60 Years ago - Stratford

[max's son]

11th July 1964 the Queen Mother opened the Stratford canal

[Dav and Pen]

Didn’t go to that one but took a load of coal down for the opening of the upper Avon. Queen mother opened that.

[Stroudwater1]

5 hours ago, max's son said:

11th July 1964 the Queen Mother opened the Stratford canal

 

 

 

 

Nice to see Cygnus there, a more recent Cygnus picture 59 years 352 or so days later. 
 

 

and 59 days 245 days later. Lovely paintwork. 
 

 

[IanM]

Cygnus is now owned by @Duchess on here. 

[jake_crew]

Here's Cygnus, towed by Otley, at the Historic Boat Show last month, with the swan still in position !

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2024 by jake_crew

[Duchess]

Thank you for your pictures it’s always nice to see different angles - views of her. The video was taken on the Sunday after the parade when we decided to have our own little jolly when it was quiet 😀

 

OTLEY and CYGNUS were actually working as a pair and were together for a few years in the early 2000’s until around 2010 when they were split up. 

 

I have quite a few old pics of CYGNUS also with different motors, some old pics and some modern ones. I do have some more of the Stratford rally as well. Somewhere. 

[Stroudwater1]

The steerer of Cygnus is very skillful I must say. I think that’s Duchess that does it.  Unless it’s the steerer of Ottley that makes it look easy for the butty to steer. It’s probably both. 🤣 

 

What happened to Coleshill, the motor at Stratford? Theres pictures of her being on the hard with restoration planned.

 

Apologies for diverting away from The original posting which was such an important part of the restoration story of inland waterways. 

[john6767]

Do we know if there is anything happening in Stratford to commemorate the 60 years? 

[Rob-M]

The river festival has been cancelled for this year so nothing happening as part of that.

[john6767]

21 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

The river festival has been cancelled for this year so nothing happening as part of that.

Yep, the river festival would have been last weekend, we were going before it was cancelled, which is why the boat is in Stratford at the moment!

[John Brightley]

Today (11 July) is the 60th anniversary of the official reopening of the South Stratford Canal by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 11th July 1964.

I don't think there are any events planned to celebrate this date, unfortunately. 

Does anyone have any personal memories of the event ( or the canal restoration) which they would like to share with us ?

[Rob-M]

Have you seen this thread 

 

[John Brightley]

18 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Have you seen this thread 

 

Woops, missed that ! Could a moderator merge the two threads please?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Threads merged as requested.

[David Schweizer]

Pisces at the 1964 Stratford IWA Festival of Boats, moored alongside Joe Skinner's Friendship. Joe can be seen standing on the foredeck of Friendship in the B &W  photo.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2024 by David Schweizer

[nick.pritchard]

My paternal grandmother who lived in Charlcote outside Stratford  suggested if we were bored one Sunday after lunch with her we could go to ‘some do’ in Stratford!

My parents took me and my sister and they were hooked! A first boat was bought I Appledore (Devon) while on holiday the following month and after repairs was launched at Braunston the following year.

The family progressed to selling our house in Coventry and starting Clifton Cruisers at Rugby in 1971 with a restaurant boat, a houseboat and three hire boats. My father ended up as IWA’s West Midlands regional chair and was deeply involved in the 1994 & 1997 national rally at Hawkesbury. 
For myself I completed an apprenticeship at BWB and set up Boatserve, marinising Mitsubishi engines for over 12 years. Now aged 66, a mere 60 years on although I spent  time having working on loading systems for oil and gas tankers around the world (just bigger boats!) I resurrected Boatserve in 2018 to do BSS examinations in retirement.

Graham Palmer and his cohorts at Waterway Recovery Group together with all those volunteers who brought the Southern Stratford back to life have a lot to answer for!