Lost Radio Programmes on Waterways

[ChrisJBrady]

Some Old Time Radio enthusiasts are seeking recordings of various BBC documentaries about canals, waterways, and the folk who live and work on them. They were all aired by the BBC North West from Manchester.

 

Most are referenced here:

 

http://www.cpatrust.org.uk/bham_ballads/

 

"They Brought The Sea To Manchester" 1969

 

 

There was a Radio Ballad-type documentary called "They Brought The Sea To Manchester." It features some songs too. In January 1894 Queen Victoria declared the canal open without leaving her carriage which was par for the course for her. Apparently when the lock paddles were opened for the first time the pressure of the water was so great several villages / towns got well flooded as the canal filled up.

 

"The Big Ditch" 1975

 

This was in Series 3 of the Ballad of the North West. Again this was about the building of the Manchester Ship Canal.

"Narras and Flats" 17th July 1973

 

This was part of the BBC North West series Ballad of the North West. This was in the canals episode which was broadcast on 17th July 1973.

====

Folks here might be interested that the lost Radio Ballad "A Cry From The Cut" is available here:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/odkpo4m988a8m/Radio_Ballads_-_The_Birmingham_Ballads

Here's a version of the same recording from 1962 with historic slides (but sans music and songs)

Details are here:

http://www.cpatrust.org.uk/bham_ballads/

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/enth13.htm

====

Many thanks.

Chris J Brady

[Ray T]

Thank you for posting Chris.

[ChrisJBrady]

Download whatever programmes you wish. They belong in the public domain - you paid for them via the Beeb's Licence fee!!!

 

"A Cry From The Cut" was a real find, generously contributed by one of Ewan MacColl's 'Critics Group' members - now living in Ireland.

 

Ian Hendrie of Waterways Songs tells me that he has also acquired two other lost recordings:

 

A recording of 'The Great Lead Rush' from Folkweave (1976) can be heard at:

 

http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/Archive_Recordings/Great_Lead_Rush.mp3

 

There is also a recording of 'Tales of the Towpath' which tells the story of the building of the Manchester Ship Canal (the Big Ditch) and features the Albion Band and narration by Mike Harding. It can be found here:

 

http://ww.waterwaysongs.co.uk/tales_from_the_towpath.htm

 

Chris B.

Edited April 7, 2015 by ChrisJBrady

[ChrisJBrady]

Other recordings of life on the canals can be found here:

http://www.oysterbroadcast.co.uk/click.html

Right mouse click then Save As... to download.

Narrowboats LP

The music was 'collected' by David Blagrove, and there's a picture of him on the back cover, sitting on the cabin roof of his boat.

Others listed are:-

Charlie Atkins (Chocolate Charlie), Harry Banister, George Bate, Alf Best, Harold Garner, Joe Green, Tom Hickson, Jack James, Sam Lomas, Jock Moody, Leslie Moreton, John Roberts, Joe Skinner (Yes, *that* Joe Skinner, the one with the mules on the Oxford canal), Rose Skinner, Ernie Thomas, Herbert Tooley (of Tooley's Boatyard, Banbury), Jock Venables, Sister Mary Ward (of Braunston) and John Wooley and others "whose voices it has not been possible to identify".

The last surviving voices of the canal era, it is reckoned.

 

Folkweave - Canals Trilogy

The English Canals was written, researched and narrated by Jon Raven, with readings by John Kirkpatrick and Jon Raven. Songs by John Kirkpatrick, Sue Harris, & Jon Raven. Oboe by Sue Harris, Guitar & dulcimer by Jon Raven, Accordion, concertina & melodeon played by John Kirkpatrick.

 

Production at the BBC by Tony Hale.

Edited April 9, 2015 by ChrisJBrady

[Pluto]

There are quite a number of recordings of canal workers in the North West Sound Archive, currently in the process of being closed by Lancashire County Council. It is uncertain where the collection will be housed in the future, possibly making access much more difficult.

 

I have a number of transcripts of interviews with L&LC workers, including those for a 1939 BBC programme on the canal, and we are in the process of making some of them accessible on Kennet, the L&LC Society's heritage boat. Kennet will be at Saltaire on the 18/19 April for the local World Heritage event, and then at Skipton for the Waterways Festival on 2-4 May, though I am not sure if the recordings wil be available by then.

