Health Registered

[Guest]

As per title - seen this in a few posts recently and am curious as to what it means....have meant to ask before but have never got aroundtuit.

 

Cheers....

[the grinch]

simple every boat had to be registered with the local health authority who in turn decided how many people could be squashed into each one!the number of the entry then being displayed on the cabinside. since about the mid 70's the registered at has been abused by those with no knowledge with registered at Watford which isn't a registration district

[pete harrison]

Following the Canal Boat Act 1877 any working boat used as a dwelling on the inland waterway system required approval by a local authority Sanitary Inspector, preferably using a local authority where the boat was either based or frequently passed through. The Canal Boat Act 1877 was passed in order to ensure a boat cabin was suitable for habitation and maintained as such, as well as ensuring each cabin was certified for a suitable number of occupants (taking sex and age into account and based on cubic capacity of the cabin). Once a boat cabin had been inspected by the relevant Sanitary Inspector a recommendation would be forwarded to the local authority Sanitary Committee who would approve it for habitation, providing of course it met the requirements of the Act. A numbered certificate would then be issued by the local authority to the boat owner and it is this issuing local authority and certificate number that is written on the cabin side of the boat. The details recorded in the local authority health register are:-

 

application date

inspection date

registration date

boat name

boat owner / address

boat master / address

motive power

wide or narrow

route and cargo

slow or flyboat

number of cabins

cabin dimensions

number of persons approved to dwell in cabins

 

Most of these details are also recorded on the health registration certificate, and this certificate was supposed to remain with the boat for random inspection by any Sanitary Inspector at any time. Prosecutions for failing to comply with the terms of the registration were quite common, usually due to the poor condition of the cabin or overcrowding. The last working boat to be health registered was on 26 September 1969.

 

As 'hamsterfan' has said, in more recent times it has become popular for modern boat owners to write on their cabin sides "Registered at Watford No. -----" in order to simulate the painted layout of working boats. The registered number in this case is the boat licence / index number and has no historical significance (yet).

[Guest]

Thanks Peter, that's a good detailed explanation.

[Ange]

A lot of good information in this thread My link

[the grinch]

 

The last working boat to be health registered was on 26 September 1969.

 

 

but not the last boat to be registered as at least one has been registered since can't recall its name but has the only market harborough registration

Edited October 7, 2012 by hamsterfan

[pete harrison]

but not the last boat to be registered as at least one has been registered since can't recall its name but has the only market harborough registration

I just knew somebody would mention this - as reported in Waterways World magazine June 1993 page 38 - house boat POLJON owned by John and Paula Hogg with commercial licence for selling painted ware health registered as Market Harborough 1

Edited October 7, 2012 by pete harrison

[Laurence Hogg]

Just to add the canal boat act was repealed in 1987 so it is no longer possible to register a boat in the original way.

[the grinch]

Just to add the canal boat act was repealed in 1987 so it is no longer possible to register a boat in the original way.

 

but, wasn't that only 1 part of it, I seem to recall that the original act still stands whilst its replacement is the one repealed?

 

I just knew somebody would mention this - as reported in Waterways World magazine June 1993 page 38 - house boat POLJON owned by John and Paula Hogg with commercial licence for selling painted ware health registered as Market Harborough 1

 

thats the one and they used the original act as I said above.

[Laurence Hogg]

but, wasn't that only 1 part of it, I seem to recall that the original act still stands whilst its replacement is the one repealed?

 

 

 

thats the one and they used the original act as I said above.

 

No as I understand its all repealed, we looked at it recently as a possible angle for a certain CRT mooring problem.

[furnessvale]

I just knew somebody would mention this - as reported in Waterways World magazine June 1993 page 38 - house boat POLJON owned by John and Paula Hogg with commercial licence for selling painted ware health registered as Market Harborough 1

Presumably a health inspector had to come along and measure the cabin etc. This would result in the only modern boat with a limit on the number of persons allowed to sleep on board overnight.

 

This bit of fun by the owners could come back to haunt them if it results in a smaller registered persons number than they would like and it could make the boat more difficult to sell.

 

Just a thought.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[the grinch]

double check Lawrence as Poljon was registered after the date you mention the act was repealed and I'm fairly certain that at least one act is still on the statute books.

[kingofthecut]

My pet hate is boats stating 'Registered at Watford'!

[the grinch]

My pet hate is boats stating 'Registered at Watford'!

don't think you're alone in that one!

[Derek R.]

