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'Chocolate' Charlie Atkins


jake_crew

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"All he's learnt is churning up the mud and knocking down the banks

and that is all he will ever know, I can tell you that"

 

Did I miss something, where is that a quote from?

 

 

The quote is from the 1945 Ealing film "Painted Boats".

 

http://en.wikipedia....i/Painted_Boats

 

The quote is from Smith, a horse drawn boat captain who dislikes progress in the form of motor boats.

 

He directs this comment to Ted Stoner a motor captain several times in the film.

 

Copies are available from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co...sl_7qow92px0y_e

Edited by Ray T
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CHOCOLATE CHARLIE. By Bill Malkin

 

Song, Listen, and more info.

 

Chorus :

Hey, hey, the children say Chocolate Charlie’s coming our way

Bringing packets of chocolate chips, bringing them down on the old Mendip

Charlie lived in a narrow boat home, cooked his food on a little coal stove

Smoked a pipe, twisted his beard, wore a cap on the back of his head

 

Chorus

 

Charlie laughed, danced and sang, worked his life a Cadbury man

Carried the load the best he can, from Ellesmere Port to Bourneville Town

 

Chorus

 

Children they all knew the sound, Charlie wound his windlass round

A simple Shropshire Union Man, doing the best he can

 

Chorus

 

The leaves all rustle, grass it grows, blackbird singing in the hawthorn row

The rooks and the ravens and the carrion crows, they all know his name

 

Chorus x2

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CHOCOLATE CHARLIE. By Bill Malkin

 

Song, Listen, and more info.

 

Chorus :

Hey, hey, the children say Chocolate Charlie’s coming our way

Bringing packets of chocolate chips, bringing them down on the old Mendip

Charlie lived in a narrow boat home, cooked his food on a little coal stove

Smoked a pipe, twisted his beard, wore a cap on the back of his head

 

Chorus

 

Charlie laughed, danced and sang, worked his life a Cadbury man

Carried the load the best he can, from Ellesmere Port to Bourneville Town

 

Chorus

 

Children they all knew the sound, Charlie wound his windlass round

A simple Shropshire Union Man, doing the best he can

 

Chorus

 

The leaves all rustle, grass it grows, blackbird singing in the hawthorn row

The rooks and the ravens and the carrion crows, they all know his name

 

Chorus x2

 

This is the type of drivel that could be used in support of bringing back corporal punishment. I say bring it on, the sooner the better for this song writer.

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CHOCOLATE CHARLIE. By Bill Malkin

 

Song, Listen, and more info.

 

Chorus :

 

........Charlie lived in a narrow boat home, cooked his food on a little coal stove

Smoked a pipe, twisted his beard, wore a cap on the back of his head

 

...... worked his life a Cadbury man ......

 

 

The Charlie I knew didn't have a beard and didn't work his life as a Cadbury man.

 

What Bollocks !!

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Well, I wasn't going to as critics are ten a penny, but seeking out Mr Malkin's website gives access to other songs he performs, and there is not a lot of difference between any of them. The songs are weak, and with the Charlie Atkins effort - inaccurate, the singing is best passed over. A pub performer with a guitar seeking to tell a story without doing the research. Hope he doesn't give up the day job.

 

There are excellent folk song singers out there, unfortunately Mr. Malkin is not one of them.

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Well, I wasn't going to as critics are ten a penny, but seeking out Mr Malkin's website gives access to other songs he performs, and there is not a lot of difference between any of them. The songs are weak, and with the Charlie Atkins effort - inaccurate, the singing is best passed over. A pub performer with a guitar seeking to tell a story without doing the research. Hope he doesn't give up the day job.

 

There are excellent folk song singers out there, unfortunately Mr. Malkin is not one of them.

When Charlie A and C Ballinger carried for Cadburys it was Chocolate Crum a dried blend of chocolate and milk in two inch lumps in sacks which became sticky in war rationed small boys hands, I can still remember the experience.Helping to push on a lock beam was usually rewarded.

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  • 4 years later...

I had the brief pleasure of interviewing and photographing Charlie on the T&M near Preston Brook tunnel in the 1970's. Mendip was not painted in any colours at this point, I don't think he could find much carrying work. A couple of my monochrome photos of him can be seen on advertising about Mr. Malkin's folk song (incidentally I have never heard it) but I was never asked permission for use of my photos, nor have I been credited as being the photographer. Such is life!

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Charlie senior carried other cargo's i think one of the last contracts when working for Anderton CC Co was sacks of silicon carbide from Northwich? to Norbury for transport by road to Universal grinding wheels in Stafford IIRC they did around 6 or so trips also Freddy & Rose Gibbs & Malcolm?

