When did leisure boats first arrive on canals?

[Guest]

My question is as the topic, and aimed at the Leeds and Liverpool canal, but also am interested in others. Did leisure boats exist in the early days alongside working boats? Or did they largely arrive later as trade declined?

The picture shows a boat called "Mary" taken about 1969 on the L&L near Wigan. The owner always claimed it was the first pleasure boat on the L&L, though being a youth, I never thought to ask what date it was commissioned as a leisure boat.

 

[kevinl]

A friend of mine had a cabin cruiser on the Bridgewater in the very early 70's and they were nothing new, I think his was about 20 years old back then.

Most of the boats then were cruisers or old working boats, if it wasn't for cruisers the canals would probably all disappeared by now, if you look at pictures of rallies to keep them open it's virtually entirely cruisers, very few narrowboats.

I found this "Historically speaking, leisure craft were not allowed on the Bridgewater Canal except for a few notable exceptions. In 1951 the rules banning leisure craft were scrapped. This lead to an upsurge in pleasure boat ownership which in turn produced a need for boat moorings and boat clubs along the Bridgewater Canal. The first of the clubs established on the Bridgewater Canal in 1951 was the Bridgewater Motor Boat Club (or BMBC for short) located at Runcorn" and Lymm cruising club dates back to 1955.

They must go back a lot further on the Norfolk broads I can remember having holidays there in the 1960's in some quite old wooden pleasure boats.

K

[magpie patrick]

I'm not sure on the exact dates but two friends of my father's who were both older than him had leisure boats on the L&L as early as the fifties. Edmund and Winnie Bastow (whom would be over 100 if they were still alive) had "Grey Dove" a wooden cabin cruiser with a narrow beam, and cruised much of the canal system from Keighley, including both the Trent and Mersey and the river Trent routes southwards, and my father relates a trip through Froghall tunnel before the Caldon became impassible (it reopened in 1974) in which Edmund induced local workmen to act as ballast to get through.

 

Stan Kelsall owned a converted lifeboat based at Haskayne and every summer he and his wife did the same trip - up to Wigan, down the Leigh Branch, along the Bridgewater to Runcorn, down Runcorn Locks, along the Weaver, up Anderton Lift, up to Croxton Aqueduct (the boat wouldn't fit over it) and then back through Preston Brook Tunnel. I believe they had to use Dover Lock as a lock.

Edited October 6, 2014 by magpie patrick

[Athy]

I can't remember the exact name, but Temple Thurston wrote an account of a waterways holiday in the early tears of last century (though its veracity has been questioned).

I don't suppose that Cressy (1939) counts, as the Rolts were liveaboards. They CM'd for years, too.

[David Schweizer]

Tom Rolt and his new wife moved onto Cressy in 1939, but I am sure he wasn't the first, people were using boats for holidays in Edwardian times but usually camping overnight.

 

edited to add:- Mike beat me to ot

Edited October 6, 2014 by David Schweizer

[FadeToScarlet]

Depends what you count as "leisure", there's pictures of well dressed folk hiring rowing boats on canals in C19th. Maybe Victorian steam launches too.

[David Mack]

The Inland Cruising Association (later Inland Hire Cruisers) started hiring out boats from Chester in the 1930s. The oldest hire company still trading is the Canal Cruising Company of Stone, established in 1947.

 

Tom Rolt bought the converted and motorised full length butty Cressy in 1939, but I seem to recall it had been converted by the previous owner.

 

So leisure boating on canals goes back at least to the 1930s.

[Peter X]

On a very small scale I suspect, leisure boating on canals goes back much further. This:

http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/transport/boating.shtml

tells us that the Brecon Canal Act of 1793 mentions pleasure boats.

[Guest]

I'm not sure on the exact dates but two friends of my father's who were both older than him had leisure boats on the L&L as early as the fifties. Edmund and Winnie Bastow (whom would be over 100 if they were still alive) had "Grey Dove" a wooden cabin cruiser with a narrow beam, and cruised much of the canal system from Keighley, including both the Trent and Mersey and the river Trent routes southwards, and my father relates a trip through Froghall tunnel before the Caldon became impassible (it reopened in 1974) in which Edmund induced local workmen to act as ballast to get through.

 

Stan Kelsall owned a converted lifeboat based at Haskayne and every summer he and his wife did the same trip - up to Wigan, down the Leigh Branch, along the Bridgewater to Runcorn, down Runcorn Locks, along the Weaver, up Anderton Lift, up to Croxton Aqueduct (the boat wouldn't fit over it) and then back through Preston Brook Tunnel. I believe they had to use Dover Lock as a lock.

Some very interesting info so far

 

We used to moor at Haskayne at one time, and the name Stan Kelsall sounds very familiar. I don't suppose you know the name of his lifeboat?

