Edgeware & Balham on The Stratford?

[john6767]

On 01/11/2020 at 13:40, Derek R. said:

I really thought that was a very good painting at first of the type seen on 'Narrow Boat' covers. But the overwhelming feeling is one of photoshopping.

And what are the diamond shaped plates doing? Warning of a weight restriction to traffic and 'Locomotives'? On a horse accommodation bridge?

Smacks of fraudulence to me.

The weight limit sign is actually there.  I think the photo of the cottage and lock is real, other than the fact the it has been mirrored.  The boats therefore have to be photoshopped in as the name on the butty is not mirrored.

 

So the end result is a fake, and for me should not be winning a photographic competition.

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, john6767 said:

The boats therefore have to be photoshopped in as the name on the butty is not mirrored

And the boats are in the condition they were in latterly when moored at Nether Heyford, where they were for years. I don't know when these boats last did the Stratford, but they wouldn't have looked like that at the time.

[Big Bob W]

When I first saw the image, it just did not seem right. More like a painting than a photograph.

I then recognised the boats - until recently they were moored only a mile or so from me at Nether Heyford.

If the contributor enjoys creating pictures by heavily manipulating other images, that's up to him. But to then enter the result into a national photo competition is simply wrong. 

For all we know, the individual component photos may not even be his own!

 

 

[Athy]

32 minutes ago, Big Bob W said:

When I first saw the image, it just did not seem right. More like a painting than a photograph.

 

 

 

Strangely enough, I thought the same, yes.

[Derek R.]

I guess it's what is known in photographic circles as an art form using computer programs. If the result is appealing, and it is, then the product is acceptable to both the eye and it would appear - the judges. We would have to know fully the criteria for entries to say whether it should be accepted or not. If photos of real boats in real locations, then it's a fraud. If the 'effects' of techniques are acceptable, then it's quite a fine representation of a 'scene'.

[Heartland]

I prefer real boats on the Farmers Bridge flight

 

 

[Derek R.]

I'd be curious to know why PRESIDENT is going backwards up the flight.

[matty40s]

He is doing the traditional President single handed method of emptying the lock and then pulling the top gate open with the front rope.....as practised by JRR Hartley on his almost famous non existent trip.  

[jeannette smith harrison]

Slightly off topic but special to me & my boating family  just a little of the history on Edgeware = Albert Sibley  & his wife  Cissy nee Harrison (my Godparents) Trained the first Amature Boatwoman Eily Gayford the  extract is from her book The Amateur Boatwoman . After he passed on his Birthday Eily always had a bottle of Stout delivered to uncle Albert's grave in memory of the day on his birthday she knocked him into the cut whilst trying to spin a mop 

[roland elsdon]

8 hours ago, Derek R. said:

I'd be curious to know why PRESIDENT is going backwards up the flight.

Stops the smoke from that replica knacker going in steerers  eyes. Should have left it with a bolinder.
 

[John Brightley]

10 hours ago, Derek R. said:

I'd be curious to know why PRESIDENT is going backwards up the flight.

I'm sure that Ray will be along shortly to confirm, but I would guess that it is returning to its base at the Black Country Museum backwards up the flight after attending an event at the Science Museum (which at the time was just a few locks down the flight at Newhall Street).  It would have been slightly easier to do this rather than take the boat all the way down the flight to turn and return in the opposite direction. The photo dates from before 1986 when the new buildings on the site on the left of the photo were built, so I guess it must be in the early '80's.

[Laurie Booth]

16 hours ago, Heartland said:

I prefer real boats on the Farmers Bridge flight

 

 

That is a proper photograph

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Laurie Booth

[Hudds Lad]

Odd, i've seen the same pair moored at Flatford Mill  

 

 

[Athy]

2 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Odd, i've seen the same pair moored at Flatford Mill  

 

 

They're illegally moored. Send for a Constable.

[Hudds Lad]

Just now, Athy said:

They're illegally moored. Send for a Constable.

<doffs cap>

[Heartland]

Yes it was in 1983. There was a traction rally in Newhall Street and PRESIDENT attended mooring near Newhall Street Bridge. So in addition to road steam traction there was a steam canal boat !

 

There is no opportunity to turn as the the Whitmore Arm was closed off in those days and even even then it would be an interesting discussion point to decide if it could, Narrowboats did work along the arm all the way up to the Newhall Works in George Street, but infilling commenced after 1950.

 

So PRESIDENT went backwards through the 8 locks and turned at the Junction 

 

There was always something special about the Newhall Street gatherings

 

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Heartland

[BuckbyLocks]

4 minutes ago, Heartland said:

So PRESIDENT went backwards through the 8 locks and turned at the Junction 

It appears to be Bill Brookes, who worked at the Museum, steering. We often came back up from the Museum backwards , as the nearest winding point going down was Aston Junction, all the other arms and wides being filled in or unusable.

[Athy]

19 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

<doffs cap>

Well they're obviously moored in a winding hole, or "turner" as they're known in those parts.

[Tim Lewis]

6 minutes ago, Heartland said:

Yes it was in 1983. There was a traction rally in Newhall Street and PRESIDENT attended mooring near Newhall Street Bridge. So in addition to road steam traction there was a steam canal boat !

 

There is no opportunity to turn as the the Whitmore Arm was closed off in those days and even even then it would be an interesting discussion point to decide if it could, Narrowboats did work along the arm all the way up to the Newhall Works in George Street, but infilling commenced after 1950.

 

So PRESIDENT went backwards through the 8 locks and turned at the Junction 

By coincidence I was recently scanning some slides from 1975 of traction engines at an event at the Museum Of Science and Industry in Newhall Street. The set included what I believe is my oldest canal photo!

 

 

 

[BuckbyLocks]

9 minutes ago, Heartland said:

There is no opportunity to turn as the the Whitmore Arm was closed off in those days and even even then it would be an interesting discussion point to decide if it could, Narrowboats did work along the arm all the way up to the Newhall Works in George Street, but infilling commenced after 1950.

It was still possible to take boats into the Whitmore Arm into the early 60s as coal was delivered for the Museum boilers. The Big Freeze of 63 put an end to that as continuity of supple led to the powers that be converting the Museum boilers to oil firing.

[BuckbyLocks]

"The set included what I believe is my oldest canal photo!"

 

Is that the trip boat Britannia, Tim?

[Heartland]

Well Mike,

 

Nice to read about these memories. I have been putting together a trade history for the Whitmore Arm, Caroline Colmore's Canal or the James Level, whichever, but did not have the date for the last boats into the arm. I remember you talking about them and that short length of tramway track along the wharf. There are still some loose ends to find out about including the timber yard next door to Elkingtons which came to be owned by Tailby's and had traffic at least to 1910 along the arm.

[Tim Lewis]

10 minutes ago, BuckbyLocks said:

"The set included what I believe is my oldest canal photo!"

 

Is that the trip boat Britannia, Tim?

Yes it is, another shot:

 

 

[Derek R.]

Great pictures and replies.

[BuckbyLocks]

3 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

Yes it is, another shot:

 

 

Don't remember ever taking it through any locks, but did a lot of journeys between Smethwick and Kings Norton, including Netherton Tunnel, both in the bar and as steerer. I believe it is known as Dove now.