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I love the chocolate Charlie song, I don't know much about Charlie but I kinda like the vision of a the kids waiting for their chocolate chips coming around the corner and a wind swept face hardened by steering a working boat in all weathers.

 

Seems like a perfect thought though I guess life is nothing like a perfect imagined painting.

 

I keep Chocky Charlie in the nice part of my head as a goto.

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The Charlie I knew didn't have a beard and didn't work his life as a Cadbury man.

 

What Bollocks !!

Spot on Mike C. The man I knew didn't match this song either. Massive use of other peoples photos in the video all uncredited, photographers such as Harry Arnold, Hugh MkNight have pictures featured. Also, what the F*** has Toovey's wide boat "Golden Spray" got to do with Charlie Atkins, at 12ft it would never get to Birmingham city or Cadburys. I am no fan of folk music as all the boatmen I knew only liked the popular music of the day, this production to me is inaccurate and awful.
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Spot on Mike C. The man I knew didn't match this song either. Massive use of other peoples photos in the video all uncredited, photographers such as Harry Arnold, Hugh MkNight have pictures featured. Also, what the F*** has Toovey's wide boat "Golden Spray" got to do with Charlie Atkins, at 12ft it would never get to Birmingham city or Cadburys. I am no fan of folk music as all the boatmen I knew only liked the popular music of the day, this production to me is inaccurate and awful.

Maybe it's not factually accurate but so what it's a nice thought.

 

I'll keep that in my head as a goto place none the less but fanks for spoiling it.

Edited by GreyLady
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Charlie senior carried other cargo's i think one of the last contracts when working for Anderton CC Co was sacks of silicon carbide from Northwich? to Norbury for transport by road to Universal grinding wheels in Stafford IIRC they did around 6 or so trips also Freddy & Rose Gibbs & Malcolm?

 

At around that time, or shortly afterwards ACCCo. sent Charlie, and Johnny Anderson with the 'Grenville', on a subbing job for Caggy Stevens and Ken Keay towing joeys for the contractors that were laying North Sea gas pipelines in the towpath between Wolverhampton and Brum.

All the contractors gangs were supplied entirely by boat with everything they needed, pipes, sand and slabs for covering them, and all the spoil was taken away by boat back to the old gas works at Bilston for unloading and disposal.

There were 4 x motors on the job, 'Mendip', 'Grenville', Dave Houlston with 'Jupiter' and me with 'Hyperion' plus 2 x Tugs, 'Caggy' and 'Judith Ann' but with the rate the work progressed and the number of gangs even that was barely enough to keep up with the quantity of stuff that needed moving.

 

I don't know where this 'Chocolate Charlie' name came from, but it's just invented nonsense. Charlie [senior] did have a nickname, which was 'Roggy' and he was never called anything other than that, or Charlie, by those who actually knew him.

 

Ps. I think the ' Malcolm' you referred to was Malcolm Edwards, usually know as 'Squeaker'.

Edited by Tony Dunkley
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When Charlie A and C Ballinger carried for Cadburys it was Chocolate Crum a dried blend of chocolate and milk in two inch lumps in sacks which became sticky in war rationed small boys hands, I can still remember the experience.Helping to push on a lock beam was usually rewarded.

Had an interesting effect on the digestion, didn't it?

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At around that time, or shortly afterwards ACCCo. sent Charlie, and Johnny Anderson with the 'Grenville', on a subbing job for Caggy Stevens and Ken Keay towing joeys for the contractors that were laying North Sea gas pipelines in the towpath between Wolverhampton and Brum.

All the contractors gangs were supplied entirely by boat with everything they needed, pipes, sand and slabs for covering them, and all the spoil was taken away by boat back to the old gas works at Bilston for unloading and disposal.

There were 4 x motors on the job, 'Mendip', 'Grenville', Dave Houlston with 'Jupiter' and me with 'Hyperion' plus 2 x Tugs, 'Caggy' and 'Judith Ann' but with the rate the work progressed and the number of gangs even that was barely enough to keep up with the quantity of stuff that needed moving.

 

I don't know where this 'Chocolate Charlie' name came from, but it's just invented nonsense. Charlie [senior] did have a nickname, which was 'Roggy' and he was never called anything other than that, or Charlie, by those who actually knew him.

 

Ps. I think the ' Malcolm' you referred to was Malcolm Edwards, usually know as 'Squeaker'.

 

It may not have been used by Charlie or in front of him, it might have been used in the way the welsh use peoples trades as a second name "Geraint Gas" "Vaughn Milk" to name but two local to me.

 

My Granddad knew Charlie and like many other boaters would swap coal for crumb when the opportunity arose, he spoke of "Chocolate" Charlie when he spoke about him and my mom and aunts remember the crumb being a big treat if a little bitter in the raw, whether the addition to his name came after they finished carrying I dont know.

