BuckbyLocks
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Posts posted by BuckbyLocks
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Thanks Ray. No idea why I couldn't get in. I never had any problems before, but haven't wanted to look for a while.
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4 hours ago, Joseph said:
May I encourage everyone to have a look at the online photographic archives - some of the descriptions could do with clarification.
Can I ask how you access them then. I used to have no problem and indeed have made many suggestions for alterations, but I cannot get through the verbiage that is the current CRT web site. Not updated for over a year, (presumably because of Covid) and I just go round in circles trying to see pictures I even have numbers for.
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15 hours ago, davidg said:
So is there any truth in the story I was told that the steel used in the conversion came from the back door of the press shop at Longbridge? The last remnants I took off suggested this was a possibility.
Not sure David. Although Barrow was the first real boat that offered me a cup of tea in the basin when we first arrived as owners of Victoria, I didn't get to know ? (My memory is definitely failing!!) until many years later when I found I was working with him in the Museum. I think he moved out of the basin soon after 1971.
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Yes, Mike, I recall that you had had designs on Linda/Victoria when we first met! Having failed to get the Seaford out of Willow Wren, we made our first visit to Gas Street and came away the proud owners of an engineless heap. No regrets though. Enjoyed best part of 25 years ownership.
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As opposed to the motor with the missing engine hole roof which is Linda/Victoria, just before we bought it! Barrow, next door to John's Victoria, was soon to get a full length cabin.
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The wooden camper, as opposed to the metal Linda/Victoria. Unusual engine configuration in John's boat too.
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Yes, that is how I remember them in 1971 although the remains got a little lower over time. Although we had left the basin by the time the far too steep new bridge was built there, I believe the gates were finally removed when new dropping gates were installed. More importantly is that the remains of the Toll Keepers plank bridge can be seen behind the left hand gate. That had been removed by the time we arrived but the mark 1 swing bridge had already disappeared then and it was back to the builders plank as in the earlier Gas Street image. Bodmin appears to have had a lot of work done as well.
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Surely someone who attended the Birmingham IWA Rally in Gas Street can remember whether the beams were still there or had been cut off. I only started going to the Rallies the year after, but as Magpie says, the beams and all above water level gear had disappeared by 1971. There is some confusion about the plank bridges though. I have no idea when the standard BCN Toll Office bridge disappeared. It does appear in photos of the basin. Clearly at one point in the 60s a builders plank was used, and that was also the only way of crossing the Bar Lock when we first arrived there in late 1970. I believe the bridge shown here was installed for the Rally but soon disappeared, although there were at least two more versions of this bridge there during the late 70s and early 80s. They were rather flimsy and were regularly knocked off the mountings by pleasure boats, resulting in a shout for as many people as possible to come and lift them out of the water. Because of the counterweights they were quite heavy to lift!
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Seem to have missed out on at least a fortnight of the Forum and am catching up slowly. I agree with Archie that the photo is the 'other' Tony Miles. I believe when Grace was broken up the knees and stem post were incorporated into a new build so are still around. Wooden boats do not like being lifted out of the water!
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2 hours ago, Duchess said:
. Would she have been BW then?
No, that was after she left Alan Stevens ownership. I wasn't directly involved, but I did do some 'holding and struggling' work on Cygnus for the guy who was doing the welding to make it easier for towing it away from Brum. Not sure who did the conversion work but I recall it being lived on at Pooley Hall Colliery basin for quite some time, then it disappeared but I saw it all over the system after that under several different owners. Was it one of the anonymous blue butties that lived around Little Venice in recent years?
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Cygnus was paired with Buxton in September 1944 and to the best of my knowledge was never crewed by Trainees. She has had a variety of occupiers since leaving Polesworth where she lived after leaving Caggy. She was used on both the Wire and the Brewery rubbish trips but I will have to look if I took any pix.
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16 hours ago, Ray T said:
It started in Coventry, probably at the original telephone exchange above the Post Office in Hertford Street, following the route of the Coventry Canal possibly going to Fazeley Junction where it may have branched off to Birmingham.
I have memories of the late 60s of trying to telephone my girlfriend in the South of England from Loughborough and getting the recorded message that "All lines through Coventry are engaged - please try again later."
