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Long shot. The Wards ex working


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11 minutes ago, danielle ward said:

Hello. 

Violet and George did have a son called Dennis and he is my grandad.

he has worked on the canals dredging for land and water for 22 years and we currently live in Coventry.

he was one of the children who went to school in Birmingham and also lived there for 9 years.

he later on worked with his brother on the canal also with the willow wren canal carrying company and spent 26 years on heavy goods.

 

please contact me if you have anymore questions ☺️

Thank you Danielle. I will pass this onto June.

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12 hours ago, danielle ward said:

Hello. 

Violet and George did have a son called Dennis and he is my grandad.

he has worked on the canals dredging for land and water for 22 years and we currently live in Coventry.

he was one of the children who went to school in Birmingham and also lived there for 9 years.

he later on worked with his brother on the canal also with the willow wren canal carrying company and spent 26 years on heavy goods.

 

please contact me if you have anymore questions ☺️


Welcome Danielle.

It is always great to hear from those directly related to these families.

Are you able to confirm that Dennis actually worked on the same Willow Wren boats as his brother Ken and wife Vera (nee Wain), please?

Ken and Vera Ward delivered the very last load of grain to Whitwoth's Mill at Wellingborough on the Nene using "Flamingo" which  we now own.  It has been suggested Dennis was also with them, and to give us a bit more of the history it would be great to here that confirmed.

Flamingo is now out and about on the canals, and although converted with a cabin conversionis still remarkably original, and still in Willow Wrewn colours.

Here is a picture from a recent trip to Brownhills on the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

P1000603.JPG

 

Edited by alan_fincher
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On 10/05/2017 at 08:37, alan_fincher said:


Welcome Danielle.

It is always great to hear from those directly related to these families.

Are you able to confirm that Dennis actually worked on the same Willow Wren boats as his brother Ken and wife Vera (nee Wain), please?

Ken and Vera Ward delivered the very last load of grain to Whitwoth's Mill at Wellingborough on the Nene using "Flamingo" which  we now own.  It has been suggested Dennis was also with them, and to give us a bit more of the history it would be great to here that confirmed.

Flamingo is now out and about on the canals, and although converted with a cabin conversionis still remarkably original, and still in Willow Wrewn colours.

Here is a picture from a recent trip to Brownhills on the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

P1000603.JPG

 

Hello, 

im currently sat with my grandad now and he has confirmed that he did work on the same willow wren boats as his brother and wife vera.

he worked for willow wren for about 6 years and he was part of the last delivery to whitworths mill.

he worked not only on the flamingo and Beverley he worked with his father on two pairs of boats , Edgware and Banbury , Belfast and Balham also with his brother ted on the boxmore lime juice run for 6 months as a secondary pair of hands helping British waterways out . Then later after delivering the last run of wheat to Wellingborough as a single motor buttying ken .

there his exact words, And i hope this helps ☺️

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, danielle ward said:

Hello, 

im currently sat with my grandad now and he has confirmed that he did work on the same willow wren boats as his brother and wife vera.

he worked for willow wren for about 6 years and he was part of the last delivery to whitworths mill.

he worked not only on the flamingo and Beverley he worked with his father on two pairs of boats , Edgware and Banbury , Belfast and Balham also with his brother ted on the boxmore lime juice run for 6 months as a secondary pair of hands helping British waterways out . Then later after delivering the last run of wheat to Wellingborough as a single motor buttying ken .

there his exact words, And i hope this helps

Excellent Danielle,

Much appreciated, and that fills in a little bit more history.

If your grandfather still has an interest, then Flamingo is often out and about visiting the historic boat rallies, and we would be delighted to meet him and reunite him to the boat, and maybe take him for a ride around if he wanted.

I don't know where he is based, but we hope to be at (at least) both the Braunston show in June, and the one at Alvecote in August.

Sadly both Edgware and Balham that you mention are very much unloved at the moment, and are in semi derelict state.  Flamingo has come to us as a major project, so needs several years of work to make her really smart again, but we love the boat to bits, and we will get there eventually!

Thanks for taking the trouble to ask your granddad about all this.

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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

Excellent Danielle,

Much appreciated, and that fills in a little bit more history.

If your grandfather still has an interest, then Flamingo is often out and about visiting the historic boat rallies, and we would be delighted to meet him and reunite him to the boat, and maybe take him for a ride around if he wanted.

I don't know where he is based, but we hope to be at (at least) both the Braunston show in June, and the one at Alvecote in August.

Sadly both Edgware and Balham that you mention are very much unloved at the moment, and are in semi derelict state.  Flamingo has come to us as a major project, so needs several years of work to make her really smart again, but we love the boat to bits, and we will get there eventually!

Thanks for taking the trouble to ask your granddad about all this.

