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History of 1860 Ice Breaker Bosley


DandV

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I believe this rates a thread of its own in parallel to thenortherner’s musings to buy or not to buy in New to Boating

What is known about Bosley? and where has she been for the last nearly 160 years?

To survive this long she must have been useful for a very long time. Sentimentality around old working boats is a relatively recent phenomenon.

She must have been useful (or well hidden) to escaped those thorough scrap metal drives of WW2

Where does she rate against other extremely old inland boats?

Don

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I will get my hard drive out later and find some pics of her in her previous life. She was hired out for a time in the 1970s and was brought from the Shropshire Union  Oxford to Stowe Hill about 4 years ago, at this time I believe she was called Fir Cone.

thanks for correction Paul

Edited by matty40s
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I remember one of these ice-breakers in use on the Macc. Canal as a  brew hut up until about 1985. The lock keeper at Bosley in those days, Alan Kick, used to bow-haul it up and down the flight. Probably one of those now  in store at Ellesmere Port.

The ice boat fleet was maintained by the boilersmiths at the Gorton "Tank" ( the railway works), they used to come across to the canal depot each summer to repair them. This process ceased in 1948 on nationalisation, but by then there were only two boats in use. 

The Ashton  Canal mainline didn't have  a boat allocated as it never froze, there was a lot of industry pumping hot water into it. 

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3 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Saw this boat in passing on the Macc last summer. Looked old and full of character. Nice to know a bit more of its history. Hope it is around for many more years.

 

Jen

It would have been one of the others, this was on hard standing for 3 years until its launch last September (28th)and never got further than Napton and Hillmorton before returning to Braunston.

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1 hour ago, Naughty Cal said:

I'm pretty sure there is one of these on the hardstanding at Belle Isle Marina at Dog Dyke on the Witham. 

 

Been there for many years now.

That would be Erebus, a similar boat but said to be from the Ashby Canal.  Bought by a forum member in 2011 who was looking for spares for the Alisa Craig engine.

Presumably he’s still looking...

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Had a lot of fun with Erebus in little venice in 1985. It would go round the island at full speed. We also once towed the butty with it but it didnt go well. At the time the owner Pete) had erebus and a 12’beam wooden tug whose name i have forgotten, with a gardiner in . We towed the butty to berko with that but of course could go no further as the canal is unsuitable for wide boats beyond there.

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We own the Oxford Canal ice boat Sara (30', 6' 10") who has a similar history. Built 'tween 1850 - 70 from wrought iron and used as an iceboat and occasional maintenance craft on the southern section of the canal. Thomas Millner, engineer of the GJCC (which shared the section through Braunston) made a study of these craft when considering their own ice breaker needs and wrote that  "In the new light ice boats that I hope to possess before long I am going to have the handrail on the sides or in the centre at the bottom as now suggested, and I want to find out the best method of the two. The Oxford Canal use the side method and break ice much cheaper than we do ". The short iceboats were originally based out of Banbury and Thrupp, with larger craft kept at Heyford and Napton.

 

She appears to have had an easy life as, other than replacement and renewal of rivets along the water line (subject to harsh ice abrasion during each winter season), there have been no repairs of any note to the hull. She was out of work and laid up at Braunston by 1961 when she was purchased for sum of £100 and towed to Chiswick on the Thames for an additional £5 (I've often wondered if any  photos might exist of her last voyage in her original form  - a narrowboat towing an iceboat must have been an unusual sight by this point?). Her cabin conversion started later that year, was destroyed by a fire in '65 and restarted to be completed by '68.  

 

 

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Sara framing Cubbits yacht basin   1961.jpg

Edited by Robert B.
Grammar and my inability to get pictures in a logical order
  • Greenie 1
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Having just read through the other thread, I can add that Sara handles well and we've never had any stability problems of note, although she will heel C. 15 degrees or so if you ask her to do a tight turn with any speed on. You do need to pay attention to the tiller as she has a habit of wandering off to bury her nose in the left hand bank if left to her own devices for more than a moment.  The lack of swim limits hull speed to around 4 knots and giving it any more welly just results in a fountain of spray (fun!) and ultimately cavitation (not good!), so we settle down into a steady bop-bop-bop and just accept that the day is about the journey.

Edited by Robert B.
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3 minutes ago, Robert B. said:

Having just read through the other thread, I can add that Sara handles well and we've never had any stability problems of note, although she will heel C. 15 degrees or so if you ask her to do a tight turn with any speed on.  The lack of swim limits hull speed to around 4 knots and giving it any more welly just results in a fountain of spray (fun!) and ultimately cavitation (not good!), so we settle down into a steady bop-bop-bop and just accept that the day is about the journey.

Sara sounds a fantastic 'old gal' You must be very proud of her. I liked reading that snippet of her story. :)

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  • 6 months later...

Evening, sorry if this is resurrecting an old topic but I just thought I'd share some more detailed images of Bosley during her restoration. They are potato quality but good info none the less.

 

Rather than picture spamming I've taken the liberty to pop them in an imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/oxVwxfc

 

This is how she was before this restoration: https://imgur.com/a/i1TniF6
 

 

Thanks everyone.

Edited by rugpoker
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2 hours ago, rugpoker said:

Evening, sorry if this is resurrecting an old topic but I just thought I'd share some more detailed images of Bosley during her restoration. They are potato quality but good info none the less.

 

Rather than picture spamming I've taken the liberty to pop them in an imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/oxVwxfc

 

This is how she was before this restoration: https://imgur.com/a/i1TniF6
 

 

Thanks everyone.

You have 1970's in the 2nd set, the last 3 are from 2013 I think, recognise both the dogs!!!

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19 hours ago, matty40s said:

You have 1970's in the 2nd set, the last 3 are from 2013 I think, recognise both the dogs!!!

Haha hey matty god knows why I put that there hehe, I'll update it. Cheers man, hope you are keeping well.

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