Does anyone know this ice breaker location

[canalboat]

Caption handwritten on the back of this pic is "Bridges length before Hartshill - Photo taken from Hangman's Bridge"
I can't find reference to Hangman's Bridge anywhereso do you know where this was taken and which boat it is.

[Dave Payne]

Hartshill is nuneaton on the coventry canal, i cant recall a hangmans bridge in the area though..

[Dave Payne]

If it is Hartshill in nuneaton, then it must be approaching the boat yard from nuneaton, heading to atherstone as the towpath is on the left, it might be the section just before, where the rowing club is on the right and moored boats on the left as that is the only straight bit.

It doesnt look like it was took from a bridge though, and the only bridge is a fair bit back.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5528117,-1.5150487,217m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[canalboat]

40 minutes ago, Dave Payne said:

If it is Hartshill in nuneaton, then it must be approaching the boat yard from nuneaton, heading to atherstone as the towpath is on the left, it might be the section just before, where the rowing club is on the right and moored boats on the left as that is the only straight bit.

 

Thanks for the info but can I be picky and say that it looks like the towing path is on the right and there even appears to be a horse on it towing the boat. So I'll look at your suggested location and search the other way.

[Dave Payne]

41 minutes ago, canalboat said:

Thanks for the info but can I be picky and say that it looks like the towing path is on the right and there even appears to be a horse on it towing the boat. So I'll look at your suggested location and search the other way.

Sorry, should have put the towpath is on the right, not sure why i put left!

 

The term bridges length, what did that used to mean, was it a certain length?

[Boat&Bikes]

Hangmans bridge rings a bell with both my wife and I in this area but can't pin it down. We both are fairly sure it is on a sign somewhere on the stretch but that's all we can say. Helpful I know lol. Edit to add I wonder if it's related to Cats gallows bridge? 

Ian.  

Edited October 12, 2017 by ianali

[cuthound]

No bridges in that area called Hangman's Bridge according to my 1983 Nichollson's Guide No. 2 Central.

However bridges 27 & 28, (which are the two before you get to the Anchor pub when heading towards Atherstone) are unnamed and on a relatively straight bit of canal.

If it is where Dave Payne suggest, and I think it could be,  then the bridge names are 29 Anchor Bridge, 30 Grange Road Bridge, 31 Apple Pie Lane Bridge and 32 Atherstone Road Bridge.

[dave moore]

As I understand it, a " bridge's length " was simply a boater's term for the distance between 2 bridges, regardless of the actual distance.

" I heard him coming 3 bridges lengths away" for example.

Hope that this helps. 

Dave

[Martin Megson]

Can't help on location but the horse towing it looks more like a bull or ox to me.  Large head and horns.

[Dave Payne]

11 minutes ago, dave moore said:

As I understand it, a " bridge's length " was simply a boater's term for the distance between 2 bridges, regardless of the actual distance.

" I heard him coming 3 bridges lengths away" for example.

Hope that this helps. 

Dave

Base on this, i am sticking with between bridges bridges 30 and 31.

However, bridge 31 should be present in that photo, as it has a house built into the bridge, so either i am wrong, or this photo is very old, before the yard and house and maybe bridge 31 were built?

Edited October 12, 2017 by Dave Payne
wrong bridge numbers

[cuthound]

13 minutes ago, Martin Megson said:

Large head and horns.

The devil  is in the detail. 

Edited October 12, 2017 by cuthound
Spillung

[Dave Payne]

Yeah im still thinking this stretch but back a little... the greener trees, pine i think they are? stand out on the old photo

 

[Tam & Di]

56 minutes ago, cuthound said:

No bridges in that area called Hangman's Bridge according to my 1983 Nichollson's Guide No. 2 Central.

But boat people had their own names for locks, bridges, pounds etc that didn't often appear in official guides.

[Tam & Di]

52 minutes ago, Martin Megson said:

Can't help on location but the horse towing it looks more like a bull or ox to me.  Large head and horns.

You may be right, but I assume it is an unpowered ice breaker so there should be at least two horses towing it. Although I agee it looks like a large head and horns the horns can equally well be the hat of a man stood by the animals head.

[cuthound]

Yes, I'm aware of that but I was responding to a comment by Ianali who said he or his wife thought they had seen it on a sign in the area.

[Tam & Di]

and the large head can possible be the arm of said man,

[J R ALSOP]

Well i can see two horses when you zoom in.

[canalboat]

You are all being very constructive. Sorry that I do not know the date of the picture.
I is not the original photo but a print from some sort of larger card because it has been cut from a larger sheet leaving not very straight edges.
If the pic is flipped over then upside down at the bottom is printed, "Photo: Horse-drawn icebreaker, location unknown" which leaves me at a loss to explain what it was originally part of.

[WotEver]

Travelling towards Atherstone (which it must be, with the towpath on the right), Hartshill starts at around Springwood Haven, encompasses the Anchor, and ends at Hartshill Works. It doesn’t look like any bit of that part of the Coventry to me but if it is then I think it’s well before that picture Dave posted. 

Edited October 12, 2017 by WotEver
Got me marinas mixed up

[Boat&Bikes]

4 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Travelling towards Atherstone (which it must be, with the towpath on the right), Hartshill starts at around Trinity Marina, encompasses the Anchor, and ends at Hartshill Works. It doesn’t look like any bit of that part of the Coventry to me but if it is then I think it’s well before that picture Dave posted. 

Spring haven? 

[WotEver]

38 minutes ago, ianali said:

Spring haven? 

D’oh!  I’ll go edit my post. Thanks

[zenataomm]

It could be oxen or horses with horns because their bells didn't ........... oh alright I'll just get my coat then 

[canalboat]

It could be of course that whoever wrote on the back with what they thought was the location got it wrong?

[Rose Narrowboats]

If you flip the image it could easily be just north of Hartshill heading south. Zoomed in there are buildings to the right (in the flipped image) of the bush which look about right for the maintenance yard and that bit is quite wide as per the photo, but there are no trees behind the towingpath hedge there these days. Has anyone got any old photos of that stretch?

[canalboat]

Clever lateral thought - it could well be that a printer decided the image fitted his product better when reversed.