Atherstone Top Lock Cottage up for sale...

[carlt]

Auction Clicky

 

[Athy]

This is a surprise. When we regularly frequented those waters (up to about 2004) a lock-keeper ( I guess lengthman in reality) and his family lived there; he was well known locally for taking a pride in it, growing flowers, keeping grass neat and tidy and so on. How come it is now vacant?

[Allan(nb Albert)]

This is a surprise. When we regularly frequented those waters (up to about 2004) a lock-keeper ( I guess lengthman in reality) and his family lived there; he was well known locally for taking a pride in it, growing flowers, keeping grass neat and tidy and so on. How come it is now vacant?

 

That was Tony Wright, who was awarded an MBE some years ago for his services to the waterways.

[sueb]

First he loses his job, then his house? Or is there another explanation?

[LEO]

This is a surprise. When we regularly frequented those waters (up to about 2004) a lock-keeper ( I guess lengthman in reality) and his family lived there; he was well known locally for taking a pride in it, growing flowers, keeping grass neat and tidy and so on. How come it is now vacant?

 

 

Hi,

 

Probably the actions of 'penny pinching' accountants, increase profitability, reduce manpower, sell assets. Accountants are like some members of the legal profession, only suitable for medical experimentation.

 

Or, he could have purchased the cottage under the RTB provisions and is selling it on.

 

L.

Edited September 3, 2012 by LEO

[twbm]

First he loses his job, then his house? Or is there another explanation?

 

If he did lose his job, and tenancy was tied to the occupation, he would lose the house.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

If he did lose his job, and tenancy was tied to the occupation, he would lose the house.

 

He was effectively made redundant (took early retirement) a couple of years back.

[Athy]

That was Tony Wright, who was awarded an MBE some years ago for his services to the waterways.

That's the man! Thanks for reminding me, I had forgotten his name. I did meet him a couple of times. So he got a golden watershake, by the sound of it.

[lydfordcastle]

Anyway, back to the auction.

No vehicular access, no mooring, boaters continually knocking on your door telling you that the second pound is empty, local 'yoof' congregating under the adjacent bridge ; at £130,000 plus £30,000 to refurbish it doesn't sound like a very attractive proposition.

Or am I saying all that just to put off other potential buyers?

[Allan(nb Albert)]

That's the man! Thanks for reminding me, I had forgotten his name. I did meet him a couple of times. So he got a golden watershake, by the sound of it.

 

Not not a golden handshake. As I said he was effectively made redundant -

 

Extract from Warwickshire Life April 2011

 

The Communications Manager for the Midlands, Stephen Hardy, tells me that properties that do not bring in enough money are to be sold off, only ones that offer profitable leases are to be retained.

Tony Wright has been employed by British Waterways for twenty-six years and for the last decade has lived in a tied lockkeeper’s cottage at Atherstone, with his wife Teresa and his son, Steven. He has won prizes for keeping his two-and-a-half mile stretch of canal neat and attractive, besides coping with the seven thousand boats that pass through Atherstone every year, fending off vandals and reasoning with would-be suicides. He has done a great deal of public relations work for his employers, giving talks and interviews on radio and television, indeed his service to the canal won him an M.B.E.

In the past year or so everything has changed. Instead of being allowed to do his job in his own effective way British Waterways introduced “functional teams.”

“Three people come down here every day to do a water drill which was my job,” Tony Wright told me, “and they’re down here two or three hours. And then three blokes will come down to cut the grass, and then two or three blokes will come down to do the repairs. How could they justify the expense of three people doing the job that I did on my own?”

Tony Wright was willing to join a functional team but unhappily a road accident has left him with post-traumatic stress so that he cannot bear to get into a car. Yet he can still do the job that he has always done. But his cottage is to be sold and, as British Waterways ironically phrases it, he has “taken” early retirement.

“We’ll be homeless and jobless. I just don’t understand. Here I am, at fifty-two years of age, facing early retirement when there’s a lovely job out there.”

Will the new charity value its employees as human beings?

Edited September 3, 2012 by Allan(nb Albert)

[dmr]

Please please please forgive me if I am wrong, but when we passed last year was this house not displaying a notice outside advising its readers to vote for the Tory Party????

