davidwheeler

I was going to add this. I think I still will. It is a photo of the motor boat 'Water Rat'. And of its steerer. Because the grey and the gloom did fade away. And the sun did come out. And it stayed out, more or less, for the next fifty years.

It is October 1969. We had hired a motor boat from Canal PleasureCraft of Stourport for two weeks, for £50. To get to Llangollen and back. But when we got to Trevor, just across the aqueduct, we found the canal blocked. No doubt there had been closure notices pinned on British Waterways boards. So we decided to go back the long way round. Our boat was 'Water Rat', 26 feet long, two berth. 2 1/2hp Stuart Turner petrol engine, maximum speed 2 1/2 mph - measured, desperately, against a standard British Waterways mile. Pretty good in its day but not perhaps quite up to current day hirer expectations. We liked it a lot. I will attach a copy of the specification (with permission) if I can. The inventory is not complete because it misses out the spade. Absolutely vital to deal with the Elsan contents. No sanitary stations. Plenty of water points, railway stations, public telephones, public houses, letter boxes and other necessaries but no sanitary stations. To keep this short and less boring, it will be about one day and a bit. We arrived at Middlewich late in the afternoon and it did not look encouraging. We walked to the junction lock to see if the Trent & Mersey looked more promising and it did not. A woman came out of the lock house and eyed us. She wanted to know what we were doing. We told her we were in the boat up there and we were a bit worried. She told us to bring the boat right up to the lock, we would be all right there. We did as she told us. I expect most people did. The next morning at 8.30 we set off down the lock. She saw us out with a nod. Not too auspicious a start, with a polythene bag wrapped around the prop. A policeman kept us company while we freed ourselves, swinging around in the cut. The weather was grey and misty, the countryside was greyer but the water clear. We could see fishes. After a couple of locks a lump of wood jammed the propeller. Outside the Cerebos Salt factory. Things were getting a little bit challenging when we met the first of the doubles, the paired Wheelock Flight. Of the eight, two had only one of the pair operative. Which was shown on booklet 13 had we looked closely but we hadn't. Several times I made the wrong choice. 'This one. No not this one, that one!' Several times the steerer entered the lock and had to back out again. Then she placed the bows firmly between the two locks and refused to go further. The weather and things got ever gloomier and the wind got up as well. 'Water Rat' was a jolly little boat but got blown about a bit. Especially when stationary waiting for a decision as to which lock to aim for. It was a relief when we got to Thurlwood Steel Lock because here surely things would work. Have you been through Thurlwood Steel Lock? There are those of us who have and those who have not. We have. The instructions were detailed, the lock was very slow and I remember it being very hard work. Whether the gates had to be raised by hand winding or whether there was electricity I cannot now remember. It was laborious. We were glad to get out of it. 'Bloody useless!' I wrote in Booklet 13, although a bold attempt to overcome the subsidence problems. So on we went through more paired or not-paired locks in increasing gloom until we reached the northern portal of the Harecastle. Now Booklet 13 states clearly this: " Navigation in accordance with times exhibited on Notice Boards". On the 11th October 1969 there was no such notice board apparent at the northern portal. I will swear as to that, because we searched for information and there was nothing. The whole place looked neglected and despondent. Like we did. We wondered whether it was closed and whether we had enough time to get back to Stourport if we had to turn round. We rather thought not. The night did not get better than the day. But sharp on 8 am next morning a rap on the boat's roof and "Are you ready to go through?". And off we went, into the tunnel. It was grey to start with, with mist, but as the pumps at the other end started to shift the air, it became clear and black. Absolutely and completely black. We had a spotlight in the front bulkhead, perhaps from something like a Morris Minor and not very powerful. We had the cabin light on as well. Beside us reassuringly was the towpath, but as we went on the towpath began to sink, and the handrail followed as did the tunnel vault which gradually leaned down towards us until we could no longer see across the boat's roof but only round the sides and we lost control. The boat bumped and scraped from side to side, showering us and it in damp lumps of cold oxide sludge, bruising, denting and knocking off bits of the boat's hand rails. We stopped, gathered ourselves and set off again, creeping forward in this stygian gloom, on and on until after hours it seems, suddenly, as the noise of the pumps got louder and louder, the tunnel portal gate opened and there was a large half-moon of light. Out we surged, us and the boat dark red and filthy. The tunnel keeper lent us a big mop. He said he had not seen a CPL boat through the tunnel before. We were the only boat expected that day. There had been no boat through the day before. But it was end of season. On we went through Stoke and its then active industry until we reached Trentham and country again. And the massive and imposing five chimneys of Meaford Power Station, where we stopped. Not for the power station, but for 'MEA2', the CEGB steam locomotive, shoving its coal trucks around. Puffing and clanking and jostling about. I would add a picture of this engine but I cannot since I do not have permission. But you can find it on the internet if you choose. So there we were. In a day and a half, three things: two have gone and one completely changed. When we got back to Stourport we showed Mr Abbot what we had done to his boat. He told us that we weren't supposed to take the boat through the Harecastle but that he had not thought to tell us because he didn't think that we would get that far. 'Quite an adventure you have had!' he said. He didn't seem to mind at all. In fact he seemed quite pleased.

