Old Super-8 holiday boating film on YouTube

[nicknorman]

If anyone is interested I have dug out some old home movies that we had put onto video. I have now managed to capture them onto the PC and posted the 1st one on YouTube. It features our family on a Dawncraft hire boat on the Llangollen canal. Taken around 1970 I think, when I was about 14. I am the lanky and gawky one with the straggly hair. I hit 6' when I was 12 so look much older than my same-age schoolfriend who we also took. In the video is my mother (having her 90th birthday party next month), my sister and her schoolfriend, and my dad - long since deceased.

 

I am unclear where we started from, so if anyone can remember where one would have picked up a Dawncraft hire boat near the Llangollen in the early 70s, please let me know.

 

I have another slightly later one featuring an Anglo-Welsh narrowboat from Trevor, I'll get that one onto YouTube soon.

 

ETA there is no sound!

Edited January 2, 2013 by nicknorman

[nicknorman]

...And another one, a couple of years later, in an Anglo-Welsh NB from Trevor to Whaley Bridge and back ( mmmh, seems quite a long way for a week - we must have been keen!). Pity my dad couldn't spell Whaley! This one has different friends - Chris Phillipson is my schoolfriend and his dad bought Zenobia (1) - 45' Rugby Boatbuilders (Colin Payne) NB the following year, he now has Zenobia 2 and it was through him that I got back into boating about 20 years ago. Again, no sound.

 

Edited January 2, 2013 by nicknorman

[mike31]

great video, lovely old dawncraft

[benfordboy]

Fantastic !

 

Reminds me of my trip with Dad aboard Grandads Plywood Dawncraft 22 to Llangollen in the early 70's !

 

Empty waterways , a few cruisers Dawnies Normans mainly , the odd working boat , even fewer NB's ahhh those were the days !

 

Never to be repeated - Treasure those memories

[alan_fincher]

Hire base might have been "Bridge Canal Cruisers", Wrexam Road, Whitchurch, possibly?

 

Their 1970s adverts said "4 to 8 berth Cruisers and traditional boats for hire", and show them as selling petrol, without mentioning diesel, which to me implies at least some of their fleet might have been something like you show?

[Chop!]

37 seconds into the second video someone jumps the canal! NUTS!

 

Great videos, thank you so much for saving and sharing them

[Skye]

Great videos, did the Llangollen in a Anglo-Welsh NB from Trevor to Whaley Bridge last August and your video shows the canal is much the same now has then, the boats have changed somewhat!

 

Quote CHOPS post "37 seconds into the second video someone jumps the canal! NUTS! "

 

Was this an early street runner?

Edited January 2, 2013 by Skye

[nicknorman]

37 seconds into the second video someone jumps the canal!

In the days of 1-take 8mm film, that's what you call a lucky shot! Anyway, those were the days before Elf'n'safety where the local yoof did adventurous things!

[PaulJ]

Great bit of film thanks. Reminded me of the first boat I ever bought- a decrepid hulk of a Dawncraft 25 centre cockpit that arrived (much to the amusement of local marina)on the back of a potato lorry

[Dyertribe]

My first canal holiday was on a Dawncraft boat from Kinver I was about 9 yo. The boat was powered by an outboard motor Inside the back cabin so it had to be shut up whilst the engine was running and going to the loo involved holding your breath! We hadn't heard about carbon monoxide in those days!

Edited January 3, 2013 by Dyertribe

[Dave_P]

So quiet on the Llangollen then! And haven't the trees grown on the approach to the aqueduct?

[magpie patrick]

Hire base might have been "Bridge Canal Cruisers", Wrexam Road, Whitchurch, possibly?

 

Their 1970s adverts said "4 to 8 berth Cruisers and traditional boats for hire", and show them as selling petrol, without mentioning diesel, which to me implies at least some of their fleet might have been something like you show?

 

 

Almost certainly, as kids we had several holidays at "Bridge Cottage" Welsh Frankton and made much use of a car top dinghy. The canal then had a few bankside hire operations including Bridge Cruisers from Whitchurch.

 

Lovely footage, but I'm afraid tall aqueducts give me the creeps these days!

 

Edited to add, I now don't think it was from Whitchurch, the first lock shown is not one of the two New Marton Locks. Tentatively suggest Eggbridge At Waverton?

Edited January 3, 2013 by magpie patrick

[nicknorman]

Almost certainly, as kids we had several holidays at "Bridge Cottage" Welsh Frankton and made much use of a car top dinghy. The canal then had a few bankside hire operations including Bridge Cruisers from Whitchurch.

 

Lovely footage, but I'm afraid tall aqueducts give me the creeps these days!

 

Edited to add, I now don't think it was from Whitchurch, the first lock shown is not one of the two New Marton Locks. Tentatively suggest Eggbridge At Waverton?

Looking at the start of the footage, there are a few houses / buildings around including along the road behind the hedge, and a 1/2 timbered looking house, plus the modern road bridge. That doesn't really fit with Whitchurch / Wrexham rd bridge. I get the impression that the next shot is the boat moving away from the wharf any pretty much straight into an uphill lock. I think if we had departed from Waverton (which doesn't ring a bell) my dad would have to have taken a shot of the Bunury wide staircase which I think Is between there and Hurleston since it would have been the 1st staircase he had seen.

 

My mum now tells me that I organised the trip (at14?) and I do have a hint of the Market Draytons in my head, but not sure if that fits the images?

[Neil TNC]

I think you will find you hired from Mermaid Hire curisers Wrightwick on the S&W...in fact it could be the same boat we hired in 1971!

We also went Llangollen

 

TNC log of the trip

[Philip]

Was this before or after the modernisation of the Llangollen? (as in dredging, removal of gate paddles and hydraulic gear replacing chain lift bridges)

 

Can't see the video due to work network block!

[nicknorman]

I think you will find you hired from Mermaid Hire curisers Wrightwick on the S&W...in fact it could be the same boat we hired in 1971!

We also went Llangollen

 

Wow Neil, you are so right - thankyou! It all fits! I just spent hours trawling through Google maps to find a location that fitted, but gave up before I got that far away. CanalPlan says 87 hrs for that trip, quite an undertaking for a week but I guess the dawncraft was quite fast and no queues, plus a keen young crew! And I think the film shows us making it right into Llangollen.

 

You get a greenie for that and another one for the forum if I could give it - someone on here always knows the answer!

Edited January 3, 2013 by nicknorman

[nicknorman]

Was this before or after the modernisation of the Llangollen? (as in dredging, removal of gate paddles and hydraulic gear replacing chain lift bridges)

 

Can't see the video due to work network block!

Before, I guess, since there seem to be gate paddles and I'm sure there weren't hydraulic lift bridges. Grindly Brook staircase looks newish though.

[comfortably numb]

Great videos Nick and thanks for sharing them. Great scenes, some of which haven't changed much in the years since. Even without the sound the film still captures the atomosphere of the trip. I loved the snowman 'sitting' on the cabin roof in the 2nd video BTW.

 

Seeing that person jumping across the canal reminded me of my early teens when me and my mates used to jump across the canal by the guillotine lock at Kings Norton on the Stratford on Avon Canal. The winner was the one remaining who didn't have a wet foot (or more) or any cuts and grazes

[nicknorman]

I loved the snowman 'sitting' on the cabin roof in the 2nd video BTW.

 

 

According to my sister, it was a snow penguin and it was despatched over the side of the pontscyllte as we approached Trevor on the last day, much to my mother's horror!