Nancy & Nelson

[Heartland]

The Nancy and the Nelson were early hotel boats operated by Inland Navigators. Is there any record of what happened to these boats.

[max's son]

Think second picture is them

 

Pictures from the 60's

[bigray]

If can't be certain if it's the same Nelson but this may be of interest if it is https://rwbc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Operation-Nelson.pdf In short it ended up being owned/used by the Retford and Worksop Boat Club at Clayworth. 

[cheshire~rose]

34 minutes ago, bigray said:

If can't be certain if it's the same Nelson but this may be of interest if it is https://rwbc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Operation-Nelson.pdf In short it ended up being owned/used by the Retford and Worksop Boat Club at Clayworth. 

From my memory of the photos of Nelson at the boat club I would say the conversion looks very similar to those photos shared by Max's Son. Obviously a lot of conversions of that era looked very similar but R&WBC's Nelson was a BCN boat and the BCN plate and then T-stud from the bow are displayed on the fireplace wall in the bar there (sadly it has been closed for far too many months but I suspect it might be possible to get someone to get a photo of them and or the photos which are in the function room IIRC 

[Paul H]

Nancy became a houseboat at Battlebridge Basin in the 1970s but I believe after its sale in the 1980s sank in deep water in Regents Canal Dock (Limehouse Basin) and being by then very rotten was broken up.  The former owner now has the Swan.

 

Paul

 

PS from memory the first boats to occupy the Battlebridge moorings included the wooden Formalhaut, Bangor, Dane, Sweden, William, Nancy, Hardy, Fornax, Antares and Victoria of which less than half now survive!  I had the William.

[matty40s]

Sweden was still there a couple of years ago.

[Paul H]

5 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Sweden was still there a couple of years ago.

She may have been visiting but I believe she is now based on the River Weaver.

Hardy is at Banbury awaiting restoration, Fornax is at Barnton on the T&M and Dane (the Clayton) one was for sale and is need of work.

The others are long since gone but the ironwork for William and Victoria are supposed to be at Puttenham.

Paul

[John Brightley]

This page : https://www.rwbc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/RWBC-History-CC_A4.pdf

 confirms that it was the Nelson of the 'Nancy and Nelson' pair that was taken to Retford and Worksop Boat Club. It was already a very leaky boat in 1963, apparently !

[bigray]

On 10/12/2020 at 18:38, cheshire~rose said:

From my memory of the photos of Nelson at the boat club I would say the conversion looks very similar to those photos shared by Max's Son. Obviously a lot of conversions of that era looked very similar but R&WBC's Nelson was a BCN boat and the BCN plate and then T-stud from the bow are displayed on the fireplace wall in the bar there (sadly it has been closed for far too many months but I suspect it might be possible to get someone to get a photo of them and or the photos which are in the function room IIRC 

I managed to get these today. Apologies for the reflection on the Photo’s. 

[Paul H]

Thanks.  Great photos and mementos.

For the record, although Nelson was gauged for the BCN, it was not a BCN boat.  It was originally “Blue Lias” in the Chas Nelson, a cement company on the GU fleet - passing to S E Barlow from whom Michael Streat bought it for use as a hotel boat.

 

I don’t think Max’s Son’s second pic includes Nelson - more likely to be Mabel and Forgetnenot.

 

Paul

[cheshire~rose]

On 10/12/2020 at 17:18, Heartland said:

The Nancy and the Nelson were early hotel boats operated by Inland Navigators. Is there any record of what happened to these boats.

You may be interested to know there is a 4 page article on Nelson in the winter 2020-21 Cuckoo Magazine published by Chesterfield Canal Trust.