Um, it may not be very interesting, but we sailed our narrowboat once. It was in the late 1950s. We were on our way up to Gloucester on the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal, when we either sucked up something nasty into the engine, or got one of the Cone impellers jambed, but either way we were stuck. Right across the canal. There was a breeze down the cut as there often was. This was gently pushing us broadside into danger because we knew there was barge traffic due from Gloucester. We had tried rowing the bows round but that didn't work. We then mounted the sliding gunter rig from our sailing dinghy on the coachhouse roof and that gave us way and steerage, so that we got the boat under control and round. Just as well because shortly after, a Regent tankbarge appeared, bearing down on us. The captain told us he had been warned to look out for us. We never learned how he knew, but he did. He gave us a tow back to the Stroudwater. Quite an alarming adventure, that, but then every voyage on our boat was an adventure. So, Mr Greenpen, you have the right of it - with a bit of wind in the right direction even the smallest sail can help you out of a mess.

In Waterways World, November 2000, pp 70-74, Mr John Thorpe recalls his first canal holiday, in September 1956, on 'Bredon Hill' of Canal Pleasurecraft Limited of Stourport. His interesting article is profusely illustrated with photos of his family and 'Bredon Hill', but in case you do not have the article by you, I may add a couple of my own. Of 'Bredon Hill'. So that you can see what I am writing about. What is the point of this, after all this time? It is that my family, in late July 1956, hired the same boat from the same yard and travelled the same route as Master Thorpe, then aged 13. And further, besides. And there cannot be that many of us left who can say that we have done that. I won't rehearse what Mr Thorpe wrote. He was two years older than I, and already a committed, knowledgeable and observant canal enthusiast which I was not. And anyway you can read his article if you want to. What I am going to do, while I can remember, is to set out three things which were there then, and which it would be hard to see now, on the Shropshire Union. I limit it to three things, to keep it short. Because I do not know if it will be of interest. 1. The Boulton Paul factory and aerodrome. This you could clearly see from the canal, 'Boulton Paul' painted in white across the gable of one of the hangars. What was so special was that Boulton Paul of Wolverhampton built, among others, the Balliol. One of my favourites. Many are the times I sat in front of the fire engine at my local airport as a CAACU Balliol, its Merlin engine growling, rumbled past me in a blast of hot engine. Beats a Bolinder, every time. And we had Mosquitoes and the odd Spitfire Mark 16. I was deeply disappointed, as we passed, that there were no aircraft on the aerodrome at Wolverhampton. 2. Mr Sam Lomas, at Cut End. I cannot remember, now, whether I was at the controls at the time but we made a right hash of the junction. In my little red log book I noted ' we got in a frightful mess'. I think it must have been the wind. Or a combination of things. Mr Lomas was watching us. He said that the problem we had was that the bows were too high and had no grip, and that he had just the thing to help us. He went off somewhere and came back carrying a heavy concrete block, which he then placed right up in the bows of the boat. That, he said, should sort it. Just this gesture helped restore our confidence and the enjoyment of the whole experience. The whole holiday. 3. Narrowboats working for their living. I made a list of the names of boats we passed or which passed us. Between Stourport and Llangollen, for two weeks in July 1956. Mr Thorpe, in his article, mentions that he saw no commercial traffic on the Staffs & Worcs, but quite a lot on the Shropshire Union, to Market Drayton, where they had to turn. In my red book I noted these as British Waterways narrowboats: " Eagle, Perch, Cirius, David, Sculpture, Venice, Naples, Badger, Norwich, Saxon, Lark,Maesbury, Dove, Adder, Birdswood, Ling, Cormorant, Foxglove, Bream, Saltaire, Ara, Clent, Nebula, Ferret, Minnow, Trout, Australia" and no doubt others where I noted the names but not what the boats were. The spelling may not be correct, but I noted also, 'Lots of British Waterways barges (sic)'. One more thing and then I am finished. I attach a photo of a stoppage. It was taken by one of us on that trip in 1956, somewhere between Stourport and Llangollen. I ought to recognise it but I don't. Nor can I remember what the workmen were doing, but it makes a contrast, doesn't it, with all the sophistication and expertise we are seeing on the Welsh Cut at present. That is it. That is my lot. Have a pleasant day, everyone.

