BW 177 n/b Sutton?

[Tam & Di]

I've done a search for Sutton but can only get hundreds of mentions of Sutton Stop. Does anyone know anything about the boat?

 

Tam

 

[Ray T]

Not a lot more than these photo's from the HNBC site.

 

Sutton | Historic Narrow Boat Club (hnbc.org.uk)

 

Sutton was one of Mike's boats when he worked for Waterways, based at Hillmorton.

[Tam & Di]

The card has no date but I guess it's from the 50s and possibly on maintenance.

 

Tam

[Paul H]

I don’t believe these are the same boat!  BW sold off ex-GUCCC Sutton in the early 60s and it was renamed Laidley Worm because they had a policy of insisting on the name being changed after sale.  The postcard looks like a motor iceboat to me.

 

Paul

[alan_fincher]

2 minutes ago, Paul H said:

I don’t believe these are the same boat!  BW sold off ex-GUCCC Sutton in the early 60s and it was renamed Laidley Worm because they had a policy of insisting on the name being changed after sale.  The postcard looks like a motor iceboat to me.

 

Paul

 

I agree - not the same boat.

 

[stagedamager]

And wooden

[alan_fincher]

32 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Not a lot more than these photo's from the HNBC site.

 

Sutton | Historic Narrow Boat Club (hnbc.org.uk)

 

Sutton was one of Mike's boats when he worked for Waterways, based at Hillmorton.

 

Maybe not immediately apparent, but....

Sutton has a peculiar arrangement at the back end, because forward of the normal back cabin there is some kind of toilet / wash room arrangement.  The engine room is set forward of that, so is several feet further from the back of the boat than is normal.  hence the engine is also set forward, with a longer than usual propshaft.  If you study the livery versus the windows and doors then i becomes more obvious.

 

Sutton has bee long term moored offside at Bulbourn on the GU, and before we bought Flamingo we had conversations with the owner who was thinking of selling.  In the end I don't think he ever did, but I maybe wrong.

2 minutes ago, stagedamager said:

And wooden

 

A minor detail! 😄

[spud]

1 hour ago, Tam & Di said:

I've done a search for Sutton but can only get hundreds of mentions of Sutton Stop. Does anyone know anything about the boat?

 

Tam

 

see this 

 

[magnetman]

Bushells built some proper boats. My first thought was ice boat. Look at the bow shape ! Beautiful.

 

Definitely not a run of the mill wooden narrow boat builder. The knees look like they are of timber and very heavy duty. Much more of an angle than a boat built for cargo carrying.

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by magnetman

[MtB]

7 hours ago, magnetman said:

Bushells built some proper boats. My first thought was ice boat. Look at the bow shape ! Beautiful.

 

Definitely not a run of the mill wooden narrow boat builder. The knees look like they are of timber and very heavy duty. Much more of an angle than a boat built for cargo carrying.

 

 

 

My immediate thought too, and obviously wooden.

 

Isn't it "Bushnells" though? Of Wargrave? 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

Isn't it "Bushnells" though? Of Wargrave? 

Bushell Brothers of Tring. The yard was on the Wendover Arm.

https://tringlocalhistorymuseum.org.uk/history/bushell-family.html

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/bushellbrothers

[Tam & Di]

I'm glad that's sorted then  😁   The reason I put the question mark in the thread title was it didn't look remotely like a big Northwich, though it did have the fleet number of one on the side. Alan's comment re Sutton's cabin is interesting, and as he says it makes sense when you look at Ray's photo.

 

The cabin on the 177 in the photo looks to be a bit of a pig's ear. It looks perhaps as if the hull tapers more than most boats towards the counter and in order to give it a habitable cabin it doesn't follow exactly the same profile - the gunnels look narrower at the back. Then in order to have a sufficiently wide doors they overhang the tumblehome at the top when they're open. It also has those very heavy handrails, but doesn't look to have side doors into the engine hole, and the rudder looks to be hung behind the counter like a butty's.

 

Bushell's built very good boats - "Progress" we used to own of course - and I wonder if that cabin was put on as an afterthought. It maybe didn't have that when it was built as an icebreaker.

