Derek R.

And apart from 'Trigger' in the last image - not a spotted red neckerchief in sight! A scarf, white or otherwise tucked under the shirt. Common enough in many working trades and professions.

My sympathies to you. As it rests, it is a haven for wildlife. It should be left there.

I rarely step out of the 'History & Heritage' pages, but this 'badge' annotation I see as a complete nonsense. It matches a 'badge' to numbers of postings only. This has no reflection on the knowledge that many have. An example: Chris M Jones is an accomplished historian and artist contributing to Narrowboat magazine with art and articles, yet he is 'badge' ranked "Enthusiast" - 4/12. This is an insult. Yet I have a 'badge' of 'Grand Master'. I haven't boated for decades!

This annotation business is an insult to contributors. Chris M Jones is far from ranking an "Enthusiast", as are others who have a wealth of knowledge on the history of the canal network. I myself am ranked "Grand Master". It's a joke, based merely upon numbers of postings as far as I can see. Note to webmaster: Please get rid of this pointless annotation against contributors. Edited to add: Judging by the page and a bit comments here: The vast majority of contributors do not want them.

What's with the "Grand Master" annotation against avatars? Webmaster getting bored? I've never been a Grand Master of much in my life, let alone boating!

"No-one knows". Perhaps not definitively, but why not Roses and Castles? The rose is depicted as the symbol of England from the Houses of Tudor, Lancaster and York, it's age old. As for Castles, they represent an Englishman's home, and whilst a back cabin was no 'castle', it was his home and so it naturally may have been chosen to represent the strength of a castle and the strength of his home. Just a theory.

On the few occasions my wife was being filmed for one of Rolf Harris's Animal Hospital programs, it took half a day of repeated filming to get what appeared on screen for six seconds.

All that 'rain', yet none falling on the cut. And Sunshine in the final seconds. Not to mention the drummer using 'brushes' and symbol in the wet, not a single beat from the engine in the tunnel, but full on singing. Clever bit of editing. Bet the filming took all day.

You most certainly may.

I cannot help but wonder if there is any point to this 'list'.

'Turf' - as in Peat? As fuel. Surely this is common knowledge? Turves as in green grass, are usually three feet by one foot. Rolled up they are considerably bigger - and heavy.

Well done Mark. Appreciate the images.

That's a 'project' that would absorb several hundred thousand pounds to complete, and then there's the ongoing cost of maintenance. Nice engines, and most likely will be removed for service in something else leaving this fine vessel to be scrapped, for £5K - £10K is a beg for someone to take it off their hands. Great shame,

Vulcan, the Roman God of fire and forge. As the craft was built of iron in the mid to late 19th C. it seems an appropriate choice of name, as was the locomotive works that produced thousands of steam engines - The Vulcan foundry. (They were all turned out in grey primer). As much of its working life would have been as an open boat, or covered with tarps over hatches, the only colour would have been applied to the wheelhouse, and which would have been chosen by the owner operator. OR, whatever cheap paint was available at the time, and I'm thinking of Matty's yellow now. It stood out like orange or red - the colours of 'plant', easily spotted even if chipped, flaked or muddied. But such colours seem to 'shout' too much on an ex-working boat. Something more subdued would take the eye away from the superstructure, and divert it to the hull shape, the more attractive element. This takes me back to items of sculpture. I worked for a while in a sculpturs casting workshop, where artists would bring their pieces made of whatever medium they had chosen, to be moulded and cast in something more solid and durable. Many small pieces would be very attractive, but often the artists would ask for a particularly nice piece of marble or mahogany as a stand for the piece. We had to put it to them that placing their piece on an attractive base, took away from the most important element - the piece itself, and that a plain and simple base, often in satin black, would set their piece off far better, taking the eye away from the plain base and concentrating it on the piece. With regard to SHELL FEN, the 'blog' shows it on dock late last year painted in orange and yellow, with a blue 'new' wheelhouse. Pass the bucket. [Correction: I see it was an open decked tanker. No wheelhouse].

"It can be Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales." By which, I mean that the boat is restricted to broad waterways and cannot access Wales, the West Midlands and other narrow canals. Fine if only broad waterways are intended to be cruised, and it's a 'orrible colour.

It can be done: This was 'TWO BROTHERS' for sale a couple of years back. Good for the waterways of the Netherlands. Our own Tjalk was much bigger with eleven feet headroom from the hold floor boards to beneath the centre of the hold covering boards. Not for English canals though. I find nothing attractive in either SHELFEN or VULCAN. Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales.

I knew I had seen that image in a book. Just found it! As shown in Shiela Stewart's 'Ramlin Rose', The Boatwoman's Story. This depicts Ada Skinner (née Monk) in the cabin of a 'change boat' towards the end of WWII, while her regular boat was being used in the film 'Painted Boats'. Ada married Jack Skinner, Brother of Joe Skinner of 'Friendship'. Also mentioned in the final chapter of 'Ramlin Rose', 'Rose' mentions that after they left the boats and went on the bank, amongst her various nick-nacks she had kept: "Granny Statham's Little Cooke's winluss".

You think thieves don't carry tools . . . A 4" pocket adjustable will undo most fender shackles, but I have never had fenders stolen anywhere. Maggots in the cabin, once had a firework dropped down a deck vent at Cowley, but nothing stolen in 12yrs afloat. No - tell a fib, some kids pinched some firewood from my pile in the cratch once to light a camp fire. It was pretty green, so no brew up for them.

The drawing would be 71' 6" long if it were drawn to scale. It is not a drawing for a model boat, but the scale to which the DRAWING was drawn. As mentioned before, 'tradition' comes from safe best practice, but in real life, that can be interpretated in several ways depending on the boat, the waterway, the crew, and sometimes what you can get away with.

The hooks are designed to 'open out' under extreme tension. The strings to break. Most are no longer available (such types of hooks that is) so chain is used, but the outermost should always be string.

That's a Yarwood's plan. It is generally accepted that fenders should not be fixed in such a way that if they get caught or hung up in any way, they could affect the stability of the boat - they need to be 'breakable'. Hence the open hook in a chain, and the string on the outermost fender, the one that is most likely to get caught in a closing gate or under a gate cross beam, fore end or aft. The 'traditional' description, should really relate to the best and safest practice.

This lady must be pouring cold water into the pot. The range has newspaper covering it, so clearly not lit! Unless it's an asbestos dish cloth . . .

That doesn't explain the miniature windlasses hanging up in the boatmans cabin in the IWM image, nor the reference to miniature windlasses in Sheila Stewart's 'Ramlin Rose' paperback. Though that particular one might have been.

I haven't seen any full sized Cooke windlasses, so cannot comment on if the Cooke name appears on them. But the thought comes to mind that maybe the miniature windlasses (as seen in the back cabin in the B & W image above) might have been samples made to attract clients. Bit of a long shot though.

Tied up on the far bank in the gauging image is a boat that looks like KINGFISHER, the company inspection boat. I must have taken these in the late eighties, and after Major Fielding had passed. I recall the cradle used to have a makeshift model narrowboat on it, ready to launch. When we first passed in 1983, The Major was in the garden with his Airdale letting us know he was 'on guard'! I have a thought that the caravan used to be a shelter for those in need.