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

[Hugh]

don't post much either

 

Well, I have only just mastered how to drive the site - I'm not really au fait with all these clever forums (or is it fora), and this is very different from other email lists I am on. I like the ability to use pictures though.

 

One thing I find intimidating and makes me reluctant to post is the use of nicknames (not to mention emoticons). I have no idea who most people are, and the profiles do not always help. Why the need for everyone (OK, many members) to remain anonymous? Do you all have something to hide??

 

I see no reason not to give names, as I am happy to do

 

Hugh Potter

[the grinch]

found pictures from 1984 of Baldock, Virginis and Coleshill

 

Baldocks back doors:

 

outside FBS colours dark grey with red band 1" with a double dip, outer band 2" orange

inside what looks like a standard castle picture at the top, roses on a green background in the middle panel and scumble bottom panel with a brass handle in the centre

door itself scumble

cabin slide red heart on white with a black edging

 

virginis was repainted this year and had Virginis 1935 ~ 1985 applied to the fore end

 

edit to answer hugh's post

 

no i don't need to hide my ID

name is kevin baker just post under HF as it is a nickname i was given a few years ago by my work colleagues in Budapest when i was working out there! have met you once in passing at a boat rally. doubt you would remember me as i'm infamous not famous!!

Edited January 7, 2010 by hamsterfan

[Chris-B]

found pictures from 1984 of Baldock, Virginis and Coleshill

 

Baldocks back doors:

 

outside FBS colours dark grey with red band 1" with a double dip, outer band 2" orange

inside what looks like a standard castle picture at the top, roses on a green background in the middle panel and scumble bottom panel with a brass handle in the centre

door itself scumble

cabin slide red heart on white with a black edging

 

virginis was repainted this year and had Virginis 1935 ~ 1985 applied to the fore end

 

Many thanks for the information, it was as I suspected but good to have it confirmed

Roll on the better weather when I can get the doors off and painted

Chris

 

Edited to add:

any chance of a copy of that picture for my album ( will pay copying postage etc )

Edited January 7, 2010 by Baldock

[the grinch]

feel free to ring me 07961 340883 if i can help in any way with info

have a few reasonable pics of the campers cabins (external) don't seem to have taken any internal ones

 

will try to get a copy of a few for, where do you want them sent to email me an address

Edited January 7, 2010 by hamsterfan

[Derek R.]

Well, I have only just mastered how to drive the site - I'm not really au fait with all these clever forums (or is it fora), and this is very different from other email lists I am on. I like the ability to use pictures though.

 

One thing I find intimidating and makes me reluctant to post is the use of nicknames (not to mention emoticons). I have no idea who most people are, and the profiles do not always help. Why the need for everyone (OK, many members) to remain anonymous? Do you all have something to hide??

 

I see no reason not to give names, as I am happy to do

 

Hugh Potter

 

Quite agree! Forget emoticons, though I sometimes use them, there is no substitute for the English Language - or Swahili come to that: -

Watu wote wamezaliwa huru, hadhi na haki zao ni sawa. Wote wamejaliwa akili na dhamiri, hivyo yapasa watendeane kindugu. So there!

 

No, I don't know the language, but translated: -

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

 

Derek

[madcat]

Hugh you wouldnt know me if you fell over me,Im too new to the canals.You know the boat I expect from way back .The names are just an internetty thing I suppose with some more accurate/descriptive than others.Its just a bit of fun.

[pete harrison]

Well, I have only just mastered how to drive the site - I'm not really au fait with all these clever forums (or is it fora), and this is very different from other email lists I am on. I like the ability to use pictures though.

 

One thing I find intimidating and makes me reluctant to post is the use of nicknames (not to mention emoticons). I have no idea who most people are, and the profiles do not always help. Why the need for everyone (OK, many members) to remain anonymous? Do you all have something to hide??

 

I see no reason not to give names, as I am happy to do

 

Hugh Potter

 

I use the name pete harrison although both of my names actually start with a capital letter - sorry !!!!

