a bunch of young lads stepped on the back deck to see what was round the prop. There are minimum requirements now of course. I do remember slinging a scaffold plank at water level and laying on that to reach someone's prop once. Worked well enough, but got pretty wet in the process. Dropping it on a cill would be another practice not yet mentioned. Got to be careful doing that though.
  7. Just in case someone did get the wrong impression - Tam's advice is with the engine stopped!! In gear and cranked by hand, never done that myself if only due to much single handed boating. If you have the shaft in the water and forget which way the hook is facing (easy done), a groove can be cut in the handle up where you are holding it, the same side as the hook, so by touch you can know where the hook is down below. Had a shunters pole once, blessed if I know where that went. Always thought of putting a 'tit' on the end to help closing/opening gates. Probably a daft idea. I do get them.
  8. Try John and Sue Yates, they had the pair in the early eighties. Think they still have BUCKDEN.
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  10. This sounds like the ASH that I knew from the early eighties, and which was owned by Roger Wakeham. He and John Pattle built/rebuilt the steel top using fuel tank materials, though the details of that are not precisely known, nor exactly when. Digging through my odds and ends I find a few shots that include this ASH, as here at Stockton one Christmas - ASH is against the towpath, second lot of boats. Here in Little Venice for New Year (I think), nearest the camera broadside on. And in daylight, peeking in on the extreme right, the blunt fore end.
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  15. Much fun! Many bridge'oles will do likewise, there's one below sewerage lock on the GU - bridge 145, nasty bend where the offside arch will catch the cabin side if you don't keep towpath side, and the path is low under the bridge. No end of times folk stand under the bridge to watch the boat go by and get very wet feet.
  16. Reminds me of the 'Hampton Tides'. Someone recalled that the levels at one end of the Wolverhampton level would rise with the oncoming fleet of Hampton boats heading one way loaded, pushing water before them. Don't doubt for a moment the wind could do likewise.
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  18. You are correct. Prior to 'development', Gas Street basin was a haven of seclusion. No 'traffic' to speak of, but secure I believe.
  19. I assume that no clearer copy has survived? Dont really understand the comment. The order number is quite clear on the blueprint as it is on other drawings. You wrote "blurprint", slip of the finger - 'e' is next to 'r' on the keyboard.
  20. Used to visit Felixstowe Ferry at times, and was always struck by the fascinating mish mash of floating craft, harbour service launches, motor torpedo and gun boats, old motor sailers and sailing barges, even an aircraft fuselage with outriggers. Walk around a modern marina and it's all plastic and stainless. Used to be a lovely little Barge Yacht called the Nancy Grey down at Old Leigh, wonder if it's still around. Derek
  21. Strange, a bit off topic, but just yesterday I was browsing through an old scrapbook, and there was BEECLIFFE being featured in a 1977 W.W. issue - 'Continental Keel' - where BEECLIFFE is featured in a two part article. One picture is of the cabin below, and credited to one T. N. Leech. Is that you Tim - did you get to go on that trip? Derek
  22. I think names came into it very much. I don't however, believe that naming boats was any appeasment to the boat people, it surely was simply a way of confirming any particular boat, rather like belt and braces, and from the point that on the 'Control Board' the little tags could only hold a three digit number at the most. There were many boats without names and just numbers alone, mostly day boats methinks, but then there were many more railway engines without names, though those with are better remembered for having them. Almost as much conjecture as where they got their names from in the first - or second place! A fleet number could be changes easier than a name - it takes less effort. But did numbers must come first originating in the builders yard, or did they have names alloted from when a keel was laid? The 'famous' shot of the Boat List in 'Inland Waterways' shows one fleet number first, followed by the names of Motor and Butty. Names were preferred, just as I preferred to be called Derek, rather than N 94649. But then I'm not an inanimate object. Not yet.
  23. Which reminds me of a Goon Show classic, the title of which eveades me, but Minnie's partner Henry Crun was heard to say in a faltering quavering voice: "Don't go near - The C-a-n-aaaaal!"
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