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Free To Good Home/ Thomas Clayton Horseboat


Chris-B

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Carl, does she still have her tar tanks?

 

They never had "tanks" as such, the hold was stanked off, with 3" thick beams, at the bow, in front of the engine room/back cabin and in the middle of the hold.

 

The middle stank had a cat-flap sized cast iron sluice gate to balance the load.

 

She's got the bow stank (well it's behind where the forecabin was) but not the other two.

 

Usk had all three but only the one at the bow intact. The engine room one had been chopped down to the size of a set of knees and the hold one had a doorway roughly cut out of it.

 

These are the charred remains of Usk's hold stank.

 

DSC00343-1.jpg

Edited by carlt
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No, the Mersey Weaver 'Dane'. Looks the same to me, i've checked a couple of photos i took to ensure. I saw him at Langley Mill at the end of May, he reckoned August time for floating so he's done well!

The Thomas Clayton Dane is still floating (just) having left Langley Mill several weeks ago and passed through Fazely i believe, and was recently at Braunston with her butty 'Clara'.

 

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dane is still at Alvecote in the same spot but refurbishment has progressed since the photo. We moved to Alvecote in May and have been watching the progression each weekend. I don't know the name of the guy working on her- but there is a sign for the Narrowboat Heritage Foundation

Edited by Woodstock
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I presume Chris Leah of the Wooden Canal Boat Society and his colleagues peruse CWDF and have enough on with the 5 wooden boats they have.

 

In May they launched a restored Hazel for fitting out as a therapeutic holiday boat at their Heritage Boatyard in Stalybridge. So these days they have the ways and means to do proper restoration work instead of just keeping them afloat.

 

I am not clever enought to do the utube links but search wooden canal boats an a few videos come up including a couple of Hazels dramatic sideways launch

Edited by blodger
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They never had "tanks" as such, the hold was stanked off, with 3" thick beams, at the bow, in front of the engine room/back cabin and in the middle of the hold.

 

The middle stank had a cat-flap sized cast iron sluice gate to balance the load.

 

She's got the bow stank (well it's behind where the forecabin was) but not the other two.

 

Well I hate to throw the cat amongst the pigeons but if the MONNOW at Cowley once had a fore-cabin then it is not MONNOW. Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd. operated two generations of horse boat named MONNOW and neither had a fore-cabin according to their original health registrations and B.C.N. gaugings. I must admit to always being somewhat sceptical to this boats nameing, but I am unable to suggest a credible alternative.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Well I hate to throw the cat amongst the pigeons but if the MONNOW at Cowley once had a fore-cabin then it is not MONNOW. Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd. operated two generations of horse boat named MONNOW and neither had a fore-cabin according to their original health registrations and B.C.N. gaugings. I must admit to always being somewhat sceptical to this boats nameing, but I am unable to suggest a credible alternative.

 

Being the person who riased Monnow I can confirm there was no evidence of a fore cabin on the boat, the stanks on clayton horse boats left a space either side of the "hold", it does not automaticly indicate a fore cabin. The fore cabin would have had to seperated from the Hold for safety of the occupants.

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The stanks are a practical way of containing the fluids, they are/were constructed of 3" softwood planks and have 2 through bolts from the top and out through the bottom planks to pinch them tight, the stanks are caulked against the sides from both sides and then the caulking is capped. Where there is living accommodation the public health laws - as in No. nnnn registered at ...... required two fluid tight bulk heads between the cargo and the living space. This space is traditionally where the T pump lived. This area was tested to ensure it was water tight by the Public health inspectors on occasions, they just filled it with water and watched if the level dropped, if it did, something had to be done about it. Interestingly it normally was the second bulkhead ie the accommodation side which leaked and thus more reverse caulking and capping.

Only the motors had two tanks, this is required so that you can load them level, as the unloaded boat slopes to the back due to the engine, the trick was to load the front till it was level, then fill the back tank to the marker peg, and then load the rest of the front, and open up the paddle to level the load off. Once full, depending on the cargo, the hatches were closed and sometimes sealed with Crimps and then the slide were shut to exclude rain water.
One had to be very careful about just how much you loaded them with whatever fluid, as a fluid can cause you to very easily roll over, which is why the Clayton boatmen didn't like tin boats, they could not get the load on them. This is why most fluid carrying boats were wooden, unless like C&C boats you had separate tanks with baffles fitted.

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This is an excellent topic with lots of history. I think that it would sit well in the History section.

 

Please PM me if you think that is the wrong thing to do and I will move it back again.

 

Nick

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