Hawkesbury in 1980

[John Brightley]

More photos which you might find interesting:

'Wild Hemlock 1' (Calcutt Boats)

 

'Swan Lake' (Rose Narrowboats)

'Club Commodore' (Club Line Cruisers)

'Pictor'

'Whitby'

'Whitby'

All photos © Copyright John Brightley

 

Edited February 27, 2015 by John Brightley

[Ray T]

Fascinating pictures, thank you.

 

Noticeable is the lack of private boats.

[David Schweizer]

Hawkesbury Junction Aug 1968

 

 

Edited to add:- This photo is in my personal collection, However, a very similar photo taken on the same day by David Blagrove appeared in Waterways World a few years ago, only he got the year wrong!

Edited February 26, 2015 by David Schweizer

[John Brightley]

Fascinating pictures, thank you.

 

Noticeable is the lack of private boats.

Thanks Ray.

Of course the big difference between Hawkesbury in the late '70's/ early 1980's and now, (apart from the new flats) is that for most of the time there wasn't anyone living on a boat there at all - the only exception I can remember is Owen & Iris Bryce on Bix who were there for a year or two- even then they alternated between Coventry Basin and the Junction.

[Ray T]

Thanks Ray.

Of course the big difference between Hawkesbury in the late '70's/ early 1980's and now, (apart from the new flats) is that for most of the time there wasn't anyone living on a boat there at all - the only exception I can remember is Owen & Iris Bryce on Bix who were there for a year or two- even then they alternated between Coventry Basin and the Junction.

 

Sorry I cannot resist, were they original C'mers?

[Bee]

Nah, that'd be Rolt.

[ChimneyChain]

What's the pair of boats called John, any ideas ??

Is it Badsey and Barnes??

 

Darren

[David Mack]

Thanks Ray.

Of course the big difference between Hawkesbury in the late '70's/ early 1980's and now, (apart from the new flats) is that for most of the time there wasn't anyone living on a boat there at all - the only exception I can remember is Owen & Iris Bryce on Bix who were there for a year or two- even then they alternated between Coventry Basin and the Junction.

 

But a little earlier, Joe and Rose Skinner lived on Friendship there through the 60s until the mid 70s.

[Derek R.]

What's the pair of boats called John, any ideas ??

Is it Badsey and Barnes??

 

Darren

 

I was wondering that. Looks like the colours Dave & Jill Humphrey's painted them. Spic'n span they were too.

 

But having read the photo credits it seems WHITBY and PICTOR!

Edited February 27, 2015 by Derek R.

[John Brightley]

 

I was wondering that. Looks like the colours Dave & Jill Humphrey's painted them. Spic'n span they were too.

 

But having read the photo credits it seems WHITBY and PICTOR!

Thanks for everyone's comments.

If you click on the photos on the top post it takes you to the originals on Geograph, and on there you can look at larger versions if you want.

Yes, it is Whitby and Pictor, lettered at the time for 'John Batten, Chester'

 

Friendship had gone by 1980, so most of the time Sutton Stop was very quiet, apart from Saturdays and Sundays when there were a lot of hire boats about.

Saturday evening was a good time to visit the Stop as hireboats from Magpie Line at Nuneaton, Club Line at Coventry, and Rose Narrowboats at Brinklow all got to Hawkesbury at about the same time so it was quite hectic for an hour or two.

[pete harrison]

Thanks for everyone's comments.

 

Yes, it is Whitby and Pictor, lettered at the time for 'John Batten, Chester'

So would these photographs have been taken when WHITBY had just finished carrying wheat to Coxes Mill on the River Wey, and were probably on their way back to Thurmaston to return to the 'gravel run' ?

 

 

edit - change the word grain to wheat

Edited February 27, 2015 by pete harrison

[X Alan W]

 

But a little earlier, Joe and Rose Skinner lived on Friendship there through the 60s until the mid 70s.

Joe & Rose had one of the cottages beside the Greyhound but AFAIK they always slept on the boat I remember seeing them trudge through snow from cottage to boat at around 8/8,30ish in the eveniing Their boat used to tie beyond the turn along with Bert Dunkleys. Mooring in those days was easier as the volume of leisure/pleasure boat was much lower & live aboards were very few & far between

[roland elsdon]

How things have changed. When we came round the turn in 1984 loaded for Mr Blagrove during the miners strike, we were abused by the emerging permanent moorers on the Oxford side for daring to move the water a bit. Went hard into the bank on the bend by coventry light due to depth, and then head on into a hire boat racing us for the old railway bridge at newbold, who made the immortal quote" get out of my way I'm on holiday" great days... Put the coal on Hesperus which promptly started to take on water as the old load line went under water. The canal at Stoke was thick with ash..she never sank though.

