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Extant full length butty's and horse boats


pete harrison

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5 minutes ago, Tam & Di said:

Which is how we knew them in the 60s too. There was a little "thumb pin" in the ground under the balance beam that the eye of the thumb line went on to stop the butty being drawn out as the motor left an empty GU lock. I remember hearing that many of these pins were removed in the 70s as someone at Watford thought people might trip over them, but I'd guess you'd have to have extremely large feet to do that.

Many 'thumb pins' were still in place last time I took a loaded pair down the Grand Union about 15 years ago :captain:

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8 minutes ago, Tam & Di said:

I remember hearing that many of these pins were removed in the 70s as someone at Watford thought people might trip over them, but I'd guess you'd have to have extremely large feet to do that.

I have never knowingly tripped over one, and I'm notoriously clumsy.

I've probably been involved at some time or another in minor incidents with various lock and lock-side furniture, but never knowingly one of these.

They are a minor enough feature, and I'm never involved in working buttys, so I couldn't in all honesty say how many still survive.

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5 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

Many 'thumb pins' were still in place last time I took a loaded pair down the Grand Union about 15 years ago :captain:

I remember those, but never knew what they were for, and as we were a single motor there was no need to use them.

Edited by David Schweizer
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5 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Wasn't the thumb pin also used as part of a 2:1 purchase along with a pulley on the mast to help a horse start a boat out of a lock?

I would have thought those 'thumb pins' on the Grand Union were too low and with no shape to the top of them then a line would slip off making this quite hazardous.

I am familiar with small hooked over pins on the exit of Worcester and Birmingham locks, located on the off side wing wall near the bottom gate - and these were certainly used for 2:1 purchase with a pulley on the mast of a horse boat, and there is no reason why they can not still be used with a butty :captain:

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3 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

I have never knowingly tripped over one, and I'm notoriously clumsy.

I've probably been involved at some time or another in minor incidents with various lock and lock-side furniture, but never knowingly one of these.

They are a minor enough feature, and I'm never involved in working buttys, so I couldn't in all honesty say how many still survive.

I never tripped on one either, and ai am renowned for my lack of personal spacial awreness.

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5 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

I thought they were so close to the top hinge of the top gates that they were always under the balance beam so impossible to trip over :captain:

Having just looked through a couple of album of recent trips on the GU to see if I could spot one, I have concluded that these days there is often now so much vegetation growing up in the area where they ought to be that it is probably often not possible to see them anyway, even if they were there.

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I was told that these pins were for holding but the butty boat but as I was always on the motor have never use them, I don't think that there are meny left now. Oh, and I too have never tripped over one even though I am on the small side - but not small enough to stand under the balance beam. Just in case you were wondering.

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2 hours ago, pete harrison said:

I thought they were so close to the top hinge of the top gates that they were always under the balance beam so impossible to trip over :captain:

Exactly! Which was made the statement we were given by some oik who was knocking one out particularly ridiculous.

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Pins are still in place at Stoke Bruerne top (14) (and probably on all locks in the flight - I'll check if it stops raining) and I understand they need to be as they form, according to South Northants DC, part of the 'lock furniture' and are subject to the Grade 2 listing (https://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101040947-lock-number-14-stoke-top-lock-stoke-bruerne#.WlXJ_yOcbUI) that exists over the entire Stoke Bruerne flight. The flight sits within the Grand Union and Stoke Bruerne conservation areas.

IMG_0069.JPG

Edited by Leo No2
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  • 2 years later...
5 hours ago, wbazle said:

NB Clara (SUCCC) also still exists . (LMS no 8  ) as i lived on her until recently and am still in touch with the new owners.

As mentioned in post number 72 of this thread, but yes worthy of a mention on here again. As a previous owner I am sure you will be aware that CLARA is this boats pleasure boat name, its working name being BRIER 591, and later the No. 8 that you mention when under L.M.S.R.. I last saw CLARA in the weir stream of Kings Lock, Oxford in May 2018 :captain:

Edited by pete harrison
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On 09/01/2018 at 16:52, pete harrison said:

I would have thought those 'thumb pins' on the Grand Union were too low and with no shape to the top of them then a line would slip off making this quite hazardous.

I am familiar with small hooked over pins on the exit of Worcester and Birmingham locks, located on the off side wing wall near the bottom gate - and these were certainly used for 2:1 purchase with a pulley on the mast of a horse boat, and there is no reason why they can not still be used with a butty :captain:

From Waterways World September 1997.

Horse boating 3.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
On 09/12/2017 at 14:28, pete harrison said:

The condition of several of the wooden boats listed are perilous and some may now have been broken up. Unfortunately I am not absolutely up to date with these boats.

LUCY should be on the list and arguably FRIENDSHIP as well - I simply forgot them. In my opinion RAYMOND and SATURN are both borderline as they are both 'reproductions' rather than plank for plank rebuilds - but both are butty's / horse boat that incorporate iron parts from the original boats :captain:

edit = I am sure there must be a few more FM.C. Ltd. boats as well - including the one at Clattercote Wharf I have just thought of but was not named last time I passed.

I imagine that you know that Lichfield was taken out of the water in 2010 and broken up too. 
I went searching for it and found her at Hillmorton in Nov 2009, by the time I got back up there a year later with her old motor boat, she’d gone.

 

 

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