History books

[BuckbyLocks]

'Fourteen' is easily mistaken for 'Forty', though I find a fourteen foot shaft neither good to man nor beast! From standing on the boat and shafting off the bottom, you are left holding the end when the bottom is felt! Nothing left to push with (and it's too long for poking gates!). Eighteen to twenty one is far more use. But I doubt you'll find a forty foot shaft outside of wide boats and docks. Mrs. Peters also thought she must have been mistaken on that one.

 

If you are less than five feet tall as Jean is, 14 feet must have felt huge. Also of course the recording was made many years after Jean last handled a shaft so a couple of feet could easily have got lost in time. We had 16 foot shafts around Gas Street in the 70s, which were hard enough to handle in the deep mud so although I can see that longer ones might be useful, I am quite glad I didn't meet one.

[Chertsey]

Thanks to everybody who's responded and PM'd. I'm up at the yard blacking Warrior at the moment so can't really follow up all the marvellous leads til I get back, but I most certainly will then.