[alan_fincher]

 

But a little earlier, Joe and Rose Skinner lived on Friendship there through the 60s until the mid 70s.

 

A distant sad memory I have is from a period in the mid 70s where I lived nearby for a period, and wishing to show a young woman I had just met something of the canals I loved took her to the Greyhound for the evening.

 

This was in the relatively short period between Joe Skinner's death and that of Rose, and although Rose was still sat in the pub surrounded by many friends, the life had very much gone out of her, and she seemed a mere shadow of the woman I had met only a year or two previously when Joe and Rose's "Friendship" was on one of its many trips out, (on that occasion towed to London by the boat "Fox").

 

Strangely I still think about that evening nearly every time I boat though Hawkesbury, and just how much life must change if you lose a partner after so many years. I guess if most of that lfe has been shared in a wooden box little more than 8 feet long, the loss must feel even more intense.

[David Schweizer]

 

A distant sad memory I have is from a period in the mid 70s where I lived nearby for a period, and wishing to show a young woman I had just met something of the canals I loved took her to the Greyhound for the evening.

 

This was in the relatively short period between Joe Skinner's death and that of Rose, and although Rose was still sat in the pub surrounded by many friends, the life had very much gone out of her, and she seemed a mere shadow of the woman I had met only a year or two previously when Joe and Rose's "Friendship" was on one of its many trips out, (on that occasion towed to London by the boat "Fox").

 

Strangely I still think about that evening nearly every time I boat though Hawkesbury, and just how much life must change if you lose a partner after so many years. I guess if most of that lfe has been shared in a wooden box little more than 8 feet long, the loss must feel even more intense.

 

Yes a sad reflection, I am pleased that my last recollection was of sitting with both of them in a pub in Leicester in the late 60's with Rose becoming increasingly concerned with the amount of beer being consumed by Joe, all of it bought for him by others present in the pub.

[boathunter]

This is rapidly becoming my favourite section of the forum.

Many thanks to all who contribute their recollections and photos.

[GilesMorris]

 

A distant sad memory I have is from a period in the mid 70s where I lived nearby for a period, and wishing to show a young woman I had just met something of the canals I loved took her to the Greyhound for the evening.

 

This was in the relatively short period between Joe Skinner's death and that of Rose, and although Rose was still sat in the pub surrounded by many friends, the life had very much gone out of her, and she seemed a mere shadow of the woman I had met only a year or two previously when Joe and Rose's "Friendship" was on one of its many trips out, (on that occasion towed to London by the boat "Fox").

 

Strangely I still think about that evening nearly every time I boat though Hawkesbury, and just how much life must change if you lose a partner after so many years. I guess if most of that lfe has been shared in a wooden box little more than 8 feet long, the loss must feel even more intense.

Could that have been the Fox owned by Derek Turner in the 1960's? I was lucky enough to (briefly) meet the Skinners, aboard Friendship, at Middlewich while returning from the Marple rally in 1966 with the Turner family.

[pete harrison]

Could that have been the Fox owned by Derek Turner in the 1960's? I was lucky enough to (briefly) meet the Skinners, aboard Friendship, at Middlewich while returning from the Marple rally in 1966 with the Turner family.

Somewhat confusingly there were two full length pleasure / house boat conversions of former commercial motor narrow boats named FOX, but only one was completed in the 1960's - the wooden hulled exHenry Seddon & Sons Ltd. motor that was originally built as a horse boat by Nurser Bros., Braunston in 1933. My records also indicate that Derek Turner was the period owner of this FOX.

 

The other FOX was an iron and elm hulled motor built by W.J. Yarwood & Sons Ltd., Northwich and was completed by F.M.C. Ltd. at their Uxbridge Dock in 1926. The pleasure / house boat conversion of this boat was not completed until 1970, with the majority of this conversion completed by Tooley's. Banbury. I do hold records for this FOX and the owner who purchased this boat and commissioned its conversion was of a different family name to that mentioned above.

 

 

edit - it is my understanding that the exF.M.C. Ltd. motor FOX towed FRIENDSHIP on several occasions.

Edited March 1, 2015 by pete harrison

[rrt2]

in 1985 I cam remember walking to the side of the engine house to another pub.