[John V]

My cruiser was at the Ely rally 1973 and she was a few years old then (think she was built 1969 or 70) and certainly not an early model.

Quite a lot of boat builders were building boats for the canals in both wood and GRP in the 60's.....quite a lot of famous marques started then

[Ray T]

I have a copy of Canals & Waterways illustrating classic photographs from The Francis Frith Collection, this is one of the photo's:

 

Leisure boats 001

 

There are also photo's showing a horse drawn leisure craft giving tourist rides on The Llangollen Canal dated c1913.

A little leisure narrow boat on The Staffs & Worcs c1955

A wooden cruiser at Hopwas also 1955

 

The book is published by Selactabook Devises ISBN 1-8456-333-1

 

ETA

 

There is also the Market Harborough Rally 1950

 

Edited October 6, 2014 by Ray T

[Naughty Cal]

Strange isn't it how times change?

 

Some now view cruisers as the minority when they used to be the majority for leisure craft.

[Guest]

Strange isn't it how times change?

 

Some now view cruisers as the minority when they used to be the majority for leisure craft.

When my dad first introduced us to the cut in 1967 (mainly L&L) there were loads of cruisers. Also loads of converted lifeboats and a number of completely home made boats. There were quite a few converted working boats, too. Narrowboats are pretty much the norm today, though I think there is an increase in widebeams of late.

 

My late dad on his Dolphin. Great boats built by an aeroplane manufacturer.

 

Edited October 6, 2014 by Guest

[John V]

If you look at photos from rallies in the early 70's, as you say yoghurt pots dominated the scene.....how times change

[John Williamson 1955]

If you look at photos from rallies in the early 70's, as you say yoghurt pots dominated the scene.....how times change

Most of the "yoghurt pots" I saw on the Grand Union in the '70s were plywood, with the occasional carvel built boat. Just to be awkward, I lived in an old clinker built converted fishing boat.

[Guest]

Most of the "yoghurt pots" I saw on the Grand Union in the '70s were plywood, with the occasional carvel built boat. Just to be awkward, I lived in an old clinker built converted fishing boat.

You make a good point, in that there was a real mix of boat types/construction techniques. Lots of clinker built lifeboats around our way then, but also a contrast of marine ply, carvel and GRP boats, not forgetting steel of course, and some nice aluminium boats. There were also some interesting combinations of materials, some not as successful as others!

Now we just seem to have a lot of narrowboats (I don't mean to insult narrowboats, I am on my second one), but the variation has almost gone. I like going on the Bridgewater canal as there still seems to be some variation of boats.

[NigelMoore]

I’ve posted on this subject before, with historical documentation establishing the extent of leisure boating envisaged in the original enabling Acts. I have no time to dig those up just now, but can at least reprise the comment –

 

The fact is, that once the Bridgewater Canal established the commercial opportunities for the extraordinary enrichment of the proprietors of such navigations, everyone sought to muscle in on the act. One problem faced by all such “company of adventurers” was the resistance of powerful landowners to the passage of the necessary enabling Acts whereby Parliament authorised compulsory purchase powers of all land necessary to the construction of the envisaged navigations.

 

This meant that the companies seeking to ensure un-resisted passage of their proposals through Parliament did not draft the Bills before negotiation with the principal landowners. It is a uniform characteristic of these Acts that the promoters inserted various statutory rights for the affected landowners, principal amongst which was the promise that pleasure boating would be accommodated for [almost] free.

 

It was a hugely influential – and publicised – aspect [for example] of the 1793 GJCC Act and the subsequent Regents Canal extension, that the opportunity for pleasure boat use by both private riparian owners and the general public, was expressly accommodated.

 

The public seizure of this opportunity was so extensive that the GJCC had to promote another Bill less than 8 years after opening, to impose certain restrictions on the manner of pleasure boat use, because the amount of that use of the new canal was so predominant by then that it threatened to interfere with the commercial use.

 

Magazines of the opening 19thC records that in London alone the use of the new canal for private and hired pleasure boat use – and commercial pleasure boat trips – was observed to be one of the principal leisure time pleasures for inhabitants of the capital – mostly the hoi polloi, but not exclusive of the aristocracy.

 

As the 19thC opened, London pleasure boats alone numbered over 1,000.

 

In a very real sense, therefore, the commercial waterways owed their very existence to the public desire to also use those waterways for purely pleasure boating. This is an almost universally overlooked facet of waterways history.