[springy]

I have an audio cassette entitled "canal memories" from a series produced (sometime late 80s ? ) by

Leicester Oral History Archive, which lists R Moulds. S Millington, J Monk, J Meredith and R Barnett as

contributors, (I havent heard it for a while - need to find a reliable cassette player). The archive is

now kept by Leicester Univ.

 

http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/catalogue/loha.html

 

and

 

http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/schools/teachers/schoolloan.html

 

however the canal memories is not listed - I contacted them a while ago and they assured

me they do have the canal memories recording - it has just been missed of the list.

 

they are available to teachers who may copy them and use them for educational purposes,

(my cassette is marked "crown copyright not to be reproduced")

 

springy

Edited April 10, 2015 by springy

[ChrisJBrady]

Re: Leeds and Liverpool - there is a great clip of wide-boatman Bill Gibbons on YouTube step dancing in clogs on a wide-boat at Burscough. Unfortunately it is to a recording of a Scottish country dance band.

 

 

However he used to step dance on the rear counter of his boat to the sound of the engine. The steps were freestyle in units of 4 'bars.'

 

Bill also had a number of stories, especially about mumming. And he knew (and later taught) an "Irish Jig" quadrille that was stepped in clogs. Apparently it was traditional to dance this at a canal-boat-people's wedding.

 

The clip below is danced by 3 couples (normally it is 4 cus).

 

 

Another version with 4 cus is here:

 

http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/a/v/av/dance/video11/RC19941022.3.11/19941022.3.11.0014.rm

http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/a/v/av/dance/video11/RC19971025.3.11/19971025.3.11.0012.rm

http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/a/v/av/dance/video11/RC19971025.3.11/19971025.3.11.0013.rm

 

CJB

[Bugsworth Tippler]

The 'Songs of the Inland Waterways' website can be found here : http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/index.html

 

Various full recordings of, for example, 'A Cry from the Cut', 'Narrowboats', 'The English Canals', 'Tales from the Towpath', can all be accessed via the following index page :

 

http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/Ref_Canal_Songs.htm

[Pluto]

Re: Leeds and Liverpool - there is a great clip of wide-boatman Bill Gibbons on YouTube step dancing in clogs on a wide-boat at Burscough. Unfortunately it is to a recording of a Scottish country dance band.

 

 

However he used to step dance on the rear counter of his boat to the sound of the engine. The steps were freestyle in units of 4 'bars.'

 

Bill also had a number of stories, especially about mumming. And he knew (and later taught) an "Irish Jig" quadrille that was stepped in clogs. Apparently it was traditional to dance this at a canal-boat-people's wedding.

 

CJB

Bill was performing here on the bow deck of Ambush which was used as a restaurant boat at Burscough at the time. Emma Vickers, from one of the local boating families, was also able to step dance in the traditional L&LC fashion. Dancing was used to keep warm in winter, and the introduction of single cylinder diesel engines made it easier by giving a regular beat to dance to.

 

Edited to add that former steam tug No.57 is in the background on the left.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Pluto

[Bugsworth Tippler]

The story of the Manchester Ship Canal was told in the BBC radio programme 'Tales from the Towpath' broadcast in1997. It was narrated by Mike Harding with songs by the Albion Band and music from the Bridgewater Brass Ensemble. The full recording is now available via the link below and all the songs have been transcribed and are available on the website. The recording features the song '36 miles from the Sea' which I think is the best canal related song ever.

 

http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/tales_from_the_towpath.htm

[mark99]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2008/02/05/radio_stoke_on_the_cut_feature.shtml

 

There were 10 excellent 30 min BBC interviews with boatpersons here but they seem to be in transit to new archive. Someone may have kept copies?

Edited May 13, 2015 by mark99

[ChrisJBrady]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2008/02/05/radio_stoke_on_the_cut_feature.shtml

 

There were 10 excellent 30 min BBC interviews with boatpersons here but they seem to be in transit to new archive. Someone may have kept copies?

 

The files have been deleted due to being in a format not now supported by the Beeb. That is they are in RA (Real Audio) format. Apparently the owner - one Nick Southall - has the original tapes and is planning a formal release at some point in time.

 

Someone uploaded them to YouTube but was asked to withdraw them.