This was fairly basic and had a games room as well as the bar?s.

 

Although there is a pub in this location now it is not the one I am writing about.

 

Anyone fill in anymore please

[alan_fincher]

The other FOX was an iron and elm hulled motor built by W.J. Yarwood & Sons Ltd., Northwich and was completed by F.M.C. Ltd. at their Uxbridge Dock in 1926. The pleasure / house boat conversion of this boat was not completed until 1970, with the majority of this conversion completed by Tooley's. Banbury. I do hold records for this FOX and the owner who purchased this boat and commissioned its conversion was of a different family name to that mentioned above.

 

 

edit - it is my understanding that the exF.M.C. Ltd. motor FOX towed FRIENDSHIP on several occasions.

 

The only time I met the Skinners together was in Berkhamsted when " Friendship" was in tow of this "Fox", and as it happens the trip they were making is fully documented in the book "The Last Number Ones". The trip was summer 1971, and Fox was owned by John and Sylvia Pyper at that time.

 

Another of my abiding memories is that the pair stopped in Ravens Lane lock for about an hour whilst "Fox's" water tank was slowly refilled, (and back then many water points were indeed at the lock-sides). Joe then stepped off and filled their water can in about half a minute. It really brought home to me the difference between the growing aspirations of what people felt they needed on a leisure boat, and the much more frugal needs of people like Joe and Rose.

 

Yes a sad reflection, I am pleased that my last recollection was of sitting with both of them in a pub in Leicester in the late 60's with Rose becoming increasingly concerned with the amount of beer being consumed by Joe, all of it bought for him by others present in the pub.

 

Even after Joe's passing, I got the distinct impression that Rose never had to buy herself a drink. She was enough part of life in the Greyhound that they appeared in front of her at least as often as needed. I seem to recall bottles of Guinness or Mackeson, but it is long enough ago I may be making that up!

[John Brightley]

in 1985 I cam remember walking to the side of the engine house to another pub.

This was fairly basic and had a games room as well as the bar?s.

 

Although there is a pub in this location now it is not the one I am writing about.

 

Anyone fill in anymore please

You're probably thinking of The Boat, in Blackhorse Road. Here: https://goo.gl/maps/WDjcs

Or you might possibly have walked to the Black Horse, at the far end of Blackhorse Road.

[rrt2]

Thanks John,

 

It was not The Boat as I think it is still there and I went in a few years ago, so it was more than likely the Black Horse.

[Tony Dunkley]

 

The only time I met the Skinners together was in Berkhamsted when " Friendship" was in tow of this "Fox", and as it happens the trip they were making is fully documented in the book "The Last Number Ones". The trip was summer 1971, and Fox was owned by John and Sylvia Pyper at that time.

 

Another of my abiding memories is that the pair stopped in Ravens Lane lock for about an hour whilst "Fox's" water tank was slowly refilled, (and back then many water points were indeed at the lock-sides). Joe then stepped off and filled their water can in about half a minute. It really brought home to me the difference between the growing aspirations of what people felt they needed on a leisure boat, and the much more frugal needs of people like Joe and Rose.

 

 

Ravens Lane lock ?? . . . . . If I remember right, there was a tap at the top lock of what was known as Sweeps Two . . . . by Sam Horne's house. As you say, in those days taps were to be found on locksides, and Joe demonstrated why.

[alan_fincher]

 

Ravens Lane lock ?? . . . . . If I remember right, there was a tap at the top lock of what was known as Sweeps Two . . . . by Sam Horne's house. As you say, in those days taps were to be found on locksides, and Joe demonstrated why.

 

Yes, that lock. I realise I have probably used a name for the lock that Berkhamsted locals know it by, and probably not one boaters knew it by - apologies.

[Tony Dunkley]

Joe & Rose had one of the cottages beside the Greyhound but AFAIK they always slept on the boat I remember seeing them trudge through snow from cottage to boat at around 8/8,30ish in the eveniing Their boat used to tie beyond the turn along with Bert Dunkleys. Mooring in those days was easier as the volume of leisure/pleasure boat was much lower & live aboards were very few & far between

 

They did have a strict daily routine of going over to the cottage and doing some housework and cleaning and lighting the fire, but as you say, always going back to the boat for the night, the reason being that both of them found it impossible to get to sleep in the house, even years after they finished working the boat.

I seem to remember that Joe said 'Friendship' was built by a yard called Sephtons which was more or less over on the other side of the cut from where they tied.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Tony Dunkley