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This photo shows the Basin in very early B & M C C Days, after the boats featured had been acquired from Brant, the Winson Green Loop coal merchant. Is the tug shown on the left Sharpness?
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He used to blow the horn on whichever loco he was driving whenever he came past our house. Sure the neighbours weren't impressed at 02.00! He had several boats before Tryphina, but I am struggling to remember any names. Will have a look for photos.
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1 hour ago, canalboat said:
Did you bump into Tony Miles who eventually owned Cassiopeiaand until his demise at Hillmorton, raved about his time at Gas Street
I think Tony actually owned Capricorn and Andrew owned Cassiopeia, but Tony lived on Butty Grace in Gas Street for some time. It would have been after Dave Moore moved away though. My memory for dates is non existent, but it would have been before the Coventry jobs took Tony to Hillmorton.
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Donkeys years ago now, (Last Century anyway,) the various Waterways Museums and a few that had an interest in Waterways formed a Heritage Network, (long before it became fashionable because there was some money available), got together with the Museums Documentation Association to create a Glossary of Terms to try to introduce a standard for use in the Documentation Software being introduced into Museum Collections. It was fairly comprehensive although some of the obscure to non boaters terms needed adding in the first revision. I remember crossing swords with the MDA project leader over Handled Swages being called Hammers when they are not but that is by the by. No idea if the list is still available from MDA as I haven't had any call to look at it although I probably have a 3.5 floppy disc of it somewhere in the old discs that still clutter up the study, even though I haven't got a reader any more.
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Because Deimos and Vela were a pair used by Trainees during the war there are several mentions of the pair in both film and newspaper reports. The American journalist, Elsie Danenberg travelled on the pair and this was illustrated in the Birmingham Mail, Saturday May 27th 1944. There is also a video, entitled 3 Girls in a Boat from the Imperial War Museum, (although it may be hiding on You Tube by now.
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Atilla was moored next to us in Gas Street Birmingham for a while in the early 70s. You could near the clogs coming along the Bar.
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20 hours ago, Bodzac said:
@BuckbyLocks may be a long time since this post, but as the Zac in Zac and Caro I wondered if you still had a copy... would be good to look back on our time with Victoria...
I will have to have a look Zac. I should have it somewhere in the pile of tapes. Will have a search for it and see if I can still watch it before I try and copy it. I had to really work on the production team to get a free copy by asking for a fee for my appearance at the same cost of them trying to sell me one!
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Not sure if that is the point, given all the comments about photoshop etc, but Tardebigge is not taking on water in Gas Street in this photo. It is close to where Mrs Farmer's Bridge formerly passed over the cut by the top Lock of the 13. The Cambridge Street Bridge gives that away.
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2 minutes ago, David Mack said:
" though you won't see many that colour!"
Been that colour for more than 40 years. I thought it was orrible when I first saw it and haven't changed my opinion. Was also moored at the top of Curdworth for many years. Did meet the people who owned it, but can't remember anything about them.
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3 hours ago, Athy said:
Interesting. Where were you originally from?
Northamptonshire. Sparrows were also spadgers.
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29 minutes ago, Athy said:
Now that is confusing!
But that is also the way I would use the words. A sliver (as in liver, etc) is a very thin small piece and a sliver (as in another similar word, skiver - leather workers term I believe rather than a lazy person) in the textile trades.
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20 hours ago, BuckbyLocks said:
Europe was built in 1974 I think. It's first trip in and around Brum was to promote the European Union. Because of that it was 'launched' the other side of the Bar Lock by Edward Heath. I helped with the fit out, was present at the 'Launch' and also helped by steering the dead boat down into Stratford when the engine broke its crankshaft half way down the South Stratford. The Ansells boat was definitely pre 70.
May 1975 according to this photograph of mine.
Historic Canal Film
in History & Heritage
Posted
Yes, although the hovercraft is really on the river Rea which runs underneath the canal at Spaghetti Jct. Mostly filmed around Gas St and we were nearly thrown out of the cinema in Staines because we burst out laughing every time there was a change of direction. For example, Cliff is seen heading off towards Smethwick and the next scene shows him near Hockley Heath. My childhood next door neighbour felled the tree that supposedly fell in front of the Landrover in the woodland scene. The Brumburger Restaurant was the church hall of the demolished church that stood on top of the Broad Street Bridge/Tunnel.