Nantwich Hire Boat 1964

[magpie patrick]

I'm sorting Magpie the Elders stuff now he's in care and came across a copy of Motor Boat and Yachting  October 1964, the only copy of that journal he has (if only he were so sparse on some of the others - I've no room in the garage for the car thanks to magazines!) - in it I found this - a review of "Lady Helen" of Ladyline Cruisers of Wardle. Given recent interest in hire brochures of the 1970's I thought this might appeal to the forumites

 

My, how hire boats have changed!

 

 

 

  

[GilesMorris]

Lovely boat. I remember it coming past the wharf at Wheaton Aston pulling a tsunami-size wake while I was working on another Dobson's boat (Christine). Does anyone know what happened to Lady Helen? I heard that it had been destroyed by a fire that started during fuelling, but that seems somewhat unlikely with diesel.

[Paddle]

Building wooden boats for hire; those were the days! 

 

With electric lighting and power throughout, an inside 'loo and running hot water, it was considerably more advanced than some homes even at that time.

[John Brightley]

Thanks Patrick for posting this. It is interesting- I've seen very little about the Ladyline hire fleet, I expect because they stopped hiring boats in the early '70's to concentrate on their marina and chandlery business.

[magpie patrick]

I'm not sure I knew Ladyline had ever hired - a look at the old straight line guides probably reveals adverts for them

 

I know Tingay hired from Atherstone and then Shackerstone in the 1960s' and of course Canal Cruising Co in Stone have been going since the 50's, but I guess hire wasn't that widespread then, and as this article shows, there were some interesting but perhaps slightly impractical vessels around, the reviewer comments they'd have preferred a tiller!

[BuckbyLocks]

Ladyline took over Braunston's Blue Line as well as operating in Market Drayton. I think they were responsible for the expansion there as I can remember the new building going up in the early 80s. The new name board stuck out like a sore thumb. IWA Magazine carried their adverts regularly.

[GilesMorris]

This (1964) was just before I started a job on summer Saturdays with a company that rented boats at Wheaton Aston and Llangollen. Best job I ever had. The boats were delightfully idiosyncratic, including a converted bridge pontoon, a converted airborne lifeboat, two plywood cruisers, three mahogany on oak cruisers and a converted sea-going launch. Mostly air-cooled Lister engines, with some 2-stroke Stuart Turner petrol engines (the only 2-stroke engines I've ever liked).

 

I loved everything about that job, even emptying the Elsans, but the very best was when a boat needed to be moved between locations and I would get to do it between after school on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon (I suspect that might be frowned upon now).

[GilesMorris]

3 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

I'm not sure I knew Ladyline had ever hired - a look at the old straight line guides probably reveals adverts for them

 

I know Tingay hired from Atherstone and then Shackerstone in the 1960s' and of course Canal Cruising Co in Stone have been going since the 50's, but I guess hire wasn't that widespread then, and as this article shows, there were some interesting but perhaps slightly impractical vessels around, the reviewer comments they'd have preferred a tiller!

Ernie Thomas at Gailey, Swan Line had some weird boats with weirder engines at Fradley, a small operation with 3 boats at Hoo Mill lock. There was somebody with a few Holt Abbott center cockpit boats near Great Haywood, but when I spoke with him as he was raising one of them at Penkridge wharf (hirer left the weed hatch open) he said he was emigrating to Australia. Double Pennant in Wolverhampton, Simolda and Chas Harden in Nantwich, Welsh Canal Holiday Craft at Llangollen/Wheaton Aston, Shropshire Union Cruises at Norbury. That's all I can remember in my area, but the world was a lot bigger then.

Edited May 10, 2020 by GilesMorris
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