Finding Foxton Boats

[khaffra]

The hesperus is actually a star class Ricky (wooden), subsequently owned by dave blagrove. It is currently at bugbrooke and for sale (£4k ono, if anyone fancies a good unconverted wooden motor I can pass on details). Hazel is still at runcorn with a full cabin conversion she is also for sale at the moment, I don't know the price but I can find out. I would dispute the fact that she was the second last wooden boat built at braunston as both she, raymond and irene were rebuilt boats on recycled knees. I regularly have this argument with Raymond apologists who want the best of both worlds. Raymond has now been completely rebuilt twice though the trust claim she was a new boat in 58 but a faithful restoration now.

Rant over, Wyvern also had nutfield, now dragging raymond III about (just let it go carl) and Victoria, an absolutely beautiful Nurser motor sitting on the bank at jem bates' yard just begging to be rebuilt.

 

Totally agree with the Raymond thing the knees came from another boat in 58 so it was already a secondhand boat, other boats have been rebuilt over the years down to the knee's but they don't become new boats they are rebuilt old boats but because Raymonds name changed it became a new boat.

So I am gathering from this there are 2 Hazel's as the WCBS one was definately at Portland basin last time I was there. I know there is a bit of an argument about there "Forget me not" as well as to whether it has always been Forget me not.

[Hairy-Neil]

So I am gathering from this there are 2 Hazel's as the WCBS one was definately at Portland basin last time I was there.

 

Yes. To confuse matters, both were together at Runcorn between c.1994 - 1998 and I believe the owner of Barlow's Hazel had connections with the WCCT/WCBS

 

1914 Runcorn Wooden Header by Simpson Davies, Runcorn for the Salt Union. Apparently looked more like scaled down barges than narrow boats. Originally named Mull, renamed Hazel in 1929, converted for pleasure use at Rathbones Boatyard in 1951.

 

1957/8 Nurser/Barlows of Braunston built for the Samuel Barlow Coal Co.

[carlt]

Totally agree with the Raymond thing the knees came from another boat in 58 so it was already a secondhand boat, other boats have been rebuilt over the years down to the knee's but they don't become new boats they are rebuilt old boats but because Raymonds name changed it became a new boat.

So I am gathering from this there are 2 Hazel's as the WCBS one was definately at Portland basin last time I was there. I know there is a bit of an argument about there "Forget me not" as well as to whether it has always been Forget me not.

There are indeed two wooden hazels.

 

The dispute over forget me not is largely down to which is henry grantham's early motorised butty, chris leah's of the wcbs or the ex-hotel boat now lying past warwick on the gu. I know the hotel boat very well indeed and have examined her stern closely. I can't find any evidence of a conversion to power (though the back end was bodged about a bit by tooley when she was 'hotelised') and she appears to have her original stern post. The wcbs forget me not, however, is a motorised butty which leads me to believe that this is indeed the boat of henry grantham. I think the confusion arose because henry grantham sold his pair (f-me-not(motor) and sarah jane(butty)) to barlows in 1941. In 1939, however, joseph grantham also sold a pair to barlows (rocket (motor) and forget me not (butty)). I assume the two were related and the family must have liked the name forget me not. I'll get my coat now (it's waterproof you know)

[khaffra]

There are indeed two wooden hazels.

 

The dispute over forget me not is largely down to which is henry grantham's early motorised butty, chris leah's of the wcbs or the ex-hotel boat now lying past warwick on the gu. I know the hotel boat very well indeed and have examined her stern closely. I can't find any evidence of a conversion to power (though the back end was bodged about a bit by tooley when she was 'hotelised') and she appears to have her original stern post. The wcbs forget me not, however, is a motorised butty which leads me to believe that this is indeed the boat of henry grantham. I think the confusion arose because henry grantham sold his pair (f-me-not(motor) and sarah jane(butty)) to barlows in 1941. In 1939, however, joseph grantham also sold a pair to barlows (rocket (motor) and forget me not (butty)). I assume the two were related and the family must have liked the name forget me not. I'll get my coat now (it's waterproof you know)

 

From what I gather there were several Sarah Jane's and Forget me not's as Henry Grantham always called his boats Sarah Jane or Forget me not and had several over the years. If I remember right his daughter was called Sarah Jane but where Forget me not comes from I don't know. There is a bench near Whilton bottom lock with the names Forget me not and Sarah Jane painted on it and he was the lockkeeper at Whilton for a long time.

In a similar way there is a life ring at Norton Junction with another wooden pair Salvo and Astor painted on it as they were kept there for a long time.

[alan_fincher]

Hi alan. No the nurser butty is definitely at Runcorn. The confusion is that the WCBS's Hazel is the (believed) last runcorn wooden header left. The headers being big wooden posts instead of iron t-studs for towing. She was at runcorn for a long time with (nurser) hazel but the WCBS moved her some time ago to begin restoration work.

