Waterbus

[dove]

Been having a clear out and came across this in some files Albert Jones gave me

 

 

It's part of Dove's history and just wondered if anybody went on it or got a tale to tell.

 

Keep 'em clean, I know it had a reputation!

 

Andrew

[BuckbyLocks]

It's part of Dove's history and just wondered if anybody went on it or got a tale to tell.

 

Keep 'em clean, I know it had a reputation!

 

Andrew

 

After that introduction I am not going to admit that after Albert left the area I used to steer it!

[dove]

It's part of Dove's history and just wondered if anybody went on it or got a tale to tell.

 

Keep 'em clean, I know it had a reputation!

 

Andrew

 

 

After that introduction I am not going to admit that after Albert left the area I used to steer it!

 

Why? Was it that bad nobody wants to admit to being on it?

 

Andrew

[Athy]

reading between thge lines, this used to go from Birmingham University? I don't get the reference to The Vale. When I was at Brum I dimly remember going on a narrowboat trip but in the opposite direction - I know we went through a tunnel. This would be about 1969. Would this have been the same boat?

[dove]

reading between thge lines, this used to go from Birmingham University? I don't get the reference to The Vale. When I was at Brum I dimly remember going on a narrowboat trip but in the opposite direction - I know we went through a tunnel. This would be about 1969. Would this have been the same boat?

 

I wouldn't think so, the ealiest Department of Transport Passenger Certificate I have is 1979 and according to records it was still in the hands of BW then.

 

Andrew

[Laurence Hogg]

I remember a party trip up to Smethwick, where the boat was in the cutting ........... There were two strippers up front and it was "anything goes"

[Max Sinclair]

A boat used to run an evening entertainment trip from Tardebigge with a piano and stripper on board. In the dark the passengers had no idea where they were so it didn't travel very far, just kept the engine ticking over, while evey so often the steerer would step on the gunwhale and give the boat a rock,a loud ooh would come from the happy passengers.

[BuckbyLocks]

reading between thge lines, this used to go from Birmingham University? I don't get the reference to The Vale. When I was at Brum I dimly remember going on a narrowboat trip but in the opposite direction - I know we went through a tunnel. This would be about 1969. Would this have been the same boat?

 

The Vale is the relatively new winding hole/mooring near Birmingham University. Originally Britannia went from Gas Street to Selly Oak and back or Kings Norton and back at the weekends on a longer trip. Alternatively the run was to Smethwick. During the winter when it was completely dark ouside I understand some of the steerers did follow the example Max comments on and not go very far on the stripper trips. I wouldn't know myself! On rare occasions special runs were arranged through Netherton Tunnel and I took a school group through there in 1977

 

Joe & Len must have been more recent owners. I worked for Leisure Line Canal Cruises, who also ran Jaycey in their very early days and Europe after 1975. I think both are still around although Jaycey has changed its name and is up the South.

 

Apart from being the usual heavy ***** Josher with an engine under your feet, it wasn't a bad boat to work, although having the bar on one side did tend to mean a permanent list. This may have helped the bar takings as the deeper side of the glass would be facing the punter. Again, I wouldn't know!

[Keeping Up]

I remember a party trip up to Smethwick, where the boat was in the cutting ........... There were two strippers up front and it was "anything goes"

Later Jericho the Brummagem Fly emerged from Netherton Tunnel on a couple of occasions with passengers "otherwise occupied" on the roof, blissfully unaware that we were now out in the open air again.

[BuckbyLocks]

Later Jericho the Brummagem Fly emerged from Netherton Tunnel on a couple of occasions with passengers "otherwise occupied" on the roof, blissfully unaware that we were now out in the open air again.

 

Originally they were two different boats. Brummagem Fly was a Waterbus, and Jericho was a new build.

[Keeping Up]

Originally they were two different boats. Brummagem Fly was a Waterbus, and Jericho was a new build.

Good point. I'm thinking mid-eighties.

[BuckbyLocks]

Good point. I'm thinking mid-eighties.