[Guest]

I’ve posted on this subject before, with historical documentation establishing the extent of leisure boating envisaged in the original enabling Acts. I have no time to dig those up just now, but can at least reprise the comment –

 

The fact is, that once the Bridgewater Canal established the commercial opportunities for the extraordinary enrichment of the proprietors of such navigations, everyone sought to muscle in on the act. One problem faced by all such “company of adventurers” was the resistance of powerful landowners to the passage of the necessary enabling Acts whereby Parliament authorised compulsory purchase powers of all land necessary to the construction of the envisaged navigations.

 

This meant that the companies seeking to ensure un-resisted passage of their proposals through Parliament did not draft the Bills before negotiation with the principal landowners. It is a uniform characteristic of these Acts that the promoters inserted various statutory rights for the affected landowners, principal amongst which was the promise that pleasure boating would be accommodated for [almost] free.

 

It was a hugely influential – and publicised – aspect [for example] of the 1793 GJCC Act and the subsequent Regents Canal extension, that the opportunity for pleasure boat use by both private riparian owners and the general public, was expressly accommodated.

 

The public seizure of this opportunity was so extensive that the GJCC had to promote another Bill less than 8 years after opening, to impose certain restrictions on the manner of pleasure boat use, because the amount of that use of the new canal was so predominant by then that it threatened to interfere with the commercial use.

 

Magazines of the opening 19thC records that in London alone the use of the new canal for private and hired pleasure boat use – and commercial pleasure boat trips – was observed to be one of the principal leisure time pleasures for inhabitants of the capital – mostly the hoi polloi, but not exclusive of the aristocracy.

 

As the 19thC opened, London pleasure boats alone numbered over 1,000.

 

In a very real sense, therefore, the commercial waterways owed their very existence to the public desire to also use those waterways for purely pleasure boating. This is an almost universally overlooked facet of waterways history.

Amazing, I had no idea about the public desire to use the waterways so early on.

[NigelMoore]

Amazing, I had no idea about the public desire to use the waterways so early on.

 

The Grand Junction Canal was up and profitably running [at least as far as Uxbridge] by the year after the passage of their Act in 1793. In 1801 the proprietors succeeded in getting Parliament to approve an subsequent Act prohibiting sailing on the canal or using the towpath – obviously because sailing and leisurely towpath use for private pleasure had become, even by then, a sufficiently obstructive interference with the commercial carrying that was, of course, the only thing the company could profit from.

[pete harrison]

Most of the "yoghurt pots" I saw on the Grand Union in the '70s were plywood, with the occasional carvel built boat. Just to be awkward, I lived in an old clinker built converted fishing boat.

I recall back in the 1970's seeing numerous ex-military pontoons that had become pleasure boat conversions. These conversions could still be commonly seen well into the 1980's.

[Guest]

I recall back in the 1970's seeing numerous ex-military pontoons that had become pleasure boat conversions. These conversions could still be commonly seen well into the 1980's.

There used to be one at either Blackburn or Burnley with a Bedford van body on top! I have mentioned this on here some years ago, and the one-time owner was a forum member.

There was a pontoon conversion at Parbold for several years with a bright yellow cabin. I also recall one in the "Practical Boat Owner" magazine probably late '60's where a guy had fitted a stern wheel driven by (I am 99% certain) a VW air cooled flat four engine.

[Dalesman]

One of Inland Hire Cruisers at Llangollen in 1964

[Athy]

There used to be one at either Blackburn or Burnley with a Bedford van body on top! I have mentioned this on here some years ago, and the one-time owner was a forum member.

There was a pontoon conversion at Parbold for several years with a bright yellow cabin. I also recall one in the "Practical Boat Owner" magazine probably late '60's where a guy had fitted a stern wheel driven by (I am 99% certain) a VW air cooled flat four engine.

Not Jethro Tull? I remember seeing that one on our first ever UK hire boat hol circa 1995 on the Grand Union. Never seen another stern-wheeler on the canals sine then, though I understand that there used to be a few on shallow stretches as they could be less deep-draughted than screw-driven boats.

[Galeomma]

My first experience of canals was on the Brecon canal on a hire cruiser back in the very early 70's.

 

Quite amazing really they would let my Mum, my aunt, my cousin and me loose on a plastic boat with absolutly no idea of boat handling.

 

We didn't sink it amazingly!

[Pluto]

I suspect that most canal Acts had clauses related to the use of pleasure boats, which usually required some form of permission before they could use the canal which, after all, was private property. On the L&LC, the section from my history of the canal suggests:

 

The earliest reference to pleasure boats in the committee minutes occurs in 1839, though they must have already been well established. In that year Mr Brown of Keighley was granted permission to keep a small boat on the canal. At the same time Mr Fletcher, the engineer. was ordered to prevent such boats being used or hired out on Sundays. In 1855, the company charged five shillings per annum for the privilege of keeping a pleasure boat on the canal. This was increased to fifteen shillings by 1870.