[Timleech]

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

 

Hugh Potter

 

I can see where there's a resemblance, but did you ever have hair that long, Hugh?

 

 

Tim

[Derek R.]

I use the name pete harrison although both of my names actually start with a capital letter - sorry !!!!

 

Don't apologise pete, the capital letter simply defines a legal entity. We use it out of force of habit, and because we are taught it is 'correct'. It is taught to be 'correct', as it allows us as legal entities to be administered under statute law. There are no discernable capital letters in the spoken word. Sorry - off topic!

 

Derek - answers to several names.

[Hugh]

I can see where there's a resemblance, but did you ever have hair that long, Hugh?

 

 

Tim

 

No, Tim, never that long and stylish. Certainly wish it would grow like that today!

 

Hugh

[c c]

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.

 

On the back of both photos ia written the year 1971

[Speedwheel]

Dave and Gill Humphreys (spelling ?) first had it.

 

Jill.

 

Humphreys is correct.

Edited January 8, 2010 by Satellite

[pete harrison]

On the back of both photos ia written the year 1971

 

BADSEY was laid up at Bulls Bridge by November 1969, and on the Wendover Arm by April 1970. The tender closing date for the second batch of boats on the Wendover Arm (of which BADSEY was one) was 25 June 1971.

 

Prior to being tendered in 1971 each boat on the Wendover Arm was surveyed, including detailed photographs of each cabin, engine room, hold e.t.c.. The former Archivist, Roy Jamieson of The Waterways Trust archive, Gloucester showed me all of these photographs about 10 years ago. I recall BADSEY had a wardrobe in place of the table cupboard (in the same shape as the table cupboard but going down to the floor).

[Laurence Hogg]

Barry Lycett of Willenhall aquired Elstree, Hampstead, Bilster, Lynx, Lyra way back in around 1968-69 from the first sell off. Remember him telling me that the motors went for £250-350 and the butty £150-200. His trading name was F B Lycett canal services which was based at Lane Head Willenhall on the old Lenoard Leigh wharf. The last boat he aquired was Mersey Weaver's Avon. Barry still carries today at the age of 70 but in his lorry out in the Fens.

[Hairy-Neil]

Barry Lycett of Willenhall aquired Elstree, Hampstead, Bilster, Lynx, Lyra way back in around 1968-69 from the first sell off.

 

Barry Lycett was steerer of 'Bilster' in 1964/65 on Willow Wren contracts, according to the Braunston lockeepers log book. Was the boat only leased at that point?

[Paul H]

Barry Lycett was steerer of 'Bilster' in 1964/65 on Willow Wren contracts, according to the Braunston lockeepers log book. Was the boat only leased at that point?

 

Yes I think he already had the Bilster (and Angel) which he used to tow the others back from Wendover - these also included the wooden butty Byfield.

 

Elstree and Lyra were sold off to the Collier brothers and Byfield was paired with Jupiter on the Croxley traffic and operated by David Houlston. Byfield later received a very odd "designer" streamlined conversion with sloping windows and internal bulkheads

 

Paul H

Edited January 9, 2010 by Paul H

[Timleech]

Barry Lycett of Willenhall aquired Elstree, Hampstead, Bilster, Lynx, Lyra way back in around 1968-69 from the first sell off. Remember him telling me that the motors went for £250-350 and the butty £150-200. His trading name was F B Lycett canal services which was based at Lane Head Willenhall on the old Lenoard Leigh wharf. The last boat he aquired was Mersey Weaver's Avon. Barry still carries today at the age of 70 but in his lorry out in the Fens.

 

We bought half a National from him in circa 1968, to replace a frost-fractured cylinder block. Maybe it came from one of those boats?