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I met Charlie in the early 1970's and cannot remember the nickname being used, although he was well known for the Cadbury's run. In the picture below he is carrying one of my 20mm scale models based on the Judith Anne but actually freelance.

 

gallery_5000_522_34175.jpg

 

I think the blame for the hype on the nickname "Chocolate Charlie" can be fairly and squarely placed at the feet of the former TWT with its WoW campaign, but also at the feet of Eliza Botham and her (mis) interpretations of canal life during the "Working Boats Project". I well remember listening with horror to the tripe that came out of the "actors" mouths and was being swallowed by the audience. It was hype for hype's sake and it distanced reality from what was "on offer". It seemed then as it it seems now with CRT no proper research was undertaken and the people that knew the facts were ignored, sadly many of the latter are no longer with us.

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What period was TWT and WoW?

TWT (The Waterways Trust) was absorbed by CRT in 2011, it started around 2000 run by Roger Hanbury.

WoW (Wild over Waterways) was a CRT incentive / PR promotion aimed at youngsters, it still runs under CRT.

 

You only have to look at the quality of "Waterfront" the CRT periodical mag to see the shite continues and research is zero.

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As the Telegraph Magazine from 1972 makes reference to 'Chocolate Charlie', it clearly started a long time before either TWT or CRT. WOW started with the IWA I think and was a feature at Rallies. 'Old' Charlie was the way we knew of him to distinguish him from 'Young' Charlie who had gone on the bank by then, whereas Old Charlie was still living on a boat.

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As the Telegraph Magazine from 1972 makes reference to 'Chocolate Charlie', it clearly started a long time before either TWT or CRT. WOW started with the IWA I think and was a feature at Rallies. 'Old' Charlie was the way we knew of him to distinguish him from 'Young' Charlie who had gone on the bank by then, whereas Old Charlie was still living on a boat.

 

Met Young Charlie a few times and there was no mention of Chocolate Charlie at all in a convo between him, Ike A and my granddad, although my G did whisper to me who he was using the reference so maybe the family werent too enamoured of the nickname either?

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'Old' Charlie was the way we knew of him to distinguish him from 'Young' Charlie who had gone on the bank by then, whereas Old Charlie was still living on a boat.

That is exactly as I recall, Old Charlie and young Charlie, although I only knew Old Charlie towards the end of his time when he came to live with Young Charlie at Farmers Bridge, Birmingham.

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At around that time, or shortly afterwards ACCCo. sent Charlie, and Johnny Anderson with the 'Grenville', on a subbing job for Caggy Stevens and Ken Keay towing joeys for the contractors that were laying North Sea gas pipelines in the towpath between Wolverhampton and Brum.

All the contractors gangs were supplied entirely by boat with everything they needed, pipes, sand and slabs for covering them, and all the spoil was taken away by boat back to the old gas works at Bilston for unloading and disposal.

There were 4 x motors on the job, 'Mendip', 'Grenville', Dave Houlston with 'Jupiter' and me with 'Hyperion' plus 2 x Tugs, 'Caggy' and 'Judith Ann' but with the rate the work progressed and the number of gangs even that was barely enough to keep up with the quantity of stuff that needed moving.

 

I don't know where this 'Chocolate Charlie' name came from, but it's just invented nonsense. Charlie [senior] did have a nickname, which was 'Roggy' and he was never called anything other than that, or Charlie, by those who actually knew him.

 

Ps. I think the ' Malcolm' you referred to was Malcolm Edwards, usually know as 'Squeaker'.

My self & boat Lily was penned in to be on that contract I boated from from Preston Brook to the top of Wolverhampton only to be told by the lock keeper to ring the office to be told to return to Mk Drayton as needed on the concrete piles contract I was supposed to return to BCN but never did. As you say I only ever heard of " Charlie" referred to as Choclate on one occasion & that was in the Talbot in Mk Drayton by a boater who shall remain nameless after many fills of his glass & he reckoned it was more to do with "Charlies" outdoor skin tone than the loads he carried

  • Greenie 1
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I worked regularly with Charlie when he was steering Lapwing for Peter Froud, and he explained about his nickname, which is possibly more exactly Ruggy, dating from his early years boating when he was considered very rough on boats. (Nicknames could result from mis-hearing the original: I never heard him call Malcolm Braine anything other than Mr Blaine) When working for Midland & Coast in the 1920s, Charlie was called in to the office and shown his page in the boatman's ledger. It was filled with records of incidents and damage to boats. He was then shown the completely clean page of one of the older boatmen and told that if his page was not like that in the future, he would be sacked. He said that he changed his approach to boating pretty quickly afterwards. I also seem to remember him suggesting that the Chocolate nickname came about around the time he was steering Flower of Gloucester for the TV series, c1971.

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