Pluto

Sorry to hear of Richard's death. I knew him when I was living on Pluto at Burscough in the mid 1970s, and Richard I think was involved with Nidd or one of the long ex Ainscough boats. He was living part time on Chertsey at Burscough, and we got permission from the local section inspector to dispose of a canalside pile of lock gates, about eight or ten high. After removing the odd bit of useful wood, we had a fantastic bonfire and then removed the remaining ironwork for scrap using Chertsey. I don't think you'd get away with it today!

The Bridgewater used to have Swallow as well, minus engine. It was used for a Manpower Services project to improve the towpath in Runcorn c1975. I worked off and on for Peter Shrubsall at his yard in Runcorn, and we had to move Swallow around etc for the Bridgewater. The chap in charge of the youths on the scheme was ex the Ford factory at Halewood. He was hardly the hardest of workers, and made it very easy for the youths. I gave him a bit of a b****cking for his lack of initiative. He must have complained to the Canal Manager, Ruth Medlicot, I think was her surname. She had worked under Alf Hayman and took over when he retired. I was called in to the canal office - where I was profusely thanked. Ruth also thought he was a lazy b***er, but did not feel that she was in a position to complain as the work was being done free on their behalf! Afterwards, I could do no wrong on the Bridgewater. I was living on Pluto at the time, so it was useful to have the canal on your side when your boat was large, wooden and sinking.

I think the Chesterfield boats which worked into the Trent and used sails also had triangular flat boards fitted either side of the bow to prevent or reduce the chance of the bow digging in to a wave and sinking the boat. They also seem to have worked in pairs to give more stability, though that would suggest that only one boat of a pair would have a mast. Regarding the boats on the Bridgewater, Charlie Atkins told me that if the wind was right it was a good canal to set a jury rig, easing the horse's work. The long shaft could be used as a mast and any old sheet as the sail. Leeds & Liverpool boats were also fitted with masts at one time, and some years ago I wrote a short article on the subject which you can read at http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/Sailing-barges.htm.

You can find lock gates, or their remains at many sites where two canal met, as canal companies were always jealous of their water supplies. Local to me are the junctions between the southern Lancaster and the L&LC. There are recesses for an extra pair of gates to block the canal just above the top gates at Wigan and above the top gates at Johnsons Hillock, the Lancaster Canal having built the flight. The Lancaster used Jessop style locks which originally had an 'air hole' rather than a bywash. Excess water ran over a weir formed by a hole at the required water level above the top ground paddle and then through the paddle culvert into the chamber. The tops of the bottom gates were slightly higher than the tops of the upper gates, with excess water keeping the chamber full and running to waste over the top of the bottom gates. The system can be found on several canals, such as the Rochdale, where it was abandoned as the canal was extended through Lancashire in the early 1800s.

Up here in the north we stayed with tried and tested steam power, the last of William Wilkinson's engines for the L&LC surviving to around 1960. They were certainly highly efficient for a small steam engine. I have a copy of a letter from someone based near the K&AC who had devised a reciprocating propellor. This was a horizontal steam engine working a reciprocating plate with flaps under the counter of a narrow boat. He tried to interest the L&LC who responded by sending details of their engines. His reply was, in effect, 'Ah well, back to the drawing board'. As I mentioned earlier, the gas engine scheme proposed to the L&LC involved gas in cylinders, with the producer gas plant and compressor situated at various places along the canal, as this reduced the space/weight requirements of an on board gas producer. And don't forget, Widdops - non of that hit and miss governor rubbish! A bit of vibration may be, but that cut out the need for stirring your tea.

Things become murkier as I try to piece it together. There was a trial of a suction gas engine by Thorneycroft, and I have put a couple of news cuttings at the end of http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/images.html. Letters describe this as a suction gas engine which suffered from vibration because of its 12 inch stroke(a maximum of 8 inches was suggested for smaller canal boats) and reduced flywheel diameter. A similar length of stroke was quoted for the diesel engines, and it was noted that their speed could not be regulated adequately, and the stern gear was too slow. For the trials, the wrong propellor seems to have been used. The diesel boat cost 3s/7d per mile, with the existing steam boats costing 2s/8d per mile, though a diesel boat could carry 36 tons against the steamers 30 tons. The diesel was estimated to be using a gallon of fuel per mile. A problem with interpreting the surviving paperwork is that gas engines and diesel engines were tried around the same time, 1905-7, and it is difficult to differentiate between them. There were two gas engines proposed, that of Thorneycroft and one by a Col Thom from Southport. He wanted to use compressed gas in cylinders as a fuel, with stations along the canal where cylinders could be changed. The initial scheme was proposed between Liverpool and Manchester. He also seems to have been involved with the trial of the Gardner engine. At the same time there were trials of electric traction, possibly just below Wigan, with an electric motor running on a girder at high level along the towpath being used to tow dumb barges. Mike