 

Tam

Edited February 14, 2023 by Tam & Di

[johnthebridge]

3 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

I'm glad that's sorted then  😁   The reason I put the question mark in the thread title was it didn't look remotely like a big Northwich, though it did have the fleet number of one on the side. Alan's comment re Sutton's cabin is interesting, and as he says it makes sense when you look at Ray's photo.

 

The cabin on the 177 in the photo looks to be a bit of a pig's ear. It looks perhaps as if the hull tapers more than most boats towards the counter and in order to give it a habitable cabin it doesn't follow exactly the same profile - the gunnels look narrower at the back. Then in order to have a sufficiently wide doors they overhang the tumblehome at the top when they're open. It also has those very heavy handrails, but doesn't look to have side doors into the engine hole, and the rudder looks to be hung behind the counter like a butty's.

 

Bushell's built very good boats - "Progress" we used to own of course - and I wonder if that cabin was put on as an afterthought. It maybe didn't have that when it was built as an icebreaker.

 

Tam

I bought Sutton (the Big Northwich) in the early 80s, when she was called the Laidley Worm and was tied the top side of the bridge at Norbury. I got David Harris to do all the work on her, the long list of which I won't bore you with here. I then sold her to someone who became a friend through that sale and he is still the owner, some 37+ year later. He bought her from me as an unconverted boat (except for the slightly extended back cabin), and he then had Roger Farringdon put the full length cabin on her and Chris Lloyd fitted that out. My friend has recently told me he now wishes to sell her.

[David Marks]

Regarding BW tug 177. It was used on maintenance on what was known as the Aspley Section which covered from Aspley Maintenance Yard to Cowley Peachey Junction, plus the Slough Arm. As far as I can remember it was "retired" by BW in the early 1960s and purchased by a company (possibly called Harrisons) on the Thames that undertook maintenance work such as piling and replaced by a new build tug called Snowdrop. My father John Marks (BW Maintenance Foreman) always claimed that 177 was a better tug than Snowdrop as it was designed as an icebreaker. I think 177 was skippered by Tom Sibley who then took on Snowdrop and the other tug in use at the time was Sickle skippered by Alf Best. The two skippers were both ex boatmen.

[Derek R.]

Welcome David.

As Aspley (the one I know quite well) is in Beds., I think you mean Apsley! Slip of the finger.

 

SNOWDROP in action, swiftly followed by SICKLE. towing an 'opper. Late eighties, Berko.

 

 

 

[David Marks]

Thank you Derek. Not sure how I managed to mis-spell that name twice within the same posting. Yes my father would have to go "up the Yard" as he called it which was Apsley Maintenance Yard. There were two houses within the Yard with one occupied by Arthur Young who for a long time was the Section Inspector. My father was the tenant at the lock cottage ant Coppermill, Lock 84 for 60 years. He retired in 1989 and passed away last year age 97. Great images by the way. 

[Tam & Di]

So many names from the past. We knew Alfie well - he worked for John Knill for a while before he went a water-waving, and we visited him a couple of times at his house in Maple Cross. Also Tom when he was on Snowdrop - we lived on Progress at Cowley Peachey in the early 60s and probably saw him on 177, but I only have a dim recollection of it now you mention it. Harrison Chaplin did quite a bit of canal work so I'll look to see if we have any photos of 177 when they had it.

 

Tam

[mark99]

On 24/03/2023 at 08:13, David Marks said:

Thank you Derek. Not sure how I managed to mis-spell that name twice within the same posting. Yes my father would have to go "up the Yard" as he called it which was Apsley Maintenance Yard. There were two houses within the Yard with one occupied by Arthur Young who for a long time was the Section Inspector. My father was the tenant at the lock cottage ant Coppermill, Lock 84 for 60 years. He retired in 1989 and passed away last year age 97. Great images by the way. 

 

The Coppermill Cottage was up for sale a few years ago. Not a very sympathetic renovation iirc.

[David Marks]

My sister and my father went to view the cottage following renovation. Apparently once inside both had problems identifying where they were in relation to the original house. Personally, I wish to remember it as it was and the great times I had there when growing up.