 

Dismantled what we could in his shed, & put what we could manage in the back of a Triumph Herald, which made its attitude 'interesting' coming up the M6, never did go back for the rest. It would probably be worth a few quid by now

 

Tim

Edited January 8, 2010 by Timleech

[pete harrison]

Yes I think he already had the Bilster (and Angel) which he used to tow the others back from Wendover - these also included the wooden butty Byfield.

 

Paul H

 

I have quite extensive records of which boats were 'stored' by B.W.B. on the Wendover Arm in 1968 and 1970, and these do not include BYFIELD, LYNX and LYRA.

 

BYFIELD had been used by B.W.B. as an "accomodation boat", latterly at Bulls Bridge whereas LYNX and LYRA had spent a few years as rubbish boats (Paddington - Cowley Tip). All three were towed back to the midlands behind BILSTER in July 1968.

[pete harrison]

We bought half a National from him in circa 1968, to replace a frost-fractured cylinder block. Maybe it came from one of those boats?

 

Dismantled what we could in his shed, & put what we could manage in the back of a Triumph Herald, which made its attitude 'interesting' coming up the M6, never did go back for the rest. It would probably be worth a few quid by now

 

Tim

 

Barry Lycett had access to numerous Nationals. British Waterways Board sold him 3 Nationals as scrap in August 1964 (yes I do know which ones), along with 2 gearboxes, silencers and shafts. These were in addition to the National that Mr Lycett removed from BILSTER in 1967.

 

ELSTREE and HAMPSTEAD had both been fitted with Petter PD2's, although my records state that no engines were fitted in either when they were in 'storage' on the Wendover Arm.

[hughc]

 

Avon on the Caldon in the seventies. Regards, HughC.

[keithbo]

Yes I think he already had the Bilster (and Angel) which he used to tow the others back from Wendover - these also included the wooden butty Byfield.

 

Elstree and Lyra were sold off to the Collier brothers and Byfield was paired with Jupiter on the Croxley traffic and operated by David Houlston. Byfield later received a very odd "designer" streamlined conversion with sloping windows and internal bulkheads

 

Paul H

 

 

 

I have come across two old photoghraphs taken I believe in the 70s at Leighton Buzzard. One of the boats in the centre is Lyra heavily loaded but I dont know the names of the other boats in the picture. I beleive to be Ashby canal transport. Any help much appreciated.

 

Keith

[alan_fincher]

The motor in the foreground is surely Elstree.

 

I'm 95% certain the butty inside of Lyra is my brother's old boat Angel.

 

I'm sure other brother will be along at some point and confirm.

[antarmike]

The motor in the foreground is surely Elstree.

 

I'm 95% certain the butty inside of Lyra is my brother's old boat Angel.

 

I'm sure other brother will be along at some point and confirm.

Yes correrct, Angel agianst towpath, Elstree nearest Leighton Bridge.

[XAlan W]

Not been mentioned so far, but many of today's 'unconverted' working boats spent much of the 60s and 70s as converted boats.

 

Fulbourne was fitted with a full length conversion in about 1964, and the back cabin was replaced with a cruiser-style back deck (although the original steel engine room was retained). It was used as a residential and holiday boat for the next couple of decades. After the current owners acquired the boat the back cabin was reinstated in 1987, and the conversion was removed in 1988.

 

Bath, another unconverted Big Woolwich, spent some years as the full length hire boat 'Benbow' at Tardebigge.

 

The 1960s conversions were usually simply wooden affairs built off the original iron or steelwork, and after 20 or 30 years deterioration readily lent themselves to deconversion. By contrast, more recent welded steel conversions are much less deconvertible.

 

Darley, mentioned earlier, became a dredger for Alf Matty of Coseley. The front end was cut off and left on the bank ( I tried to buy it off them in about 1980, but they wouldn't sell it), and a new punt-shaped bow and excavator arm were fitted. If you look closely at the boat today you can see where the two sections were reunited.

 

David Mack

 

Please fogive if i`m posting in the wrong place as I

[Graham_Robinson]

Please fogive if i`m posting in the wrong place as I

 

 

The suspense is killing me.