Well, this was a vessel on a British canal, and does that not make it of legitimate, albeit peripheral, interest for this site? If I am right in that, then in the absence of anyone else , I will have a go at answering at least one of my own questions. I am no expert, but I like them - I think this vessel was built as a fishing cutter. In Norway. In the north of that country. Not a Hardanger cutter - the counter stern is not fine enough. Perhaps of the More type. More spelt with a dipthong over the 'o', which I cannot type. There were many variations and I cannot tell one from another, although I have tried. These boats were built out of wood, but of fir - very little hardwood if any. Their frames were doubled-up six inch square timbers, practically touching each other to make an almost solid mass, the outer planking perhaps 3 inches thick, the inner ceiling only a little less, held together with wooden dowels, trenails, tightened at each end with a wooden wedge. Virtually no iron fastenings at all. This resulted in a massively strong hull, able to withstand any weather, anywhere. For their length, no more than that of a narrowboat. Or less. A bit beamier, at 18 feet, and a draught of approaching nine feet. Their weakness, as with wooden narrowboats in my own experience, was dry rot. Powered by a single cylinder semi-diesel, they had a very distinctive sound. If you like the sound of a Bolinder, you will like the sound of an old Norwegian fishing cutter. With perhaps the same engine. What I don't understand, of the vessel in the photo, is the mastage. The principal sail seems to be gaff-rigged on the aft mast, which would be appropriate fo a schooner, although that mast seems lower in height to the foremast. It also seems to be sitting on top of the deckhouse which cannot be right. It must go through the deckhouse to the keel, which surely makes things inconvenient for the steerer behind it, although the pre VIC puffers had a large stack in front of the bridge. As in 'Basuto', at Ellesmere. And the deckhouse itself is not typical. It has something of the look of the deckhouse on the 'Iris Abbot' at Northwich. More for the convenience of living, than working. So I don't understand the above-deck arrangements on this vessel. Which is why I asked the questions in the first place. So what is the significance of this vessel being, possibly, a More cutter? Because those cutters were the choice for the Shetland bus service. And if this vessel is a More cutter, and by some miracle a former Shetland bus - I have only ever seen one - then that would make it the finest vessel ever to grace the Manchester Ship Canal.

Anyone interested in this sort of vessel? If so, any ideas as to origin? Even better, as to identity? Last seen on the Manchester Ship Canal, heading towards Manchester, about twenty years ago.

I attach to this a scan of the relevant page of Canal Boats Ltd's brochure for 1971. Does it matter whether there were ex-narrowboats on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal? No,of course it doesn't. But it does show to those used to modern hire fleets, which to me appear pretty uniform, what diversity there was in those earlier days. That is shown also in the copy brochure of Summit Cruisers. Even in the late 1970s, from brochures produced by such as Boating Holidays, you could find, if you looked carefully, really interesting boats to hire, be it those very individual designs from innovative boatbuilders of the time, to converted ex working boats. Wooden boats as well as iron and steel. I think I may have touched on this in an earlier offering on this site, but perhaps it was elsewhere. I am no expert in the evolution of English hire boats, but to us what was of equal importance was the boat, as well as the canal. Whether that is still important, rather than the stuff inside the boat, I do not know.

