boathorse feed bucket - any ideas about this one?

[davidwheeler]

The story behind this is different from the water can. We got this from a flea market many decades ago. Perhaps in the 1970s.  We bought it for a purpose which had nothing to do with canals although we thought at the time that it was originally for a boat horse. It was old when we got it. We had at the time a horse, a half-bred Clydesdale,  which we used for extracting timber from woodland, part of which was on a very steep slope. The horse was a good worker, but mareish. If she got displeased with us, she had a tendency to charge off through the wood, the long logging chains whirling about behind her. Being a sensible horse, she stopped when the chains became entangled, and waited for us to catch up. This was all rather inconvenient. The bucket stopped this. We made up harness so that it fitted her, and put a bit of feed in it when we were otherwise engaged.  So she had something to do while waiting. This may have been her plan from the outset because she was a smart mare. And good at her job.

But what of the feed bucket? Any ideas as to origin? The bucket is heavy - it weighs 1.65 kgs.

[Ray T]

I believe the official name is nose tin. 😃
Another variation was a basket. If the horse fell in the cut it wouldn't drown as the water would drain away.

 

 

Edited April 20 by Ray T

[Jen-in-Wellies]

I'm going to start selling those for people steering their propeller driven boats. No need to stop for lunch!

[LadyG]

In Glasgow 1958 or so when there were still rag n bone men , i recal the horse usually had his lunch in a hessian  nosebag with a leather trim.

[Steve Priest]

Here are a couple of pictures of a tin that I have that seems to have been painted by the same hand. Phil Speight thought that it was an early example of Frank Nurser’s work, before it evolved into his more recognisable style. Both my tin and your nose tin have a pink rose, which are not anywhere near as common as the usual red, white, and yellow. I think that we will never know for sure whether it was Frank Nurser’s work, but perhaps one thing that we can be fairly sure of is that it was painted at Braunston

 

[cuthound]

1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I'm going to start selling those for people steering their propeller driven boats. No need to stop for lunch!

 

When I eat sandwiches whilst cruising, rather than stopping and mooring to eat, I call it "lunch on the prop".

[Ronaldo47]

6 hours ago, LadyG said:

In Glasgow 1958 or so when there were still rag n bone men , i recal the horse usually had his lunch in a hessian  nosebag with a leather trim.

In my part of East London in the 1950's, about the only horse traffic was rag  and bone men, brewery drays, and the mounted police. The draymen used to give  their horses a nose bag when they were delivering.

[davidwheeler]

Thank you Steve Priest for that information. I have had another look at the feeder and although you can barely see them in my photos the leaves have the same design as on your tin. Is this then a recognisable style of painting such items? Are there others in existence apparently by the same hand? It is interesting. I am not a collector of these items, these are the only two that I have, kept for different reasons - the water can because it and her tiller and boatstove chimney are all that remains of our exFMC Somerset. The feeder, or nose tin, because it reminds me of those exhilarating times when working in partnership with another species enormously more powerful than I. Not but what we were rank amateurs compared with the logging teams here in France.

[Pluto]

I did come across this gentleman using a horse for removing timber from a forest in Slovakia. On nose-tins, a L&LC boatman told me they used them at locks as eating gave the horse something to do while the boat was in the lock.

[Steve Priest]

I have a set of three water cans which were painted by the same person, and appears to be the same person that painted my tin and your nose tin,  which are unfortunately in poor condition. They all have “Mrs Harrisson (sic) July 1910 “ written around the waist. There is a castle panel on the 3 gallon one that is unmistakably Braunston painted, the style and layout of the castle is typical of castles seen in the later work of Frank Nurser. Age wise Frank could have been painting in 1910, was there anyone else painting in Braunston at that time? I have no idea.

And this is a picture of Ann Stokes, who married Richard Harrison in the summer of 1910

 

I have some better pictures of the cans, but the files are too big to post 

[davidwheeler]

Thank you for that. It reminds me of me. Same sort of environment, same sort of harness, same lengths of timber, same use of the tin (more or less),same sort of team, albeit I was a bit younger and my horse a lot darker. Thank you very much for adding this. Lovely 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, Steve Priest said:

They all have “Mrs Harrisson (sic) July 1910 “ written around the waist.

 

1 hour ago, Steve Priest said:

And this is a picture of Ann Stokes, who married Richard Harrison in the summer of 1910

So were the cans perhaps a wedding present?

[jeannette smith harrison]

On 21/04/2024 at 09:42, Steve Priest said:

I have a set of three water cans which were painted by the same person, and appears to be the same person that painted my tin and your nose tin,  which are unfortunately in poor condition. They all have “Mrs Harrisson (sic) July 1910 “ written around the waist. There is a castle panel on the 3 gallon one that is unmistakably Braunston painted, the style and layout of the castle is typical of castles seen in the later work of Frank Nurser. Age wise Frank could have been painting in 1910, was there anyone else painting in Braunston at that time? I have no idea.

And this is a picture of Ann Stokes, who married Richard Harrison in the summer of 1910

 

I have some better pictures of the cans, but the files are too big to post 

Ann Stokes marries a Robert Harrison who was my G Grandads brother she had a sister Harriett a few years younger who married another Brother Mark Harrison att is photo of Joe & Myself taken some years ago with his mothers picture behind us Ann's picture is a glass frame taken by Wakefields of Brentford who was well known for selling pictures made into postcards of the boat folk will look out a sim photo of her sister  aken the same time 

Harriett Stokes