My pet hate is boats stating 'Registered at Watford'!

 

 

Perhaps they'll all be changing it to Leeds now . . . .

[Laurence Hogg]

double check Lawrence as Poljon was registered after the date you mention the act was repealed and I'm fairly certain that at least one act is still on the statute books.

 

I got the info from here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/43/schedule/1/part/X/enacted?view=plain

 

Says "whole act"

 

Wording of that act verified here: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_os9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA399&lpg=PA399&dq=CANAL+BOAT+ACT+REPEALED&source=bl&ots=mGvUrvaXmq&sig=qOhEYEtQsJBhK61GcmQ79fhWL-k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=88ByUNumJ-eb1AX-oIHgBw&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=CANAL%20BOAT%20ACT%20REPEALED&f=false

 

Perhaps they'll all be changing it to Leeds now . . . .

Nope, - worse "Registered at Milton Keynes" There again someone could call a boat "Concrete cow" .................

Edited October 8, 2012 by Laurence Hogg

[Keeping Up]

Using the term "registered at ..." doesn't necessarily mean that the owner doesn't understand its meaning, although in many cases that is true, nor does it necessarily mean that the term is being abused.

 

Since it is clear that a boat cannot now be newly health registered, the use of the word "registered" on a modern boat cannot be referring to that process - and therefore must be referring to a manner in which that boat is legitimately registered. The distinction comes perhaps merely from the semantic distinction between licensing and registration.

 

In my own case, for example, the signwriting on my boat states in small letters that it is registered at Longport as number 177, a fact which may be verified by examination of Stoke on Trent Boatbuilding's register of the boats which they have constructed. It may not be an official register, but it is indeed a register (in accordance with the dictionary definition of the term)

 

Because I also dislike the "registered at Watford" epithet which is so common, I thought long and hard about putting the Longport 177 registration on my boat, but I am glad that I have done so because I have met and chatted to many other Stoke-on-Trent boat owners as a result of doing so.

[carlt]

The mooring warden at Braunston once told me that I was breaking the law by displaying "registered at Daventry no.548" on Lucy and I should only display the BW index number.

[Mike Tee]

 

In my own case, for example, the signwriting on my boat states in small letters that it is registered at Longport as number 177, a fact which may be verified by examination of Stoke on Trent Boatbuilding's register of the boats which they have constructed. It may not be an official register, but it is indeed a register (in accordance with the dictionary definition of the term

 

 

Here, here......No.178

 

pillock...

hear, hear

Edited October 8, 2012 by Mike Tee

[David Mack]

The mooring warden at Braunston once told me that I was breaking the law by displaying "registered at Daventry no.548" on Lucy and I should only display the BW index number.

 

Many ex-working boats display their original registration place and number. But my understanding of the Act is that if signficant changes were made to the boat it was supposed to be reinspected and reregistered. Which would mean that, were the Act still in place, they should be displaying more recent registration details.

[Derek R.]

But the Act is (arguably?) not in place. Only Index number, name, and licence are now required to be displayed of pleasure boats. I do think public health registration numbers should be displayed on ex-working boats which still have their back cabins extant, not so sure about those which have been removed. But without any definitive and actionable requirement by the powers that be - it's open season.

 

Few display their vehicle registration as of any such 'place', though until recently one could tell the County of original registration from the last two letters. No longer though. Shame. They've done the same in France.

[Keeping Up]

Few display their vehicle registration as of any such 'place', though until recently one could tell the County of original registration from the last two letters. No longer though. Shame. They've done the same in France.

 

But you can tell it from the first two letters instead (here is a copy of the list)

[the grinch]

I just knew somebody would mention this - as reported in Waterways World magazine June 1993 page 38 - house boat POLJON owned by John and Paula Hogg with commercial licence for selling painted ware health registered as Market Harborough 1

 

in it i'm sure they detailed which act was still in force (can't get to my copy)

[Derek R.]

But you can tell it from the first two letters instead (here is a copy of the list)

 

I didn't realise that, though it's still a way short of County identification as before.

[kingofthecut]

Many ex-working boats display their original registration place and number. But my understanding of the Act is that if signficant changes were made to the boat it was supposed to be reinspected and reregistered. Which would mean that, were the Act still in place, they should be displaying more recent registration details.

 

That is the same argument as not displaying Fellows, Morton & Clayton or GUCCCo on your cabinside as ownership changes. Surely displaying an historical number relevant to the boat is acceptable as is keeping its name and fleet number.