Hi Alan☺️ 

We usually attend the boat rally in braunston every year, (weather dependant) and we will be happy to catch up with you there. 

I will message on this thread nearer to the time ! 

Regards

 

danielle 

 

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On 11/05/2017 at 23:22, danielle ward said:

Hi Alan☺️ 

We usually attend the boat rally in braunston every year, (weather dependant) and we will be happy to catch up with you there. 

I will message on this thread nearer to the time ! 

Regards

 

danielle 

 

Excellent - we would really love to meet you and your grandfather.

We are absolutely fascinated by meeting any of the former Willow Wren crews, or their families, and particularly those who have any association to our boat.

It's final Willow Wren crew after Ken and Vera Ward was Ron and Janet Withey.  Ron is of course a regular at Braunston, but we have also met Janet subsequently - a lovely lady.

There is at least one other family who used to operate Flamingo still around that used to operate Flamingo that we would love to meet, but of course you are generally talking about people who are really quite elderly.  It was after all getting on for 50 years or more ago in most cases!

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  • 5 months later...

I am a descendent of Michael & Susan ward. 

The brother of David Hambridge ( Susan's second Husband) ran a pub in Banbury. 

I've have done a lot of work  into the family tree, but like these things go, you do some then stop for a while. 

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Hello Sgray

Welcome , I have made several postings on this thread so you will be aware of my many connections to your Ward tree .

it would be nice to exchange some details with you as you would know the complicated way the lines of the boating family's pass over time & again 

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  • 2 years later...

On reading the above posts about the ward family I am the daughter of Jean ward who was  one of George and violet  wards children  , Jean ward married George wain also from a boating family he was the son of George and Annie wain, there is a book about them written by their daughter Alice wain now Alice lapworth  about life on the canal and growing up

called a horse a boat and you . My Nan and grandad had a number of children  Ted ,les,  ken, Dennis ,roy, ralph,colin, kevin ,gary Linda ,juile  ,jean, rina ,tillda and Eva . They worked the canal as children and it moulded them to be the strongest of people they are today a few of the children have passed on now  but the others still remain in contact with each other my mum Jean is now 75 and is fabulous for her age and still can open a lock  too this day .

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34 minutes ago, canalboat said:

I am (reliably) informed that the folk in these pics are all from the Ward Family. Perhaps some of you could name them? 

Pyper_N'hampton-022.jpg

Pyper_N'hampton-031.jpg

 

Top picture(Left to right):

 

George Ward (Snr)
Ted Ward (son of George)
Johnny Best
"Uncle" Ted Ward (brother to George)
Linda (nee Ward) (daughter of George) (Linda Treadwell at the time of her death a few years back).

Bottom Picture

Ted Ward

16 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Les in the hatches of Capella?

No that's definitely Ted Ward

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22 minutes ago, Denise hambleton said:

The gentleman on his own on the boat isnt ted ward I wasnt to sure so I've shown it to kevin the youngest of the wards and his words were , no it's not one of ours !!

I didnt think it was but double checked .

Well there is a picture of the same chap on page 1 of NarrowBoat magazine Spring 2009.

He is wearing an identical shirt, the same cap, and the same ungarees, and is also on the "Badsey" which is the correct boat for Ted Ward at this time. It is captioned as Ted Ward, and looks like Ted Ward.

So whilst I feel cheeky arguing with a member of the family, I still think it is Ted Ward in that pictured.

What I can't immediately work out is which lock it is. Does anybody recognise it, please?

 


 

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3 hours ago, canalboat said:

I am (reliably) informed that the folk in these pics are all from the Ward Family. Perhaps some of you could name them? 

 

Pyper_N'hampton-031.jpg

 

1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

What I can't immediately work out is which lock it is. Does anybody recognise it, please?

The article in NarrowBoat magazine Spring 2009 states that this lock is on the Nene, but as I have never been on that river I have not got a clue which one :captain:

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13 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

 

The article in NarrowBoat magazine Spring 2009 states that this lock is on the Nene, but as I have never been on that river I have not got a clue which one :captain:

Ah - didn't realise that picture was from that article!

For what it is worth then, NarrowBoat Magazine has also said it is Ted Ward when captioning that photo.

The picture immediately below it in that article clearly shows the same person, and also says it is Ted Ward.

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1 hour ago, pete harrison said:

 

The article in NarrowBoat magazine Spring 2009 states that this lock is on the Nene, but as I have never been on that river I have not got a clue which one :captain:

I bet the skipper on the Tupperware wishes he could disappear!

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On 24/04/2020 at 13:31, canalboat said:

I am (reliably) informed that the folk in these pics are all from the Ward Family. Perhaps some of you could name them? 

 

This picture above plus others of the same family group are featured in NarrowBoat Spring 2009 page 17. Photos are by John Pyper.

Edited by Ray T
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