Derek R.

With regard to any original engine, it would almost certainly have been the same as fitted to other Middle Northwich boats, a Russell Newbery 2DM. My mate read and looked at that advert and said "You are joking! Where do you sit?" I reckon £85K woud get it back into acceptable condition. I'd giv'em fifty quid for it. But then without £85K, the problems would start. No, there's only one Middle Northwich I'd want back - I didn't say that did I.

CHERTSEY's Petter sounded nice, and well done that novice(?) steerer. Try and keep your hands off the brass, it's the wooden peg that's meant for the hands!! Next round of brass polishing is yours!! Looks like a great day all round. Edited to add: Though I wasn't there, I did spot a nice Tilley Gaurdsman in CHERTSEY's engine'ole. Definitely one of the better ones.

Gobsmacking amount of work Chris. Have only ever built Balsa aeroplanes from KielKraft. Curious about Kevin's horizontal bandsaw - doesn't appear to have runners, nor does the piece. I can only conclude the timber is being run through the saw though, but how? ah! It's the saw. Seems to be at the end of it's track. Did a little helping out on a Scottish sawmill - no guard and vertical blade - they don't half fly about when they break! Luckily no-one got touched. Hope this isn't diverting the topic, but there's some interesting stills HERE and footage of the same steam powered saw-mill HERE. Video's amateur, but gives an insight to hand signals and the noise. Little 'Pond Donkey' is much like a small Bantam pusher.

I could have understood that more if it had been a painting.

Too much of an opportunity for graffiti 'artists', such as done with King Orry when on dock and approaching launch with much to do . . .

Thanks BEngo, should have remembered that name. Smashing bloke as I recall. I remember ION too, though didn't see much of it. Derek

I'll wager that's cold water being poured into the pot for the photographer! Newspaper on the range top, and no primus in sight. Miniature windlasses, and what looks like a 'Cottage' teapot tucked behind the stove pipe. Plates with trees on, can't say I've seen any like that. Fruit, 'scenes', flowers, royalty, cherubs and coats of arms, but never trees.

One of my favourite boats was IAN when moored in Aylesbury basin in the eighties. Elderly gent owned it (name on the tip of my tongue but won't come off) and the conversion was in wood in the form of an extended cabin, with a further section of the hold covered over with a cabin top but much glazed, rather like a conservatory. Gave the impression of a working boat as you could 'see' into what was the hold. Light and airy with some open fore end hold too. YARMOUTH's old conversion was partially destroyed when a former owner jumped off a lockside onto the cabin top and ended up in the cabin. New skylight created. It got a curved steel top and ply sides pop riveted onto a steel box section framework. Sadly they left only two inches of gunnel, and no stiffening, so she spread quite a bit. Roger Farringdon and crew sorted it out with steel but we lost quite a bit of 'character' - some of it gladly but not all. There's a fine line between expensive big boys toys and somewhere to live. You need a deep pocket to live on the bank and play boaters in any kind of boat, let alone an unconverted one. If you have the money - you have the choice. But it's all down to a money thing. If your boat is your only home and you love ex working boats, then as age advances back cabins can be somewhat restrictive in the essentials. Arthur Itis knows all about that.

Reading your blog Alan, you need a Primus. Just the job when the range fails to play ball, and usually can be tucked away down beside the range on the left. They do pop up on Ebay quite a bit, but check out Classic Camp Stoves for chapter and verse. The 'silent burner' models are best, as the 'roarer' lives up to its name.

Yes indeedy! Before it became a 'glossy'. And four pennies for a phone call. Our nearest was Wood Green Tube station just 100yds away. A row of brown cubicles with two piece concertina doors. Directories were bolted into a hinged frame. Always a good place to hang around if cold on a winters day, you got a regular blast of warm air from the trains as they pulled into the station below - and a most distinctive smell of - ozone? Accompanied by all the sounds so familiar from childhood memories - and Trolleybuses! A tuppeny ha'penny stamp on a postcard was also a quick way to communicate. Posted before midday it would be through the recipients letterbox next morning - no 'first' and 'second' class! Letters were 3d. And Telegram boys on BSA Bantams! There's a cracking good Post Office museum in the Blists Hill Victorian Village at Ironbridge. Not only got a Bantam in there, but a one eigth scale model of an articulated travelling Post Office - pretty big, lots of detail. All above the old Post Office on site.

But I might have got to grips with that, shuffling tabs and indents about. But don't hold your breath.

