Rose Narrowboats

https://shop.eriks.co.uk/en/mechanical-power-transmission-shaft-couplings-flexible-couplings/spider-for-hrc-jaw-coupling-pr-rc0023-0131-jb/ That does look homemade - out of a couple of R&D half couplings. The rubber drive part is within the steel couplings on that particular Fenner, and is more substantial than it looks.

It's a Fenner - possibly type HRC.

It was built by the Oxford Canal Company at approximately the same time as the puddle banks (1828/29) and I'm sure it was a lengthsman's house. There is a flood paddle and weir just the other side of the turnover bridge, plus a very large embankment for him to keep an eye on. All the big OCC embankments originally had houses near them and all bar one (at Nettle Hill, again with no road access) survive. The wharfinger title seems to have been used to cover any number of canal company employee job descriptions - the toll collector at Stretton Stop was similarly described. There was no road access up to that property, so I can't see it being much use as a wharf, and the house is too far back from the towingpath and the wrong architectural style to be a toll house. The building in the garden was originally part stable and part drop plank store. The toll houses covering the Braunston pound were the Stop House in Braunston for traffic from the south, Hillmorton Middle Lock to the north (now sadly demolished), Calcutt Top Lock (Calcutt Boats property these days - tolls were never collected at Wigrams afaik) and Marston Doles Top Lock (for where I have one of the toll registers if anyone ever wants to see it) to the west. The OCC spent a fair bit of money on their properties over the years and particularly it seem in the early 20th Century. The one I grew up in had been extended (and significiantly altered internally) at least three times, though they drew the line when they discovered the then occupant (the company engineer) was having the back garden levelled to make a tennis court using company labour and materials! 100 years later it still has a change level at the point he was sacked...... After the Johnsons moved out of the house at Braunston Turn in the early 2000s it was unoccupied for a while before being sold off by BWB, still with no vehicle access.

Yes - twice.

According to the rep, they've also just invested in 90,000 new 6kg cylinders. He didn't mention 13kg, but then again he could perhaps see I was cross enough about the 3.9 being phased out, To be fair, for cooking 6kgs are adequate and easier to handle, but no 13kgs would be the end of gas c/h on boats. Flogas are only 11kg, and so three of those equal only 2.5 Calor 13kgs, which isn't enough for an Alde on a cold week on a hire boat (i.e. boiler flat out and cabin doors wide open both ends..) Cost-wise I don't even want to think about running an Alde on 6kgs, never mind the small issue of the max. evaporation rate.

According to our Calor rep. on his last visit, Calor are phasing out the 3.9/4.5kg cylinder in the next few years.

I'm aware there are decidely mixed results with "fake coal" on proper (and even flea gauge) railways, but I suspect the boiler in President will be easier to manage and more tolerant of anything other than welsh steam coal than a loco boiler - plus it'll give the butty a purpose carrying all the bl**dy ash!

Based on trials on some std, narrowgauge and miniature railways, I imagine President et al. will steam well enough* on the likes of Ecoal, Widlfire or Trevithick Ovoids. * They probably won't stop it hitting things though....

The stop lock at the entrance to the Ashby was originally 14' wide and rebuilt to its current narrow form in 1819.

We often get asked how many "births" our (or should that be are?) boats. I'm always tempeted to reply with "Well, none so as I know, but I'm told there has been at least one conception..." I'm surpised that after owning for so many years they seem to think it was tug. It wasn't, it was a carrying boat, and as built with a 9hp single pot engine I doubt it ever worked with a butty.

I am aware of two incidents involving cyclists injuring themselves whilst trying (unsuccessfully) to negotiate hoses, hurting themselves quite badly and attempting to sue. Likewise I recall a great deal of fuss surrunding a boat which had come adrift and been remoored (no doubt with the best of intentions) with the remaining rope accross the towingpath into the hedge several feet above the ground so I shudder to think of the consequences of intentionally stringing a hose accross the towingpath. Proper 1/2" potable water blue hose is cheap enough to replace regularly if it gets damaged, and if always coiled the same way is easy enough to handle, even in the winter. If you are worried about muck getting in it, just make some blanks using hoselock type adaptors. I've never bothered, but I suspect the safest way to leave a hose would be full of water as the water has chlorine in to kill bugs - but that's probably only valid in approved hose which nasties are less likely to grow in anyway.

Hancock & Lane most definitely didn't fold - they just found better things to do than build narrowboats.

They also built Lady Godiva and Hargreaves (the one whose name I couldn't remember last night) in the 70's. There's a bit about the original Hargreaves on their website and apparently the apprentices built one per year. Pirate Princess was quite a different (but equally fugly) shape to the late 70s Cammel Laird built ones.

With the benefit of sleeping on it I now recall that it was Swan Hunter that built Pirate Princess as well. My grandfather was the overseeing surveyor when it was built (something he really enjoyed having been involved in ships and shipbuilding earlier in his life) and I still have the carpenter's toolbox they presented to him when the boat was handed over which was also made and signwritted by the apprentices.

Lady Godiva was one, and there was another of the same shape in this area until a few years back the name of which won;t come to me at the moment. They were certainly shipyard built by apprentices (not sure where) but in the 70s. Pirate Princess was also built by apprentices in the early 80's somewhere in the northeast - I think Hartlepool?

Don't kid yourself that this boat you are looking at has anything in common with Themis or any other H&W narrowboat built pre-war - it doesn't, and if you saw Themis or any other Little Woolwich in the flesh you'd understand. The cabin shape is very wrong for a Hancock & Lane, as are the style of the dollies and the boss on the botton of the ram's head. H&L builder's plate were almost always in the well-deck on the collision bulkhead. I say almost always because they are bound to have a built at least oneboat without a well deck!

Also worth noting that if it is a Hancock & Lane it will be at least 5 years older than it claims to be.

Could this be the ex-hire boat (from somewhere on the L&L IIRC) that has previously been incorrectly advertised as built by Harland & Wolff?

Master's Bridge at Brownsover is the least of his worries - there are plenty lower than that. All the lifeboats I've seen are at least 3m beam, so if he's craned in at Rugby he won't get south of the stop plank narrows at Clifton, or north past us at Stretton Stop, assuming he can fit under some of the original bridges between here and Newbold. Either way, that's not enough to satisfy continuous cruising, plus let's not forget CRT's new bit in the T&Cs about the vessel having to be suitable for the canal it's on, so I think it would be handy to know where it's going to be craned in, just so we know where to go and watch when CRT S.8 it and crane it back out Assuming this is for real and not a wind-up, then it's all just going to be a waste of time and money for the buyer and for CRT.

A far as I can work out, it is not rebated for use as a domestic heating oil - probably because it didn't exist when the list was drawn up, but if it's not on the list...... I guess is that when fuel prices were going through the roof, someone a long way up the supply chain took the opportunity to raise the price of HVO, so most of the regional bought it at an inflated price but red then dropped back a bit, so they are probably stuck with expensive HVO - but I re-iterate that is just a guess.

There's a lot of confusion, and some brave souls trying to sort it out. The main importer, Crown, gave me the initial impression that all was okay but have not answered my detailed queries subsequently. So, we tried it, liked it, but have not re-ordered for the simple reason that the next time I tried to buy some the price had jumped up and it was now 25p per litre dearer than bulk red, and sadly I could not justify that.

They were always at Crick as far as I remember.

Black Prince were there in the Ed Rimmer era.

You can buy them from the BMF - but you probably have to be a member.

At 28hp it's unlikely to be a 3.152. How many cylinders does it have? 28 would be about right for a 4.108.