Hi Tim, I can see there are similarities, but the flywheel is much smaller on the L&LC engine which could suggest use in a boat, though even for a L&LC boat the engine seems a little tall. I've looked through my notes from the canal company minutes, and on 16 May 1906 a Mr Sinart from the Diesel Company offered an engine for trial, and it could be this one in the photo as it was quickly transferred to Burnley yard. (The photo comes from a large collection I have been given which were taken/collected by the sickly brother of the tunnel tug captain at Foulridge, and most were from the Burnley to Skipton area.) In June 1906, Gardners offered a twin cylinder engine at £290, and when installed they were to remove it from the boat at no charge if it was unsatisfactory. The following month both 15hp and 30hp Gardner engines were approved for trial. One of these seems to have been purchased in 1907, but I have documents which show that it was found not to be as effective at the steam engines, which was why diesel engines were not used on the canal again until the late 1920s or early 30s. Mike

At the end of my canal images page, http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/images.html, I have added a picture of an early diesel engine which I was given recently. The writing on the back is by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal's engineer and is dated 1906 and is about fuel and oil costs. Around this time Gardner tested an engine in a Leeds & Liverpool boat where it was found not to be as useful as the existing steam engines. The engine was then moved to the canal company yard at Finsley Gate, Burnley, where it was used to drive the saw mill. I suspect that this photo is of that engine, though the height seems somewhat excessive for use in a canal boat - perhaps that was why it was removed. Does anyone know anything about early Gardner engines, particularly this one? Gardners had been helping Thorneycroft with the trial of a gas engined narrow boat boat on the MSC and had met people from the L&LC then, which resulted in the testing of the Gardner engine. Mike

Alan, I have added a few more scans, http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/images.html, which may be of interest. They are from two general BW hire boat brochures from 1960 and 1962, with one for the Water Baby class from 1962. No base is mentioned, but I suspect that you could hire from any BW office or yard that was convenient for the boat's usage. Mike

If you go to http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/images.html, I have scanned an old c1960 BW holiday brochure with pictures of the types of boat available. I do have a separate brochure for the Water Baby which gives more details.

I have a very basic outline for a steamer, a photo of the drawing for a 1782 Douglas Navigation flat (It has been copied and traced by a friend interested in Mersey flats), a drawing of the hull for the double-ended Foulridge Tunnel tug taken from the original half model, and the unfinished, but almost complete, lines of a wooden boat which were being drawn by Jack Hodson, whose family had been boatbuilders on the canal for generations, and which probably fits the specification. I also have a list of the wood required to build a L&LC boat, and an earlier, 1898, printed specification.

You can find a brief leaflet about Leeds and Liverpool Canal paintwork on the download page of my web site http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/Downloads.html

The Exeter Canal probably had the first lock in Britain, closely followed by the Lee Navigation, both quite well recorded, but nothing remains of the original structures. L&LC locks all post-date 1770, when the canal's construction began. However, the section from below Rufford lock to Sollom lock was built earlier by the Douglas Navigation. The branch from Burscough to Rufford was built in 1780/1, and extended from Sollom to Tarleton in 1805.

Which is the oldest lock in Britain still in use? Sollom lock on the Rufford branch of the L&LC was built by the Douglas Navigation circa 1760 and, although now level, still has boats passing through the original chamber. Is it the oldest? Also surviving from the Douglas Navigation is a stone weir at Gathurst which now stands isolated and unused close to the towpath below the two parallel locks at Dean. This weir was first used in 1741 and is unaltered from that date, just overgrown, especially in summer. Is it the oldest navigation structure in its original condition? Anyone else have any suggestions?

When I was researching Tom Puddings, the original ones were built by Hudswell & Clarke in Leeds in 1862. In the H&C order book the immediately preceding one was for an iron steam narrow boat and several iron dumb boats for work removing spoil on the new Standege Tunnel. I have always suspected that Elland was one of these boats. There were also a number of short narrow boats working on the Rochdale, and even on the Leeds & Liverpool, and they were still around into the 1900s. There could well have been twenty or thirty short narrow boat pairs around a hundred years ago. On the L&LC, salt may have been delivered to chemical works in the Church area from Middlewich by narrow boat till around 1920.

The Leeds & Liverpool scheme was just for women, and they trained on the boat Venus which was converted with bunks in a cabin in the hold at Whitebirk. AFAIK only four women actually worked on the canal, where they were called Judys: Mrs Ruby Greenwood of Halifax, Miss Barbara Gray of Edinburgh, Miss Elsie Blackburn of Burnley and Miss Nancy Smith of Northwich. During training at Whitebirk they were looked after by Mildred, the daughter of Jack Hodson, the boat yard owner. The work was considered too hard for women, not just because of the wide locks and working into the River Mersey, but because boatmen were expected to work in the warehouses as well when required. With sacks of grain and bales of cotton and wool weoghing up to and over 2cwt, you had to be pretty fit. A second scheme was set up by the Leeds & Liverpool to encourage Irishmen to work on canals, and this was adopted by many canals, with Irishmen working on canals all over the country until they found they could get more money and better conditions elsewhere.

I am just finishing writing a book on boat painting on the L&LC, working with a friend who worked at Whitebirk, Blackburn, one of the last yards, where he did the painting. Comparing his memory of the colours they used with pantone swatches suggests the following: red 186, lemon chrome for yellow, light blue 279, dark blue 280, light green 376 and mid green 363. However, the paints were mixed from stainers, so there would be a variation between each batch. The book's virtually finished, and I am just sorting out the last few illustrations. The firms using the yard in the 50s and early 60s were Crooke & Thompson, Dean Waddington, Croasdale and Hargreaves. They did repair some BW maintenance boats and I'll have to ask about the colours.