So what did working boats get up to in the 70;s

[Derek R.]

Damn you! I just spent two hours reading Blossom when I should have been writing my book.

It's fantastic.

(Blossom's website, that is, not my book. Which isn't even written yet)

 

Waddya wanna write a book for? There's loads in the library and they're free . . .

[alan_fincher]

I don't think I have a huge number of good photos of the 1970s camping boats.

 

looking through my PhotoBucket stuff, here are repeats of a few probably already shown in historic threads......

 

Foxton Boat Services

 

The motor is Baldock - yes - that one!

 

 

 

Union Canal Carriers

 

Bexhill (Lucy behind)

 

 

 

And with Brighton (now Narrow Boat Trust)

 

 

And passing Sickle.....

 

 

Probably Petrel and Moon ?

 

 

Collier Brothers

 

Elstree and Lyra

 

 

I know I hace some of the UCC fleet at Braunston, I'll see if any will scan in at a later time.

[Paul H]

Geoff Wheat was part of Northern Counties Carriers which operated the wooden short boat FRANK as a camping boat for a few years in the early 1970s, followed by LUNE and IRWELL later. Mikron also used WEAVER in the mid-1970s.

 

 

I seem to remember helping Grahame Wrigley and one of the boatmen from Gas Street who worked for Birmingham and Midland with three boats from Wendover at Hatton. They must have been the Stevens and Keay boats.

 

Birmingham and Midland also (at least according to a CTMB list I used to have) bought some boats themselves from the first Wendover sale which they sold on fairly quickly. Barrow and Puppis were two if I remember. At this time you had to be on the approved tender list so some companies obtained boats on behalf of enthusiasts.

 

Paul H

[davidg]

Birmingham and Midland also (at least according to a CTMB list I used to have) bought some boats themselves from the first Wendover sale which they sold on fairly quickly. Barrow and Puppis were two if I remember. At this time you had to be on the approved tender list so some companies obtained boats on behalf of enthusiasts.

 

Paul H

 

Barrow was bought on behalf of Alan Ledbury who, if scurrillous rumour is to be believed, proceeded to put a conversion made of Ausin Rover body panel steel, one piece at a time. I removed some of the remains in 1982.

Edited September 10, 2009 by davidg

[Derek R.]

Clearly I do not have this puzzle and I was working from memory. I must try to remember that I am getting too old to rely on my memory. I am sure this was the same trip though.

 

I'll do it tomorrow, take a picture, and PM it to you - see if it's the same one.

 

Derek

[pete harrison]

Barrow was bought on behalf of Alan Ledbury who, if scurrillous rumour is to be believed, proceeded to put a conversion made of Ausin Rover body panel steel, one piece at a time. I removed some of the remains in 1982.

 

British Waterways Board records list BARROW and PUPPIS as being sold to A. & T. Jones who also acquired COMET and BETELGEUSE, later trading with the latter pair as Stroudwater Carriers Ltd., Gloucester. I understand BARROW and PUPPIS were only hired to 'Birmingham & Midland' whilst the ownership remained with the Jones brothers, and that PUPPIS was not put into service. My records show BARROW as being owned by G. Alan Ledbury, Tividale by June 1970 and PUPPIS sold in 1969 to Stephen P. Wall and in 1971 hired to the newly incorporated Union Canal Carriers Ltd., Braunston.

[davidg]

British Waterways Board records list BARROW and PUPPIS as being sold to A. & T. Jones who also acquired COMET and BETELGEUSE, later trading with the latter pair as Stroudwater Carriers Ltd., Gloucester. I understand BARROW and PUPPIS were only hired to 'Birmingham & Midland' whilst the ownership remained with the Jones brothers, and that PUPPIS was not put into service. My records show BARROW as being owned by G. Alan Ledbury, Tividale by June 1970 and PUPPIS sold in 1969 to Stephen P. Wall and in 1971 hired to the newly incorporated Union Canal Carriers Ltd., Braunston.

 

Interesting. I recall a conversation with Graham Wigley during which he told me they (B&M) had bought Barrow for Alan Ledbury; it was a long time ago and we were probably in the pub, which may explain the hazy memory.

[pete harrison]

Birmingham and Midland also (at least according to a CTMB list I used to have) bought some boats themselves from the first Wendover sale which they sold on fairly quickly. Barrow and Puppis were two if I remember. At this time you had to be on the approved tender list so some companies obtained boats on behalf of enthusiasts.

 

Paul H

 

'Birmingham & Midland' do not appear as the purchasers on any documents I have seen regarding B.W.B. disposals in 1968. 'Birmingham & Midland' motors were involved in the removal of several boats from the Wendover Arm in 1968, as were other midlands based motor boats. This may be due to so many of these boats being recovered to the Birmingham area.

 

I think it more likely that 'Birmingham & Midland' acted on behalf of interested enthusiasts whilst purchasing boats through B.W.B.'s tender system in 1964 (tender closing date 06 November 1964).