 

I guess a YouTube down-loader could be used to download them to your PC.

 

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[Pluto]

They were sold as a set of cassette tapes in 1985, and I have recently copied them onto a CD for my own use. There are a few L&LC interviews which have information useful for use on Kennet. The cassettes were produced by Live Sounds, from Crewe.

[springy]

Thanks for the links Chris, a good listen & informative

 

springy

[ChrisJBrady]

"They Brought The Sea To Manchester" -

 

a special documentary for the 75th anniversay of the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal.

 

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/5xvo5a1di51r2/Manchester_Ship_Canal_75th

 

Featuring interviews with three old men who actually helped to build the canal. And also features a snippet of Queen Victoria opening the canal.

But I can't find a reference to the programme on the BBC Genome db

Other details are here:

http://www.cpatrust.org.uk/bham_ballads/

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46790#3376191

CJB

[ChrisJBrady]

Programmes I'd like to find are:

 

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e79b60c1c1e940739e0cd09bb54af0d7

A WORLD OF SOUND

Manchester by the sea
BRIAN VAUGHTON travels the length of the ManchesterShipCanal, speaking with people concerned with its operation and from some of the towns along its banks
Produced by Denis Newell

 

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/63dd9ac731824c20aed98d6a1a791306

 

NORTH WEST Ballad of the Northwest: ' The Big Ditch ' a saga in music and drama of the Manchester Ship Canal

[Ray T]

Thank you for posting this, Chris.

[ChrisJBrady]

Folkweave - Canals Trilogy

 

The English Canals was written, researched and narrated by Jon Raven, with readings by John Kirkpatrick and Jon Raven. Songs by John Kirkpatrick, Sue Harris, & Jon Raven. Oboe by Sue Harris, Guitar & dulcimer by Jon Raven, Accordion, concertina & melodeon played by John Kirkpatrick.

 

Production at the BBC by Tony Hale.

 

Here:

 

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/x0x48jyc2abxv/Folkweave_-_Canals_Trilogy_Special

 

CJB

[ChrisJBrady]

Here's a collection of old radio programmes / recordings. Recent discoveries include:

 

Blaster Bates and the Saltworks (YouTube) - you'll have to play this over to get all the nuances such as "a pan-full of sausages are the only things that will get you down!!!"

 

The Men From The Ministry - "Waterway To Go" featuring Clive Dunn

 

Sam's Sturgeon - which canal did he catch the sturgeon in???

 

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/d4nk03gxovmpu/Canals

 

If you have other similar recordings let me know - I'd like copies please!!!!

 

Chris B.

[Ray T]

Chris, many thanks for putting these links on the forum.

[ChrisJBrady]

The sound track to the film Yesterday's Witness (1969–1977) - The Narrow Boat Men - aired 14 April 1969 - has been found.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6364830/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1

Briefly the files are here: 
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/10cae746dc28090344c7c20e06c6573220171017143420/0c88976cb3c88437dfed799f3cf42a3420171017143420/7b4b50

Featured are:

* Joe & Rosie Skinner

Owner/boatmen, known as “Number Ones”.   The Skinners lived in a cottage on the banks of the canal near Coventry.   They were the last of the so-called “Number Ones”, owner/boatmen who carried whatever and wherever they could find a load.  The Skinners had a contract to to carry coal from the Ashby canal to the Co-operative Laundry in Banbury on their boat 'Friendship'.

They gave up in the mid-1960s when, owing to the poor state of the towpath, their mule 'Dolly' slipped into the canal, caught a chill and died.  Joe died in the early 1970s and Rosie a few years later.   The wooden boat 'Friendship' in now an exhibit at the Boat Museum in Ellesmere Port..

* Joe Green, boatman

One of the many Greens on the waterways.  Based at Birmingham.

* Ike Merchant, boatman

Based at Braunston, a famous canal centre near Rugby.

* Jack James.  Boatman and lock-keeper.  

Lived in a cottage at the top lock in the village of Stoke Bruerne, near Northampton.  Often seen dressed in traditional costume, playing his accordion and singing traditional songs.  His son, John, an artist, owned the narrow boat 'Jason' with which he ran the zoo waterbus service in Regent's Park for many years.

* Charlie Atkins.  Boatman.

