The Whitlocks at work

[mykaskin]

For the 41st anniversary of the last Jam 'ole run, I thought I would share this documentary that David Morton holds:

 

 

or watch it on youtube:

 

 

You can find out more about the butty Lucy and the project to restore her here:

 

http://www.phobox.com/lucy/

 

Keep 'em ahead,

 

Mike

[cereal tiller]

most enjoyable,have not seen that film before.

thank you.

[pete harrison]

I thought I could boat a pair fast until I saw this film. Pub Lock, Braunston to top of Stoke Hammond Three in the blink of an eye

[alan_fincher]

Absolutely wonderful, Mike.

 

An excellent quality too.

 

Just watched it the once so far, and will be several times more.

 

Interesting (to me) to see that they would even go singled out up Three Locks.

 

Also interesting to see that they are a crew that deliberately left the butty's strapping line trailing behind. I think I have read that this both stopped it messing up the paint, but also it worked better if kept wet ?

 

Will need several passes to spot the locations.

 

Probably the best actual historic video of the boats at work yet to surface, I'd say.

[Ray T]

Brilliant, thanks for posting.

[Paul H]

Excellent stuff.

Must learn to twizzle a mop like that!

Paul

[alan_fincher]

I thought I could boat a pair fast until I saw this film. Pub Lock, Braunston to top of Stoke Hammond Three in the blink of an eye

I'm really struggling with the locations, because it is obvious on even slightly close inspection that a sequence that at first sight appears to feature working through a lock is actually made up of stuff shot at several..... (They appear fill a Hillmorton lock with GU gate paddles !....)

 

I'm struggling with the lock with a (presumably) railway line crossing beyond the top end, and a gasometer behind that.

 

Is it Fenny, possibly, if so it is intercut with footage that implies the boats are in a "normal" depth lock.

 

And then there's a work flat at the top end of of a lock, non-towpath side, in what looks like the mouth of a former narrow lock. I thought it might be middle of Three Locks, but there doesn't seem to be a flat there when there is a view down Three Locks.

 

Not as easy as I'd thought!

[slammer]

A pleasure to watch , thanks for sharing

[Ray T]

I'm really struggling with the locations, because it is obvious on even slightly close inspection that a sequence that at first sight appears to feature working through a lock is actually made up of stuff shot at several..... (They appear fill a Hillmorton lock with GU gate paddles !....)

Isn't the water level balancing mechanism between the paired single locks a clue that it could be Hillmorton?

 

I've not seen it on other locks..... Stand to be corrected though.

 

Also the wall round the overflow beyond the lock where the motor exits the lock at 1min 55secs looks like Hillmorton top lock.

 

The swing bridge looks as though it could be be Fenny Stratford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ETA: According to the plaque the swing bridge was replaced in 1999

Edited October 18, 2011 by Ray T

[alan_fincher]

Yes,

 

Sorry - they are clearly passing through the paired locks at Hillmorton, but the paddles getting wound on a top gate in the sequence are GU ones.

 

The swing bridge is definitely the Winkwell one.

[mykaskin]

Alan,

 

I believe it was shot over several weeks, on different trips. The main locations are (with some unidentified inbetween):

 

Atherstone

Hillmorton top

Gayton

Winkwell

Hillmorton again

Maffers (Marsworth)

Stoke Hammond Three

I think you are right with Fenny

Back to top lock at Stoke Hammond Three

back to fenny,

then back to bottom or middle of Stoke Hammond

Croxley Mills

Jam 'ole unloading

Towards Denham Deep I think, last shot.

 

BTW - you let the strapping in line drag in the water to keep it wet so the friction doesn't damage it I assume.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[Laurence Hogg]

Mr & Mrs Whitlock were good friends to me when I first started making models of narrowboats for the museums. Their boats immaculate and everything exactly in place. At one of the later Braunston shows she came to my stand and said to her friends, "Eez alright he is, he never put us in the goldfish bowl", she was refering to someone who had filmed them with a hidden camera and oh boy they were not happy about it. Great people and a testament to a way of life that sadly has all but slipped away.

Lovely film.

Edited October 18, 2011 by Laurence Hogg

[David Schweizer]

That took me back to my early boating days in the 1960's, when three pairs of Blue Line boats came past our mooring at Uxbridge every week. The film appears to have been shot around 1970 because they had Ian for a long time before Blue Line aquired Renfrew.

 

It is the first time I have ever seen that film, and would love to get hold of a copy. Just one question, where was Joan?

[alan_fincher]

Good attempt Mike - better than I can do I think....

 

Some comments - struggling to get them in right place, though!

 

 

Atherstone

Braunston in here - But in part of it Rose has overflowing top gates behind her, not bottom ones!

Hillmorton top

Gayton

Is the bridge behind her where she talks about boat numbers near Yardley ?

Winkwell

Where is that fairly high brick built bridge - it's not Tring summit - it's really bugging me!

Hillmorton again (Yes, but not the top paddles he winds!)

What's the downhill lock they have left with lots of big buildings towpath side, (and pleasure boats to left) want to say Cowley, but I don't think so.