 

Anderton Canal Carrying Company certainly acquired more boats in 1968 than they ever put into service, selling several on for pleasure boat conversions soon after.

Edited September 10, 2009 by pete harrison

[pete harrison]

Oooh - I've got such a jig-saw puzzle. It's certainly Darley and Alperton looking smart in blue & yellow (yellow as the background, blue border), photographed by a Doug Smith from the bridge as the pair had entered Braunston bottom lock (dock on the left, shop on the right) going up-hill. Bright Sunny day - shorts only on the silver haired lock-wheeler accompanied by a brown dog, and white sleeveless vest on the motor steerer accompanied by another brown dog on the cabin roof. Motor chimney lay on the roof (arch of the bridge fouls them there), two inverted barrows in the hold lined up side by side, one rubber tyre in the middle on the shutts, butty clothed up. Fenders and brass tip-top.

 

Puzzle produced by Lockmaster Crafts, 192 pieces, 10" x 13-3/4". Quite a good puzzle as they go. Seem to recall its purchase from Stoke B. museum shop.

 

Derek

 

Derek R has sent me photographs of this jigsaw puzzle which clearly show it as Braunston Bottom Lock. My memory has let me down.

 

DARLEY and ALPERTON, resplendant in 'British Waterways' yellow and blue livery did follow HALSALL through Batchworth Lock on 08 August 1994 and the photograph I thought was used on the jigsaw puzzle was one that I took - doh !

[madcat]

Fantastic photos Alan.Camping boats look fun.

[c c]

Pete,

 

I would be interested about what you know of Badsey around it's Wendover period.

 

I suspect I have had memory loss on that one, and it must have been there when we were visiting Tringford, but I can only remember it after it was out of there and being worked on.

 

I am confident that odd boats had a habit of disappearing from there, sometimes then returning, but can't remember which. It can have been no mean feat to get them in or out. All boats pointed "away from" the GU, so would have had to have been dragged out backwards. I think the nearest place any tug could have turned was only just past New Mill, beyond the flour mill, so even they would have needed to reverse in shallow waters a fair bit.

 

Do any pictures exist of any of the boats being removed, does anybody know? The NBT site, (Alton, Nuneaton, Satellite), shows some general pictures of all the boats at the end of the arm, and some of moving boats with outboards, but they do not seem to be captioned as to when or where they were taken.

 

Hello - I have only just been introduced to this forum by a friend who mentioned how many times our boat Badsey was mentioned. As Badsey is the love I am currently sleeping with ( don't tell the McSpeight ), I would like to send you two pics from Badsey history in the Tring Arm - that's if anyone can tell me how to post a photo on this page!!

[c c]

Pete,

 

I would be interested about what you know of Badsey around it's Wendover period.

 

I suspect I have had memory loss on that one, and it must have been there when we were visiting Tringford, but I can only remember it after it was out of there and being worked on.

 

I am confident that odd boats had a habit of disappearing from there, sometimes then returning, but can't remember which. It can have been no mean feat to get them in or out. All boats pointed "away from" the GU, so would have had to have been dragged out backwards. I think the nearest place any tug could have turned was only just past New Mill, beyond the flour mill, so even they would have needed to reverse in shallow waters a fair bit.

 

Do any pictures exist of any of the boats being removed, does anybody know? The NBT site, (Alton, Nuneaton, Satellite), shows some general pictures of all the boats at the end of the arm, and some of moving boats with outboards, but they do not seem to be captioned as to when or where they were taken.

 

Eventually I shall find out how to post an actual photo but until then, try this link to see a very sad Badsey at Tring.

 

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/17/badseyattring.png

[alan_fincher]

Eventually I shall find out how to post an actual photo but until then, try this link to see a very sad Badsey at Tring.

 

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/17/badseyattring.png

Provided it will accept the ".png" format, just putting IMG tags around the URL should work....

 

Let's try....

 

 

Yep, that's it!

 

You have done the hard bit already - or at least the bit that seems to defeat many people, namely getting the picture correctly hosted on a site like Image Shack or Photo Bucket in the first place.....

 

I don't know Image Shack, but Photo Buckey will actually create for you a pre-formatted string with

 

square_bracket IMG end_square_bracket

before the URL for the image

and

square_bracket /IMG end_square_bracket

after.

 

You can just cut and paste that straight into a forum thread to get the image displayed.

 

Still don't recall seeing Badsey amongst the Wendover boats in our forrays there, but certainly recall it in more of less Wendover state when Dave and Gill Humphreys (spelling ?) first had it.

Edited January 6, 2010 by alan_fincher

[Kez]

Provided it will accept the ".png" format, just putting IMG tags around the URL should work....

 

Let's try....

 

 

aww, sad boat! whos she abreast of?

[the grinch]

Foxton Boat Services

 

The motor is Baldock - yes - that one!

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/adfi...At_Foxton_1.jpg

and the butty is Virginis. we ran coleshill single motor and Baldock/Virginis as a pair when i was at FBS in 83/84

Trevor Oxley was skipper on Coleshill and Richard Carter was skipper of B/V, i was skipper of Vagabond (widebeam trip boat) and ran the pub in the lunch / evenings.

