Athy

Thanks for pointing this out. We are watching them! So far, they have simply pinpointed themselves on the map and done nothing else - pointless but harmless, it would appear. There have been a few from the States as well. I wonder what their boats are like.

I'd think it was his observation, based on many years' boating experience (much of it, unless I'm mistaken, as a professional).

I asked a Collingbod something similar at last year's Crick show and was told that Liverpool closed down "because the fun had gone out of it". Make of that what you will. I also learned that the new name stems from Collingwood Dock in Liddypool, where the company is based, though I'm not sure if that was Liverpool Boats' premises too. I wonder if the chap's remark meant that they made a conscious decision to change from frantic high-volume production to a smaller operation.

If a hire boat's stove and/or installation was so unsafe that the company forbade you to leave the boat while it was burning, I'd look for a different hire company.

...and more recently, I believe, a sort of police sub-station, though I cannot recall ever having seen a policeman there.

From that angle, Flamingo looks wider. She'll never get through that narrow bit.... It could be the fairly flat roof of the cabin which gives this impression.

Well HL, it does show that the it is too narrow to have been anything but a lock (it's too long to have been a former bridge, and in any case the bridges in those parts are wider, with the exception of that absolute sod outside Marston Junction).

But surely the very narrow bit near the Engine House used to be a lock? It is indeed open at both ends.

Yes, and a working microphone! I'm sure the vendor or agent is giving an informative commentary, but the video remains resolutely mute.

I thought that all maintenance work on the Chesterfield was done by volunteers. Not so?

Hilarious! Good old-fashioned local paper reporting is not dead.

I must have similar thought patterns: on seeing the title, my first reaction was "Does it?"