For 16 years, carried chocolate crumb from the Cadbury's factory at Knighton to Bournville in his boat 'Mendip', much to the delight of children along the way.  Known to all as “Chocolate Charlie”, died in the late 1970s.

* Sam Lomas.  Lock keeper.  

Lived at Autherley Junction on the Shropshire Union canal.  Had a fund of stories with which he regaled passing pleasure boaters in the early days.  Died in the 1970s.

* Jack Roberts, Lock-keeper

In charge of the staircase flight at Grindley Brook on the Llangollen branch, then, as now, a bottleneck on the canal.

* Leslie Morton, Canal Manager.   

After a time at sea, he was Manager of the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (GUCCC) set up in the mid-1930s to take advantage of the recently-merged Grand Union Canal Company and the wide locks between London and Birmingham.   The GUCCC built and operated over 200 pairs of boats.  Morton left after nationalisation, but in the late 1950s, he set up the Willow-Wren carrying company with capital provided by Captain Vivian Bulkley-Johnson, a canal enthusiast and early Inland Waterways Association member.    Shortly after this interview, Willow-Wren folded.  Morton, too, died in the 1970s

====

 

Edited October 18, 2017 by ChrisJBrady

[X Alan W]

Although Joe & Rose Skinner had a cottage at "Suttons" ( Hawkesbury Jcn) their boat was kept just around the corner from the bridge hole  on the bit of cut towards Coventry they to the best of my knowledge slept very few times if any in the cottage preferring the boat if tied up at the stop you could see them exit the cottage/pub at around 8.30pm & head to the boat ,range was kept going & i was told Rose cooked on the range & on occasions carried it to the cottage After a life time old habits die hard Their 2 dogs lived in the hod

[pete harrison]

10 hours ago, ChrisJBrady said:

Featured are:

* Joe & Rosie Skinner

Owner/boatmen, known as “Number Ones”.   The Skinners lived in a cottage on the banks of the canal near Coventry.   They were the last of the so-called “Number Ones”, owner/boatmen who carried whatever and wherever they could find a load.  The Skinners had a contract to to carry coal from the Ashby canal to the Co-operative Laundry in Banbury on their boat 'Friendship'.

They gave up in the mid-1960s when, owing to the poor state of the towpath, their mule 'Dolly' slipped into the canal, caught a chill and died.  Joe died in the early 1970s and Rosie a few years later.   The wooden boat 'Friendship' in now an exhibit at the Boat Museum in Ellesmere Port..

* Charlie Atkins.  Boatman.

For 16 years, carried chocolate crumb from the Cadbury's factory at Knighton to Bournville in his boat 'Mendip', much to the delight of children along the way.  Known to all as “Chocolate Charlie”, died in the late 1970s.

* Leslie Morton, Canal Manager.   

After a time at sea, he was Manager of the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (GUCCC) set up in the mid-1930s to take advantage of the recently-merged Grand Union Canal Company and the wide locks between London and Birmingham.   The GUCCC built and operated over 200 pairs of boats.  Morton left after nationalisation, but in the late 1950s, he set up the Willow-Wren carrying company with capital provided by Captain Vivian Bulkley-Johnson, a canal enthusiast and early Inland Waterways Association member.    Shortly after this interview, Willow-Wren folded.  Morton, too, died in the 1970s

Don't you just love poor research:

Joe Skinner died April 1975 and Rose Skinner died July 1976 (not early 1970's and a few years later)

Charlie Atkins Snr. died 23 April 1981 (not late 1970's)

Leslie Morton died 22 September 1968 (not in the 1970's)

I have left out Sam Lomas as I do not know the specific date of his passing 

[Derek R.]

2 hours ago, pete harrison said:

Don't you just love poor research (snip)

 

It's the hallmark of the national media. Near enough will do, and make it sound authoritative.

[ChrisJBrady]

On 15/05/2015 at 08:49, Pluto said:

They were sold as a set of cassette tapes in 1985, and I have recently copied them onto a CD for my own use. There are a few L&LC interviews which have information useful for use on Kennet. The cassettes were produced by Live Sounds, from Crewe.

See 

Here's the link - 

 

 

On 17/05/2015 at 22:39, springy said:

Thanks for the links Chris, a good listen & informative

 

springy

Here's the links ...

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=On+The+Cut+BBC+Radio+series+Part