 

Brummagem Fly was ex Water Wagtail ex Corolla. I did see it on the Zoo Bus runs, possibly even travelling on it, but the first time I recorded it in Birmingham was in 1974. I think I can remember it arriving in Gas Street and I went out in it a few times, although I never worked for Brummagem Boats. Being a new boat I didn't take any notice of Jericho, apart from wondering what on earth the connection was with Birmingham. It was a lot shallower drafted than BF so was easier to take round the Loops. Once I moved my boat away from Gas Street, I lost track of all the movements after that, but there were at least 4 different companies working trip boats in that area then. I can remember Charlie Atkins draining the top pound of Farmers Bridge so that a really nasty bladefull could be taken off BF - must have a picture somewhere.

[Paul H]

Brummagem Fly was ex Water Wagtail ex Corolla. I did see it on the Zoo Bus runs, possibly even travelling on it, but the first time I recorded it in Birmingham was in 1974. I think I can remember it arriving in Gas Street and I went out in it a few times, although I never worked for Brummagem Boats. Being a new boat I didn't take any notice of Jericho, apart from wondering what on earth the connection was with Birmingham. It was a lot shallower drafted than BF so was easier to take round the Loops. Once I moved my boat away from Gas Street, I lost track of all the movements after that, but there were at least 4 different companies working trip boats in that area then. I can remember Charlie Atkins draining the top pound of Farmers Bridge so that a really nasty bladefull could be taken off BF - must have a picture somewhere.

Water Wagtail was on hire from British Waterways and at the end of the lease was sold off to Foxton Boat Services where it lay untouched after some hull work. It is now, as Corolla owned by Keith Ball at Stretton Aqueduct.

 

Jericho originally operated on the Oxford Canal before moving to Birmingham. I remember it being based at Enslow but possibly it was at Jericho (a suburb of Oxford) at one time.

 

Paul H

Edited March 1, 2010 by Paul H

[pete harrison]

Brummagem Fly was ex Water Wagtail ex Corolla. I did see it on the Zoo Bus runs, possibly even travelling on it, but the first time I recorded it in Birmingham was in 1974. I think I can remember it arriving in Gas Street and I went out in it a few times, although I never worked for Brummagem Boats. Being a new boat I didn't take any notice of Jericho, apart from wondering what on earth the connection was with Birmingham. It was a lot shallower drafted than BF so was easier to take round the Loops. Once I moved my boat away from Gas Street, I lost track of all the movements after that, but there were at least 4 different companies working trip boats in that area then. I can remember Charlie Atkins draining the top pound of Farmers Bridge so that a really nasty bladefull could be taken off BF - must have a picture somewhere.

 

I can recall using the top pound of Farmers Bridge on numerous occasions as an impromtu dock, usually for removing matresses / tyres / wire e.t.c. from the blades or even for changing the blade itself. The beauty of this pound was it was so deep that provided the motor boat stern was taken as far up towards the weir as possible (where it would lay on old bricks) the pound could be drawn off but left with enough water for pleasure boats to pass through. I wonder what the health & safety mob would make of that now (let alone resting a motors stern on a wide lock cill to clear the blades !). I found Charlie Atkins very accommodating with this use of his top pound, especially if was 'out of hours'. Unfortunately this practice came to a sudden end when Charlie retired in about 1983 as his replacement was anything but accommodating (not Ken Mullins, the other one).

[BuckbyLocks]

I can recall using the top pound of Farmers Bridge on numerous occasions as an impromtu dock, usually for removing matresses / tyres / wire e.t.c. from the blades or even for changing the blade itself. The beauty of this pound was it was so deep that provided the motor boat stern was taken as far up towards the weir as possible (where it would lay on old bricks) the pound could be drawn off but left with enough water for pleasure boats to pass through. I wonder what the health & safety mob would make of that now (let alone resting a motors stern on a wide lock cill to clear the blades !). I found Charlie Atkins very accommodating with this use of his top pound, especially if was 'out of hours'. Unfortunately this practice came to a sudden end when Charlie retired in about 1983 as his replacement was anything but accommodating (not Ken Mullins, the other one).

 

Roger was OK, but it probably depended on how well you knew him. On the occasion I mentioned Charlie had the boat in the second lock with the stern out in mid channel, so no one was going anywhere. However, having looked again at the photos I took, the boat is still in Zoobus livery and is called Water Buck, which is said to be Perseus, so where I and everybody else got Water Wagtail from I have no idea. Brades staircase was our favourite Dock! (you had to drain it twice though to get the bricks off the bottom before you sat the boat on them.)