Maffers (Marsworth)

Couldn't immediately recognise Maffers

Stoke Hammond Three

We jump back to Braunston in the sequence here too

I think you are right with Fenny

The top gates only have a single paddle, so probably a shallow lock.

Back to top lock at Stoke Hammond Three

back to fenny,

then back to bottom or middle of Stoke Hammond

Croxley Mills

Jam 'ole unloading

Towards Denham Deep I think, last shot.

[mykaskin]

Good attempt Mike - better than I can do I think....

 

Some comments - struggling to get them in right place, though!

 

What I thought was Maffers isn't, it's Cowley as you say. There are two shots it appears in, the one where they are boating away from the lock with the lock house and buildings on the right, and the one where Bill pulls up with his bike to get the lock ready.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[pete harrison]

 

Maffers (Marsworth)

Stoke Hammond Three

 

BTW - you let the strapping in line drag in the water to keep it wet so the friction doesn't damage it I assume.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

 

So I am wrong then when I said Pub Lock, Braunston then Stoke Hammond Three ? I do not recognise the lock as Marsworth so which one is it ?

 

edit - I have just checked Mike Webb's publication Braunston's Boats (page 24 & 28) and I am correct with Pub Lock, Braunston

Edited October 19, 2011 by pete harrison

[alan_fincher]

Yes,

 

The lock by the Nelson appears a couple of times.

 

I think Mike has conceded that Maffers doesn't obviously appear, although some of the paddle winding or gate pushing clips dropped in could frankly have been shot nearly anywhere.....

 

Someone put me out of my misery and please identify the bridge at around 3:35 (shot from the butty forwards, shows Laura using a mop on Renfrew, whilst also steering - bridge ahead of that).

[Liam]

When Lucy is eventually finished it will be nice to see Renfrew & Lucy paired up together again, especially now they are under the ownership of the one owner.

[alan_fincher]

It is the first time I have ever seen that film, and would love to get hold of a copy. Just one question, where was Joan?

David, I seem to recall a program somewhere where she was interviewed at Braunston along with Laura Carter - possibly as part of the second Alan Heard "Dover" series - I'm not sure.

 

I believe she siad she was off the boats living on the land before they swapped from Ian to Renfrew. I may be remembering that wrong, but it seems to be lodged in my head as something I heard.

[mykaskin]

Yes,

 

The lock by the Nelson appears a couple of times.

 

I think Mike has conceded that Maffers doesn't obviously appear, although some of the paddle winding or gate pushing clips dropped in could frankly have been shot nearly anywhere.....

 

Someone put me out of my misery and please identify the bridge at around 3:35 (shot from the butty forwards, shows Laura using a mop on Renfrew, whilst also steering - bridge ahead of that).

 

I didn't think it was the Nelson lock at first, as the canal seems to bend too much to the left, but I think it's just the foreshortening effect of the lens.

 

I think that high bridge looks to narrow to be on the GU, so I'm guessing it's a bridge on one of the Oxford Canal cuttings, perhaps the one near Rugby, or perhaps near Willoughby.

 

The film student I would guess would be unlikely to have access to a car for this, so I'm guessing he took the train.

 

Atherstone

Journey on the boats Rugby -> Long Buckby or maybe all the way to Wolverton (Cruising shots, Braunston, perhaps some of the shots of the boats in the bottom of a deep lock at Buckby) and the interview at what I assume to be Gayton)

Bletchley -> Leighton Buzzard (for Fenny and the 3 Locks, probably much of the paddle winding closeups)

Cowley (might be local for him - cirtainly likely that he was there two different days unless they left loaded there in the morning, unloaded, and got back in the same day - and he stayed ahead of the lock wheeler).

 

However, if that was the case, I'm surprised the lack of some obviously nice places that I would have thought would make the end edit.

 

It's a good game this! :-)

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[David Schweizer]

David, I seem to recall a program somewhere where she was interviewed at Braunston along with Laura Carter - possibly as part of the second Alan Heard "Dover" series - I'm not sure.

 

I believe she siad she was off the boats living on the land before they swapped from Ian to Renfrew. I may be remembering that wrong, but it seems to be lodged in my head as something I heard.

That may be the reason, I will ask her when I next see her.

[Ray T]

Went for a potter to Braunston and back today and on our return passed Renfrew and an unidentified butty a Lower Shuckburgh.

 

The video you posted Mike made the experience more "real" for me somehow.

[chunk1983]

good to see a video of my family hard at work

[Terence]

Went for a potter to Braunston and back today and on our return passed Renfrew and an unidentified butty a Lower Shuckburgh.

 

The video you posted Mike made the experience more "real" for me somehow.

 

Hi Ray,

 

The butty you saw was 'Joe' one of Pete Boyce's boats. Renfrew is now moored up at the bottom of our field keeping Empire company.

 

I let Pete know about the Video and he became very excited, Big thanks Mike.

 

Terence

[mykaskin]

Hi Ray,

 

The butty you saw was 'Joe' one of Pete Boyce's boats. Renfrew is now moored up at the bottom of our field keeping Empire company.

 

I let Pete know about the Video and he became very excited, Big thanks Mike.

 

Terence

 

I did tell him about, and was probably meant to do him a copy, but I forgot - thanks for letting him know.