'No ex-narrowboats on the L&LC'. I am an outsider when it comes to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. I was only ever on it once, for a fortnight in the autumn of 1971. We hired a boat from Canal Boat Ltd. It was called 'Wirral Dawn' and it is my firm belief that it was one half of a wooden narrowboat. It looked like one half of a BCN dayboat, and I had had some experience of them. It was also described as a half narrowboat in the company's brochure, which I still have somewhere. There were two others, equally described. One of them was hired at the same time. The hiror was a BWB foreman and he said it was a half wooden narrowboat and it leaked like one. He told us that he made certain that he was on the mud overnight in case it sank. I think perhaps he was joking. Although he did have two young children with him. 'Wirral Dawn' leaked as well. And had a marked list to the right, which made swing bridges tricky. There was a third boat, also described as a half narrowboat. The remaining half of the two boats purchased by the company was, apparently, a bit too far gone. Ours was powered by a twin cylinder air-cooled diesel under the stern deck which was quite long and quite open. Others may know differently but our limited two week experience left us with the impression that the weather on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is not always good. The steerer was completely exposed, not only to bad weather, but to constant noise and vibration from the engine, already of some age. The boat was certainly a half something because no hire boat operator would design or build a boat so hiror unfriendly. But we loved it. The owner was an elderly, dour man of military bearing and authority. He was very decent to us, given that we completely drained his diesel engine of fuel, and broke the rudder post in half on a Sunday morning. But he fined us five bob for breaking a pyrex dish and for damaging the boat's copy of BW booklet 16. We had dropped it overboard and although we fished it out, he said he could not in fairness to his future customers leave it on board. In fact it dried out quite well and I have still got it. And the best thing - Wirral Dawn was superb in reverse. If we came to a junction we would reverse into it, just to show off. Flat out. We were young then. So, for what it is worth: I say there is persuasive evidence that there were ex -narrowboats for hire on the Leeds & Liverpool. At least in 1971.

Mr Brightley I am an infrequent contributor to this site, and foreign at that. I don't know the accepted practices and if what I am going to do is bad form, then I am sorry and will try not to do it again. I will keep this short, but I am going to invade your site to mention Maid Marilyn, one of my absolute favourite boats. Hired not from Brinklow but Thames Ditton. The purpose, to get to the Wey to try to find some Stevens barges. So little in common with your title. The thing about these Maid boats was their build. They were superbly built wooden boats. Everything about them inside spoke of quality boat building. It was a real joy to be inside them. They were hire boats and they had real class. One could spend hours just admiring how they were put together by craftsmen. Not only that but they handled beautifully. One could park them like a well-behaved car. So this is my opportunity to praise Maid Marilyn of Maidboats. And another thing, even more off the mark. I was too late to see the Stevens barges at work - I think they stopped in 1969. But in 1973 there was at least a couple of them still on the Wey Navigation, as well as a Basingstoke barge. But what I really liked, and had a good ramble over, was the work flat 'Fly". I don't know if this still exists, but if not this is my opportunity to praise that boat as well. Completely different from Maid Marilyn, but each very well built for its purpose. The photo of Fly I have taken from Mr McKnight's Source Book of 1974 and I hope he won't mind. It is a great little book.

We could have done with that BCN guide. In the late summer of 1978 we swopped, for a fortnight, our Devon thatched longhouse and smallholding for a 36ft Springer, based at the Longwood Boat Club. We did not know the BCN. There was no guide book on the boat, but we were told not to worry, in whichever direction we went we would end up in Birmingham. That may be true or it may not be, but it did not stop us getting lost. From the canals the outside world was securely fenced off. The inside world, completely independant, was the canal. At some bridges there was a door. And a road. And buildings. But no indication of where we were or where we might find some food. Food became a serious preoccupation for us on the BCN. Also, there was nobody to ask. Nobody on the towpath. No passing boater. We spent a full week exploring the BCN and in all that time we were passed by two boats. One the tug 'Caggy', with a nod from Mr Stevens. The other a motor boat from Longwood which passed us at speed pulling out all our mooring stakes. We had hoped to see some commercial movements but we saw none. Large numbers of moored, and apparently laid up BW craft, 30 Alfred Matty boats and 5 tugs at Bilston. But nothing moving, nothing carrying. Even so we had some exciting and challenging times. And in later years came back for more.

