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tugs White Heather and Tyburn. where are they now?

magnetman

By magnetman
in History & Heritage

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magnetman Veteran II

magnetman

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Another topic reminded me of the rather nice little narrow tug White Heather and another similar boat which was in Uxbridge years ago called Tyburn.

 

Where are they now?

 

Last time I saw White Heather was about 10 years ago at Cookham Dean (Thames by winter hill) and Tyburn must have been about 15 or more years ago near the Shovel in Uxbridge.

 

Nice boats :)

 

Iirc Tyburn went to Wfbco but not sure after that. I think they were old Way or Basingstoke boats but narrow :unsure:

Wey

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BuckbyLocks Community Regular

BuckbyLocksDonate to Canal World

Posted
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Birmingham, (Tyburn) or at least the hull of same is on the bank at Tardebigge where it used to operate. Think it was an Abdulla and Mitchell built tug for the Worcester and Birmingham. It was rescued from a Section 8 disposal but there was not enough money to restore it at that time.

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magnetman Veteran II

magnetman

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I had heard White Heather was on the Wey or Basingstoke. Shame that Tyburn is not floating its a lovely hull IMO but a lot of work I expect. I was moored opposite her when she was towed from where the bins are now just the other side of the bridge from the Shovel pub. Nice to see the old pictures :cheers:

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Tam & Di Influencer

Tam & Di

Posted
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7442789808_d1fe019c5a_z.jpgWhite Heather - Braunston Historic Boat Gathering 2012 by imulford, on Flickr

 

Wasn't she once owned by someone on here?

 

White Heather was owned by our no.1 son Jason, who built the wheelhouse it currently has and painted it in those colours. I put a photo on here in a topic concerning Johnnie Dakin, but I can't find it by using the search facility. We also bought butty Coronis out of service and motorised it. Nick Stainer who used to work for us fetched up with both of these craft at one point. Co-incidently he now works for Tim Wood who was our partner at the tme and now operates a fleet of maintenance craft including several bantams and 3 or 4 L&L shortboats.

 

Tam

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Leo No2 Rising Star

Leo No2

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White Heather is owned by Mike and Jennifer Adams. I think she may be in the Alvecote area at the moment but has been moored on the Basingstoke just above Woodham Top Lock and occasionally on the Wey at the Pelican Wharf. (http://hnbc.org.uk/boats/white-heather and http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/1657/white-heather)

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Laurence Hogg Veteran

Laurence Hogg

Posted
Posted (edited)

Birmingham, (Tyburn) or at least the hull of same is on the bank at Tardebigge where it used to operate. Think it was an Abdulla and Mitchell built tug for the Worcester and Birmingham. It was rescued from a Section 8 disposal but there was not enough money to restore it at that time.

There was more than enough money to restore Birmingham. The "Working boats project" in 1998 had a £500.000 Heritage lottery grant to restore ten old boats, IMHO the project was woefuly mis managed by one Eliza Botham whom when questioned about donations and where they went could not even recall which bank account she had paid them into!

 

It seemed unbelievable at the time that the boats were not all finished and most of us knew that they could have all been done for half the amount they had on hand. I managed to get the breakdown of figures from HLF on Birmingham, they were a joke, HLF couldn't provide me with the rest of the breakdown as then they had only the costs of two boats, Scorpio and Birmingham.

 

Are you ready for this ? They "spent" £27151 on conserving and displaying ""Birmingham" - any fool could have rebuilt her completely for that amount. One element alone was craning which cost £4000 ........

Does anyone smell a rat???

 

The above figures were supplied by HLF.

Edited by Laurence Hogg
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pete harrison Veteran

pete harrison

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Ford cargo engine iirc 6 cylinder about 100-120hp

 

Originally had a Gardner I think.

Bulls Bridge documentation for WHITE HEATHER states that the original engine was a 2 cylinder Robey of Lincoln semi-diesel of 44hp @ 1000 r.p.m. with a direct drive gearbox. This was replaced in December 1958 by a 3 cylinder Lister Freedom (FR3) 32hp @ 1500 r.p.m. with a Lister Type 3R reduction gearbox.

 

The Lister was still in WHITE HEATHER when sold by British Waterways Board in 1974 and was subsequently replaced by a Ford 6 cylinder 120hp diesel, the Lister being refitted into a B.C.N. day boat conversion.

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