Edited January 6, 2010 by hamsterfan

[koukouvagia]

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/adfi...At_Foxton_1.jpg

and the butty is Virginis. we ran coleshill single motor and Baldock/Virginis as a pair when i was at FBS in 83/84

Trevor Oxley was skipper on Coleshill and Richard Carter was skipper of B/V, i was skipper of Vagabond (widebeam trip boat) and ran the pub in the lunch / evenings.

 

I've been trying to piece together the history of Owl in the 70s.

So far I've discovered that the boat was owned by Phil Smith from Loughborough who worked it for Foxton Boat Services until he parted company with FBS in about 1980. At this point Brian Alan took over Owl, working for FBS.

At one stage it was paired with, I think, Mercury and used as a camping boat. I also believe that Jack Monk steered Owl at this time. (I wish I'd asked him about this when I was fitting Jack's Seffle into Owl at Leicester in 1989.)

When I acquired the boat in 1989 it had “Educational Cruises” painted on the back cabin. Who were these, I wonder?

Any extra details of Owl's history in the 70s would be most appreciated.

 

Owl at FBS with Virginis and Baldock in the background.

 

 

Mary Matts at FBS, whose picture this is, reckons that the tall chap standing on Owl is Hugh Potter.

Edited January 6, 2010 by koukouvagia

[Pluto]

Mary Matts at FBS, whose picture this is, reckons that the tall chap standing on Owl is Hugh Potter.

Eyes closed and hands in pockets, just like Hugh.

[Paul H]

I've been trying to piece together the history of Owl in the 70s.

So far I've discovered that the boat was owned by Phil Smith from Loughborough who worked it for Foxton Boat Services until he parted company with FBS in about 1980. At this point Brian Alan took over Owl, working for FBS.

At one stage it was paired with, I think, Mercury and used as a camping boat. I also believe that Jack Monk steered Owl at this time. (I wish I'd asked him about this when I was fitting Jack's Seffle into Owl at Leicester in 1989.)

When I acquired the boat in 1989 it had “Educational Cruises” painted on the back cabin. Who were these, I wonder?

 

Phil Smith also owned Bletchley and Argus which were also operated under the FBS banner. In Waterways World Feb 82 there is an article about Jack Monk who at the age of 77 was captain of this same pair then operated as campers by Educational Cruises of Leicester. I presume Educational Cruises was Mr Smith's company.

 

I had an old FBS loose leaf brochure featuring Owl but I passed in on to another enthusiast. If you haven't seen a copy I'm sure he'd let you borrow it. PM me if you're interseted and I'll pass the message on.

 

Paul H

[the grinch]

yes Owl had passed to Educational Cruises before i joined FBS and Mercury had also been gone for sometime

i joined FBS in 1983 and the boats were

 

Coleshill, Baldock & Virginis - camping boats

Corolla - laying derelict

Richmond, Foxhound and Foxtail - hireboats

Vagabond - trip boat

Sam Matts had a small narrowboat about 10' long with no cabin just the frames

 

as for Educational Cruises i seem to remember that they were based in i think Oakham (deffo somewhere up the Melton Mowbury navigation) and the boats were moored in Leicester. Jack Monk was the skipper for a while and if i remember right he also spent some time on Victoria & Albert

[Chris-B]

Primarily for Hamsterfan , but others may know

 

As we are still trying to gather history/information on Baldock there are several pieces of the puzzle missing which you may be able to help with

Can you remember or have any photographs of the door panels and or table flap from the Foxton days ?

 

After Tony and Mary sold her and the conversion was done some of the old cabin was not replaced, we still have the table flap and door panels in primer..

we had heard from one boatman who worked her that he seems to recall a sailing ship on the table flap but couldn't be positive

 

Any help would as always be very appreciated

 

Chris

[the grinch]

just going out now but will look at my photos of FBS days as i will most likely have the back doors on Baldock as i have several pictures of her as for the table can't recall it as i lived on Virginis. Richard Carter would know more but i have no contact for him any more although he was at braunston last time i saw him. his Butty was Pallas i think.

[Chris-B]

just going out now but will look at my photos of FBS days as i will most likely have the back doors on Baldock as i have several pictures of her as for the table can't recall it as i lived on Virginis. Richard Carter would know more but i have no contact for him any more although he was at braunston last time i saw him. his Butty was Pallas i think.

 

Many thanks mate

all is appreciated, Will try to get contact to Richard via Jono

Chris

[Hugh]

Eyes closed and hands in pockets, just like Hugh.

 

 

Sorry to disappoint you, Mike, but I've never been on Owl!

 

Hugh Potter

[the grinch]

Sorry to disappoint you, Mike, but I've never been on Owl!

 

Hugh Potter

 

 

don't post much either

[Chris-B]

don't post much either

 

Can't type with his hands in his pockets !!!