I visited the Purton site regularly throughout the late 1950s and the 1960s. I thought that Harriett was a Droitwich Canal barge because an article by Mr Max Sinclair said she was. I have that article still but it is undated. I think it appeared in the 1970s in the Journal for the Thames Barge Sailing Club, of which I was a member at that time. It is worth perhaps noting that the witch barge Harriet is spelt as such in her cargo book, but the Harriett in the photos above is spelt like that: Harriett. Names can be changed or altered of course. For those who are interested in the argument, have a look at the Purton website, under the reference 'Harriett'. I am just an amateur and I now accept that Harriett is a Kennett barge. The last of her kind. And a shadow of what she was when I climbed all over her in the 1950s and 60s. I was one of the lucky ones, I think, to be able to see and inspect these old wooden vessels which in those days could be found all over the place, in rivers creeks and estuaries. Before Councils began to tidy up and vandals start bonfires.

Mr Pluto, that is a fine photograph. I am glad that we are back on Kennett barges. If I cannot match your skill, at least I can beat your date. Attached is a photo of Harriett taken in April 1965, less than a year after her placement. If the picture copies reasonably well, lots of other things to see in the background The human gives an idea of the size. It was difficult to get aboard without a grappling hook which I happened to have handy. The Harriett accords very much with my memory of the barge at Brassknocker Basin, Dundas.

On the Friends of Purton website, under 'Harriett', there is this: "...There are remnants of a Honey Street barge in one of the public houses at Limpley Stoke. These were taken from the barge that lay derelict for many years near Dundas Aqueduct and was totally destroyed by fire in the 1970s." A dangerous decade for old wooden vessels. It is a bit far for me to have a look but does anyone know what these remnants were or perhaps still are?

In the late 1950s , several times a week, I would pass past the barge, and sometimes pass over and along the barge, and cross the aqueduct. The bed of the canal was quite dry, and the barge was huge. It looked odd but rather fine, sitting, as I recall it, in the grass of the canal bed, with the crane and the warehouse beside it. To one side was the junction with the Somerset Coal Canal but that was on private land although we trespassed along it. On the other side the bed of the empty canal stretched on parallel to the river which ran below it. Some way on, but not far, there was a narrowboat, abandoned in the middle of the dry canal and once we climbed up into the boatman's cabin and had a cigarette, a Woodbine's I suspect, which did me no good at all, nor any of us because the cabin filled with acrid smoke and we spent the rest of the afternoon eating polos and hoping that the smell had not got into our clothes. There were no repercussions so it obviously hadn't. Not that these were the only things of interest in this then private canalside world, because a few steps from the barge, up the track to the public road was an old wooden shed with doors which didn't close because one of the hinges had fallen away from the door jam. There inside we could plainly see the bonnet of a small blue Bugatti racing car. It was there for several years before two men came and wheeled it up the track and away. I already had a feeling for barges by then, rather than narrowboats, although our family had one and I liked the Dundas abandoned barge. The school camera club held an exhibition of its work and someone had taken a really fine shot of it. He was a lot senior to me and I didn't dare ask him for a copy. Something I have regretted. So that is the point of this little story. Does anyone have a photograph of the Dundas Kennet barge, and if so will they share it with us? What was its name? Who owned it? Why was it there? What happened to it?

At page 27 of the Robert Wilson publication 'Fenland Barge Traffic, there is a photo of the Ely sugar beet factory, taken in 1926. The motor barge in the foreground was said to be 'Pisgah'. I cannot now remember who said that, but it was an acknowledged historian of the day. The last time that I saw 'Pisgah' was in April 1959, when she passed by, an arm's length away, through the swingbridge at Saul Junction, the smallest motor barge among the flood of larger barges, tugs and lighters that went through that day. But on the River Avon she was the largest and only barge and, coming fast downriver, light, a magnificent but scary sight as we struggled upriver in our underpowered narrowboat. Meeting round a bend was quite exciting.