Norman Anglin & Cyril Herbert Smith

[CHARLES 12]

I have unearthed from my childhood a great deal of correspondence between these two canal pioneers. There are also a couple of manuscripts which were never published: "Reading to Bath in a Motor Boat" and "Avon to Avon in a Motor Boat"  by Cyril Herbert Smith. His son Ronnie and I were great friends in the 1960's. There is also a largw B&W photo of Norman Anglin aboard ? MB Russian and other items.

I believe there is a member who was intersted in Mr Anglin?

[mrsmelly]

55 minutes ago, CHARLES 12 said:

I have unearthed from my childhood a great deal of correspondence between these two canal pioneers. There are also a couple of manuscripts which were never published: "Reading to Bath in a Motor Boat" and "Avon to Avon in a Motor Boat"  by Cyril Herbert Smith. His son Ronnie and I were great friends in the 1960's. There is also a largw B&W photo of Norman Anglin aboard ? MB Russian and other items.

I believe there is a member who was intersted in Mr Anglin?

Hi Charles

Welcome.  I do seem to remember a thread mentioning the name Anglin quite recently but cannot recall who by. The problem we often have here is people post a thread then dissapear too quickly without several more visits to check any progress. Try the search thingy if you  can understand it. 

[Rob-M]

There are a few old threads mentioning Norman Angling. This one, 

, has the most recent (2013) post.

[CHARLES 12]

Hi

Thanks, both, for your helpful posts, i have contacted Joseph. I also have a lot of K&A otherstuff from the 1960's and earlier. Here is a photo of Norman Anglin and Cyril Herbert-Smith on board Russian. or at least thats what it says on the reverse of the photo, whereas Russian is supposed to be a NB!!!???

Best regards

Charles

[mrsmelly]

What a brilliant piccie and a fab boat.

[Nightwatch]

How times have changed. You could moor near the side in the sixties. Sorry a bit off topic. 

[Joseph]

Blimey!!! 

Excellent news and many thanks, Charles. I did wonder if Norman Anglin and Cyril Herbert Smith (and other boaters from the time) knew each other. When I wrote about Norman Anglin, I set out all I could find, on the principle that maybe someone somewhere would find something and realise that it was important. Well, it does seem to have worked out. With the history of pleasure boating, all one often has is fragments, frequently ones that seem to be unrelated to any other.

Charles, is there any way Cyril Herbert Smith's unpublished MSs can be made available? Maybe an article somewhere, or transcribe the best bits (or the lot)? 

I'm pretty sure that nb Russian was, indeed, a converted narrow boat, whereas the boat in the photograph looks like a purpose-built river boat, perhaps Happy Home. Maybe someone can identify the background? Mr Smith is clearly the gent on the left, but i've not seen a clear photo of Mr Anglin, so this could be him. 

The only update I had to my publication on Norman Anglin was his entry in the 1939 register (not on a boat), so this is a very welcome addition to what is known. Hopefully there will be more!

Thanks again

Joseph      

[carlt]

8 minutes ago, Joseph said:

Blimey!!! 

Charles, is there any way Cyril Herbert Smith's unpublished MSs can be made available? Maybe an article somewhere, or transcribe the best bits (or the lot)?

Joseph      

If anybody should choose to publish then put my name down for a copy...

Laurence???

[pete harrison]

55 minutes ago, Joseph said:

Blimey!!! 

Excellent news and many thanks, Charles. I did wonder if Norman Anglin and Cyril Herbert Smith (and other boaters from the time) knew each other. When I wrote about Norman Anglin, I set out all I could find, on the principle that maybe someone somewhere would find something and realise that it was important. Well, it does seem to have worked out. With the history of pleasure boating, all one often has is fragments, frequently ones that seem to be unrelated to any other.

Charles, is there any way Cyril Herbert Smith's unpublished MSs can be made available? Maybe an article somewhere, or transcribe the best bits (or the lot)? 