Anyone who advocates voting Tory and then suffers as a result of fundamental capitalist policy (putting corporate gain before the needs of individuals) has limited sympathy from me. However I do wish Cart would stop selling off its canalside properties, I hate seeing the new owners putting up all those "No Mooring" signs!

...........Dave

[alan_fincher]

However I do wish Cart would stop selling off its canalside properties, I hate seeing the new owners putting up all those "No Mooring" signs!

...........Dave

A "no mooring" sign doesn't sound that unreasonable if, as in this case, what is in front of the house is a lock!

[Tuscan]

It's also opposite the derelict coal depot. How this area has changed, the cottage and the flight was always well kept, flowers everywhere. Under the bridge the hat factory shop was always interesting. The coal yard with the boats outside for deliveries . Now the whole top lock area is soulless and the pounds often need topping up . A shame .they should have an employee in the cottage or a volunteer lockie free accommodation in return for looking after the locks - but then that was the real likes job before being made redundant. .......madness

[sueb]

It's the building extensions and adding conservatories I hate.

[Ange]

Hi,

 

Probably the actions of 'penny pinching' accountants, increase profitability, reduce manpower, sell assets. Accountants are like some members of the legal profession, only suitable for medical experimentation.

 

Or, he could have purchased the cottage under the RTB provisions and is selling it on.

 

L.

 

Ahem. Some accountants maybe? Please don't tar us all with the same brush.

[Athy]

It's also opposite the derelict coal depot. How this area has changed, the cottage and the flight was always well kept, flowers everywhere. Under the bridge the hat factory shop was always interesting. The coal yard with the boats outside for deliveries .

Exactly what Mrs. Athy and I were saying yesterday. The area around the top lock was, in the 200 - 2004 period when we were moored at Springwood Haven and passed through Atherstone often, like stepping back 40 years, with the busy waterside coal yard (surely one of the last on BW?) and the well-tended cottage and garden, though the hat factory had closed by then.

Have Rothen's (the coal merchants) ceased trading or have they gone elsewhere? As well as the joey boats which were usually moored there, I believe that owner Andy Rothen had a working motor as well, though whether he ever used it for towing joey-loads of coal I don't know.

[LEO]

Ahem. Some accountants maybe? Please don't tar us all with the same brush.

 

 

OK - some............................., especially not the boaty types....................

[Ange]

[quote name='LEO' timestamp='1346744586' post='933419']
OK - some............................., especially not the boaty types....................
[/quote]

Thank you

[mrsmelly]

[quote name='Ange' timestamp='1346756828' post='933535']
Thank you
[/quote]

Hey Ange........Why dont accountants look out of the window in the morning ?

[Ange]

[quote name='mrsmelly' timestamp='1346757033' post='933538']
Hey Ange........Why dont accountants look out of the window in the morning ?
[/quote]

Go on Tim - enlighten me

[LoneWolf]

cos we'd have nothing to do in the afternoon

[alan_fincher]

[quote name='mrsmelly' timestamp='1346757033' post='933538']
Hey Ange........Why dont accountants look out of the window in the morning ?
[/quote]
Are all estate agent jokes interchangeable with accountant jokes then ?

[Athy]

Not quite: the accountant's office has windows, the estate agent's office benefits from dual-aspect windows, believed to be an original feature and offering scenic views while creating a light and airy ambience.

Edited September 4, 2012 by Athy

[LoneWolf]

[quote name='alan_fincher' timestamp='1346759722' post='933559']
Are all estate agent jokes interchangeable with accountant jokes then ?
[/quote]

I've only heard it before as a 'student' joke

The accountant joke is: Why did the auditor get drunk on his birthday?

Because it's what he did the previous year

[quote name='LEO' timestamp='1346683618' post='932984']
Hi,

Probably the actions of 'penny pinching' accountants, increase profitability, reduce manpower, sell assets. Accountants are like some members of the legal profession, only suitable for medical experimentation.

Or, he could have purchased the cottage under the RTB provisions and is selling it on.

L.
[/quote]


Actually, while we're talking about accountants I'll just point out that LEO is showing his ignorance here. On the whole it's not the accountants who make the decisions on 'penny pinching'. Accountants usually provide the figures to enable decisions to be made but rarely do they make the decisions.

[mrsmelly]

[quote name='Ange' timestamp='1346758164' post='933547']
Go on Tim - enlighten me
[/quote]

Because they would have nothing left to do in the afternoon

Tim