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BCN Horseboating Video from 1965


Tim Lewis

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Alan and Heather Snowden's other  films, mostly on railways in  1960's , are excellent. eg: Woodhead Railway cab ride or  the colliery railway at Seaham in 1963.

I remember seeing one of S & K's boats being loaded  at the Chance  glass works in 1972. Two men shovelling a heap of broken glass into the boat while the horse grazed on a little patch of grass  nearby.

Edited by billh
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Yes, thanks for posting but why does the past look far more interesting than the present?

 

I'm talking about interesting looking railway sidings, green Class 47s, sorry, Brush 4s, red Mk1 coaches, Hunslet (or was it an Avonside?) locos in scrap yards, and a far more open feeling canal, not hemmed in by railings or housing.

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Wonderful to see this film from just a couple of years before I first saw the BCN. I was surprised to see the gates being closed behind the horse boat - could that have been because the leakage was really bad?

 

Another surprise was to see how grim and gloomy it looks to my modern eyes. It didn't seem that way at the time, and I remember fondly the wonderful run-down feel of those canals both rural and urban.

 

I had one of those folding Moulton bicycles. Mine was the take-apart version to make it easier to stow away on boats.

Edited by GilesMorris
Premature posting before I finished writing
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What's missing from those nostalgic images are the sounds and smells of industry. Grimy and oily, and some stiff paddle gear by the looks of it. But there's still a longing in preference to some of the antiseptic landscaping and architectural expressions of the nineties on.

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I was born in Wolverhampton in 62 and when I was young my grandad would take me down to the canal and I have some very early memories of seeing working boats, too young to know how old / when and seeing this has bought back those memories. Later on I worked at a company near the top of Ryders Green locks and the junction just above them in the late 80s and the buildings in this video were still there then.

 

Thanks.

Edited by PeterF
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Great film. 

 

Ryders Green has not changed much really, some on the building have been cleared but it still has the same feel!  The Walsall looked better than it does today, at least it was not full of rubbish.

 

I particularly liked the toll building on the new main line island, such a shame that those have gone.

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Freddie King (or Walters - take your pick of family names!), with beret, on Towy - usually known as Watters. Jack Smith (or Jack Taylor - again take your pick) working locks. Latterly, Jack lived in the fore cabin of Gifford so Freddie tied up against her overnight. Jack well known for eating cakes - when others had fish & chips for dinner Jack had cakes!

 

The black horse's name rhymed with trigger. Paddles probably wound down because they were being filmed?!

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