Tonnage Carried

[Lorna]

Hello everybody I read with intrest about tonnage carried and I thought I would share with you some entries from my grandfathers log book

1911 2 horse boats Avon and Richmond

this is one journey

Grain Brentford to Wellingborough 59 tons 10 cwt

Coal Wyken Colliery to Southall 61 tons 15 cwt

Stabling 18 nights 6 shillings

Tug 11 shillings

1913 Motor Hasty Butty Richmond

Wheat Brentford to Leicester 53 tons 2 cwt

Coal Griff Colliery to Southall 53 tons 10cwt

Oil 2 shillings and 6 pence

Lorna

[pete harrison]

Welcome to the Forum Lorna. We have not spoken for a while.

 

Before anybody asks the carrier who owned these boats was Emanuel Smith, Brentford.

Edited February 6, 2012 by pete harrison

[Lorna]

Welcome to the Forum Lorna. We have not spoken for a while.

Thank you

[Lorna]

you are absolutely correct Pete. My Dad was born on another of Manny Smiths boats boats the Mary Ann

[pete harrison]

you are absolutely correct Pete. My Dad was born on another of Manny Smiths boats boats the Mary Ann

 

That will be MARY ANN - Daventry 124 (25 March 1896 - Port of London gauged 6790 (10 April 1896) - Grand Junction Canal gauged 11533 (12 October 1905).

[glenvar]

Hello everybody I read with intrest about tonnage carried and I thought I would share with you some entries from my grandfathers log book

1911 2 horse boats Avon and Richmond

this is one journey

Grain Brentford to Wellingborough 59 tons 10 cwt

Coal Wyken Colliery to Southall 61 tons 15 cwt

Stabling 18 nights 6 shillings

Tug 11 shillings

1913 Motor Hasty Butty Richmond

Wheat Brentford to Leicester 53 tons 2 cwt

Coal Griff Colliery to Southall 53 tons 10cwt

Oil 2 shillings and 6 pence

Lorna

in 1998ish i resurfaced a towpth on the offside using 60 tons of mot stone , all this was bought up from lock 90 in 1 hopper. The canal bed was so silted that the hopper needed a tug to pull it and a tug to push it. Oh yeah,first post and hello everyone

[Athy]

Welcome, Glen.

How can a towpath be on the offside?

[glenvar]

Welcome, Glen.

How can a towpath be on the offside?

Hi, names steve, company was called glenvar. sorry i meant mooring path

[Max Sinclair]

Welcome to the Forum Lorna. We have not spoken for a while.

 

Before anybody asks the carrier who owned these boats was Emanuel Smith, Brentford.

The Salt Trows on the Droitwich Barge Canal were limited to sixty tons by the depth of the lock cills.The practise developed of following the Trow down to Hawford Lock on the Severn with thirty tons in a horse or donkey drawn narrow boat. With the Trow in the lock the bottom cill was ten foot deep to allow for a five foot tide until the Severn Locks stopped it. Using wheelbarrows the 'makeweight' boat was unloaded over the lock side into the Trow. The heaviest cargo loaded on record was 115 tons into the 'Harriet'If the river was normal a line was attached to the stern and carried forward to a pulley permanently fixed at the lock mouth and then back to the horse. With the bottom gates open the horse was driven up the towpath and the Trow shot out across the Severn to the mouth of Bevere Lock. If the river was high and reached a lockside mark the boatman would sail over the weirs and not pay lock tolls.This was all recounted to me by 80 year old Tom Cartwright who with his father Tom worked the makeweight 'Three Brothers' using donkeys Jack and Nellie.

This all ceased in 1916 when the salt industry collapsed and the Trows had their masts removed and worked as dumb barges in Gloucester

[pete harrison]

The practise developed of following the Trow down to Hawford Lock on the Severn with thirty tons in a horse or donkey drawn narrow boat. With the Trow in the lock the bottom cill was ten foot deep to allow for a five foot tide until the Severn Locks stopped it. Using wheelbarrows the 'makeweight' boat was unloaded over the lock side into the Trow.

A similar method was practiced on the Basingstoke Canal where a narrow boat would assist a larger boat with a part of its load through the shallower sections. I think these were known as "lightening boats" in the case of the Basingstoke Canal. I am sure this practice was fairly extensive throughout the canal and river system although this is not a subject I have particularly researched.

[Derek R.]

I think 'Eynsham Harry' mentioned that in Temple Thurston's book 'The Flower of Gloucester' about passage through Sapperton tunnel - 'lightening' boats.