 

Yes, I'll second that. Barlows Hazel was definitely at Runcorn in october 2004 when I passed on a hire boat. IIRC it was at Langley Mill around 1993 - 94. I knew the owner and made quite a close inspection, both on the dry dock and the internal arrangements. I think it had no engine at that poing. I vaguely remember the gravity tank. The hull was then in fairly good condition with the exception of one or two planks at the stern on the left side. I believe only temporary repairs were carried out in that ownership.

 

OK. fully understood.....

 

Quite a concidence then that both Hazels were associated with Runcorn in a similar time-frame.

 

I'm fairly confident I've posted this previously, but if anyone wants to see what you could hire in the early 1970s, here are the details for Hazel.

 

 

Interesting about the hesperus because the one I was referring to is a full length unconverted wooden motor which I had always assumed to be the hesperus quoted as belonging to wyvern.

 

No I'm 100% confident that Hesperus was a renamed Middle Northwich boat, and have always believed it to be Sextans.

 

They both looked pretty much identical, (Wyvern having very sensibly blow-torched the massive icebreaker noses off that would have been added to both )

 

 

For completeness, here is one of the shortened Severn & Canal Carrying company boats, (as you can see, it was a considerable climb into the front of one of these!)

 

 

and here is the former ice breaker "Princess".

 

 

I like the fact that you could run these boats for 3 hours for around 2 shillings and 6 pence, (12.5 p, for anyone not old enough to know - "half-a-crown' for those that are!). I guess that was the approximate price of a gallon then. I make that about 2.75 pence per litre, so if I'm right about one twenty-fifth of that price that was quoted recently at College Cruisers!.

 

If anyone knows any of the history, or current whereabouts of any of these former Wyvern boats, I'd be most interested. (Sorry Carl, only the cabins on these were made of wood, I'm afraid, so probably not sufficiently traditional to be of any interest!).

Edited November 11, 2006 by alan_fincher

[Matthew Dowson]

Alan referred earlier in the thread to Hesperus, which was owned by Wyvern Shipping, my brother Mark owned it in the 70s, his response to me offline is below (I had forwarded him Alan's comments on Hesperus and her WSCo colleagues.

 

"Did this exchange take place on the web site? I haven't got this one sussed

out yet. (He's a bit web-phobic)

 

Sept 1975 was when I bought it. Approx £3,750. I sold it in 1979 for £5,000

to someone whose name I might remember if I thought long enough about it.

 

Current owner, Steve Barrett has indeed renamed it Sextans altho that may

have been done by previous owner but he has certainly spent lots of time and

money on it and lengthened it to 50 foot..... Looks lovely, I've

got a photo somewhere.

 

Steve sold Sextans last year. They were finding her a bit too hard going on the shallow canals

with only 2 of them crewing. Not sure where she is based now.

 

All other info absolutely spot on

 

Cheers

[AMModels]

while searching for other stuff on the site I came across this reference to SEXTANS, there is a picture of her on my website either direct to the GUCC H-Z page or via the GUCC lists. When I saw her she was IIRC on the Shroppie around Barbridge or maybe a bit further south.

 

From the look of the photo she didnt seem to have changed much from her days as a hire boat for Wyvern. The windows are recognisable as being the same ones if maybe painted a different colour the lack of gunnel is also marked.

[hughc]

We bought the ex- Wyvern Hazel when she had a section eight notice and took her to Langley Mll. She was docked and some recaulking carried out to tighten the hull and a couple of small leaks were fixed. We then sold her to people associated with WCBS who took her to Runcorn. She has recently been for sale for £8000. The fore end had been rebuilt to a high standard by, I believe, John Woolley. We no longer have a website because we stopped running camping boats when the cost of insurance became so high that we could no longer offer youth groups a competitive price. Our insurance company seemed to think that the Trent and Mersey was as dangerous as the North Atlantic. Regards. H.C.

[Richard Carter]

On 13/10/2006 at 11:30, Moley said:

Well, I can't see a name on any picture of the Motor.

Scanner actually worked first time, for a change.

 

 

 

... and the drivers:

 

Idly scanning through old threads brought me to this. It is a while ago, and I see the OP has not visited the forum since 2016, but it may still be of some interest to others ...

 

The steerers are Cliff and Jan Thorpe (with their son Jason), who steered for FBS for just one season - 1982 - which was the first season I was there, the motor boat is Coleshilll. I steered Baldock as a single motor that year, those three boats were by that time the entire camping fleet, as Owl & Mercury had long since been taken elsewhere, and Bletchley & Argus were operating from Leicester under the name Educational Cruises, still skippered by Jack Monk. From 1983 to 1987 I steered Baldock and Virginis, and Trevor Oxley, and later Paul Griffiths, took over on Coleshill. Trevor moved ca. 1985/6 to Pitstone Wharf and then to Marsworth, where he is still engineering away, so far as I know. After 1987 there was, to the best of my knowledge, only a handful of bookings, which were steered on a casual basis by Cliff Myles, before the boats were decommissioned.

[Mike Todd]

There is a B&W pic of Virginis on Foxton Boat Services website Gallery with a crowd on board. Even with my ancient vision I suspect they are too young to have been from a Poly!