We'll stick to firelighting then! Though a Flit Gun might fetch a bob or two on Ebay. Going back to that shot of RALEIGH (?) and maybe FRIENDSHIP, I don't recall seeing Joe Skinner in anything but a Trilby. That chaps got a cap on methinks. But if it is the Skinner's, maybe Rose has been at it with a 'dolly tub' in the day boat alongside! Edited for spelling error and I should have said 'I don't recall seeing a picture of Joe Skinner . .' etc. Never had the pleasure of meeting him personally.

Right, left and centre justification I can handle, it's getting the tabs sorted out on common lines so as to have two addresses at the top of a page that bedevils me. Yes there's a way, but the easier route is often taken. Interestingly, a little known fact about DDT is that during the period of time it was banned as an insecticide in Third World countries (primarily Africa and Asia), over forty million people died of the resurgence of Malaria. There is undoubtedly a hazard in overexposure to DDT, especially where it is sprayed within buildings, but weighed against such significant numbers of deaths in Africa since the banning in the early seventies is no justification for an outright ban. The 'Popular Press'? One occasionally scans gifted papers before lighting the fire with them.

I think therein lay the rub. Whilst we are using computers on a regular basis, the software that allows us to place addresses where they should be is often counter productive. I have given up trying to get an address in the correct place using indents and columns, every attempt infuriates me more. So it gets dumped on the left, with the addressed beneath. Not so computer literate Derek PS. As to dietary improvements since the 1950's - YOU ARE JOKING! Greater variety you might have, but quality you do not. Todays food is sanitised and 'doctored' with any amount of chemicals such that ailments are more common from not having built up enough antibodies from a bit of dirt! Watch those chemicals being sprayed on crops from high powered tractors - some of that does not wash off. Added to which there are the laboratory species being 'engineered' for . . ? 'Higher yields and more food?' Wrong - try again. Sterilisation programs. Oh it's happening alright, just don't expect to read or hear about it in the popular press.

Were we poorer financially? Perhaps. But with more money we are inclined, and encouraged to spend it. Were people more respectful of one another, and did they enjoy a community of greater camaraderie? You bet they did! Did we value what we had back then, as much as we might looking back on them from today? Most likely not, for who could have forseen the future. Our intent was saving up for a new bicycle, a motorbike, or next years week at Margate or wherever. That shot of Admiralty Arch - I'm in there amongst the crowd, sitting on my Dad's shoulders and getting barely a glimpse of the coach, let alone the Queen. And like Laurence, the bath hung on a nail in the back yard, and got put in front of the fire maybe once a week. One cold tap, and no hot water, other than what Dad paid for to put in an Ascot - and that immediately became property of the Council! Yes, I'd go back - but I'd change my direction. The so called "woman" holding up the hand made tea cosy is clearly a schoolgirl showing her prowess at needlework, and rightfully proud of it too.

Lots of interesting 'other boats' to identify in that set that Rick-n-Jo supplied a link to.

It may have been that a water wheel would have provided power for the foundry, and perhaps latterly used for a Mill, if indeed it became so.

One from a Christmas 'do' at The Shovel'. Mid eighties Had some poke did that.

It's the Pear wine he made I remember most of all - awesome! Jam nights and one memorable Christmas in the 'Lock & Quay' when it was a decent pub with 'Jumbo Dog Rolls' also are remembered with affection - and pipes that could be smoked inside!

It may only be paint - but what a difference it makes. Well done all. My wife's still promising to finish (or re-start) that L & L Gansey!

As to how long Jim has had ELIZABETH - best ask Jim! But the short notation on the NBOC website states present owner since 1966. ELIZABETH appears in this short film at the at 9m 44secs. In colour too.

That's the ELIZABETH that is most familiar. If you spoke to Jim Macdonald who is the owner, and has been for over forty five years, I think you would have been talking to the 'horses mouth' with regard to her history. Not just been abroad either, Jim took her out into the Mediterranean, anchored, and went swimming from her.

Smithfield would open at 4am, and many of the local pubs soon after at 6am. I remember driving the early turns on Green Line through Cricklewood, and seeing hoards of Irish (and others) crowding into transit vans by The Crown around 06.50, and doubtless some would have left earlier. Don't do that any more.

A vessel: of sorts, and another?

Yes - sleeping on a problem is a well known strategy for solving a great many problems. Provided you set the mind the challenge before retiring, then leave it alone. Sometimes you wake suddenly and the solution just 'pops' into your head. There's untapped power in the subconscious that many fail to realise.