I'm pretty sure that nb Russian was, indeed, a converted narrow boat, whereas the boat in the photograph looks like a purpose-built river boat, perhaps Happy Home. Maybe someone can identify the background? Mr Smith is clearly the gent on the left, but i've not seen a clear photo of Mr Anglin, so this could be him. 

The only update I had to my publication on Norman Anglin was his entry in the 1939 register (not on a boat), so this is a very welcome addition to what is known. Hopefully there will be more!

Thanks again

Joseph      

I can confirm that RUSSIAN was a converted narrow boat, being new in 1908 for the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company. Following a couple of changes of ownership during the mid 1920's RUSSIAN passed to Norman Anglin who had it converted to a motor pleasure boat at Manchester in 1928. RUSSIAN was removed from the Manchester health register on 11 February 1929 (only applicable to commercial boats), and this is the last detail I hold on this boat  

[ANDREW P]

Two articles were published in the Motor Boat by Cyril Herbert Smith. Jan 23rd 1931 titled Fourteen days hard labour Chiswick to Tewksbury and Sept 23rd 1932 Ditch crawling on the Warwickshire Avon, a photo of Russian appeared in this article. His boat was a converted Thornycroft sea plane tender built in 1916, listed in Lloyds as Hurry Home it carried the name Happy Home, renamed Sai Wen in the 1950's after been sold by Smith the next owner but one had a new boat Sai Wen Two built by J H Taylors at Chester the last wooden boat built there. I bought Sai Wen in 1988 it was sunk and beyond restoration, I own a Thornycroft Launch the same as Sai Wen and the old boat was had plenty of useful parts on it,the remains were burnt on bonfire night 1988.

[Joseph]

Great to see this, Andrew. I've looked through private collection of the Motor Boat, and i'm sure there is much to be found. 

I was just slightly confused about Sai Wen. I recall a boat of that name in Nantwich (I think) - but this was probably the Taylor boat. Do you mean that the boat that you had (and burnt!!) was the Sai Wen that had been owned by Mr Herbert-Smith? Or was it the Taylor boat that fell apart?

Great to see this thread developing.

Many thanks

Joseph

 

[ANDREW P]

Sai Wen Two the Taylor boat is still about I am not sure if the name has been changed, it was moored at Nantwich when the original owner had it. The old Sai Wen Mr Herbert Smiths boat was on the Macclesfield Canal for many years, if you look at North Cheshire Cruising Clubs web sight there are some short clips of DVD Sai Wen is on the third one, the cabin had been altered to provide more headroom by this time although you could still only stand up in the one part of the boat. It was a shame to break the boat up but it was worn out, the double skin hull was on 5/8 inch thick and 50 years of canal use had taken its toll and it had rotted in various places. I did ask the boatbuilder who was working on my launch to have a look at Sai Wen when it was for sale in 1981,he said it was beyond economical repair.

[carlt]

3 hours ago, ANDREW P said:

Sai Wen Two the Taylor boat is still about I am not sure if the name has been changed, 

It was renamed "Say When".

[Jess--]

cleaned up version of the earlier image

[CHARLES 12]

Hi Jess,

Brilliant, thanks a terrific improvement. What i thought was a dog on the foredeck I can clearly now see is, well.................not a dog!!!!! Can you do all my photos, please? Only joking.

Once i have read the Anglin letters i will try and scan a few on the site.

Regards

Cgarles

[Joseph]

Hi Charles

I look forward to that.

Does anyone know where the photo was taken? I suspect the Lower Avon, but I don't know it well.

Many thanks again

Joseph 

[CHARLES 12]

Hullo Joe,

Do you possibly have a copy of your article on Norman Anglin you could send me? i have just started to read the correspondence; being an author, he has a good turn of phrase and is rather an amusing sort of cove!!!!!

Regards

Charles

[archie57]

4 hours ago, Joseph said:

Hi Charles

I look forward to that.

Does anyone know where the photo was taken? I suspect the Lower Avon, but I don't know it well.

Many thanks again

Joseph 

Gloucester and Berkeley Ship canal?