Harpur Hill

Thanks for your thanks, chaps. All the hard work was done for pleasure and fun but it's nice to know that some one notices and appreciates the effort. Amongst other endeavors I particularly remember rebuilding a lock somewhere around Welsh Frankton in the late 70's alas the exact location escapes me. I do remember sleeping in some village hall/factory unit only made comfortable by a few bevvies at the end of the day. From a novice I became quite a competent bricklayer by the end of the exercise! hated the brickwork pointing at several locations though. At the time I had a Springer (and I always thought the 'V' hull superior to a flat bottom) at the Great Northern Basin at the end of the Erewash, happy days. Unfortunately, circumstances, the years and arthritis have overtaken me and I have not been on a boat or work party for many many years. I still have an interest though and manage to keep up with what's happening by lurking on this forum, much seems to stay the same and much changes - many more boats, mooring difficulties, moans about maintenance/dredging, 'twas never cheap but hells teeth it seems expensive now. Should anyone want bound copies of Waterways World 1976, 77, 78 (foc) let me know - you'll need to collect them. Cheers HH

Hi It helps if you stick your tongue out of the corner of your mouth & then just persevere. Cheers HH

Hi Happy to help, glad you got it sorted. Yes, NGK brings back memories,we used to seek these out and pretty much any plug except Champion as they did not seem to fail in the same way. Clean plugs with a wire brush, you can get toothbrush sized brass ones at around 3 for £1 at street markets, cheapo shops etc; useful for all sorts of jobs & cheap enough to be disposable (unless like me you are from Yorkshire!) Cheers HH

Hi Whilst I have no experience of Kelvin engines I have had experience of many other makes. I would guess this is almost certainly a plug related issue - when I was a lad (many years ago!) Champion plugs were well known to fail on motor cycles after being unused for some time. This was typically over winter but was also known to happen after just a week or so of standing. Never did find out why this happened and they may have improved over the intervening years but the memory remains. From my more recent stationary engine experience a clean plug (and copper core lead) is essential and if it won't start try another plug first before delving into deeper issues. May I also emphasise not to spin the mag without somewhere for the spark to go - it will have to get out somewhere and is often through the winding insulation - then it's megabucks. If it helps I have a coil system ready made up from one of my more difficult stationary engines - you are welcome to it but not sure how it would get to you, I think you are in Reading & I'm near Sheffield. Cheers HH

Hi The drop down grill is to stand a bucket on under the tap. Merry Christmas HH

I would definitely have thought 68% of the time. So that's two of us that know there's a place called Harpur Hill.

Hi I read somewhere that the weather forecast is right 65% of the time, however, if you say the weather tomorrow will be the same as today you will be right 68% of the time. Probably a load of tosh but it sounds good in the pub. Cheers HH

I believe the difference is that dogs used to be fed on bones fron the butcher and the calcium gave the characteristic white colour. Nowadays dogs are fed on expensive tins/packets of stuff from the supermarket which largely contain mashed up offal.