I have been trying to remember a camping boat trip I did with the scouts back in july 1981, I think we started off from Braunston and that there were 2 boats (motor and butty) and that we slept on bunk beds under canvas. That is about it as I did not have the interest in Narrowboats and Canals that I do now, but I did think the boats were unconverted 70 footers. I sent an email to the leader of the scout group, who then passed it on the scout leader at the time of the trip, after a few weeks I recived this reply
Hello Peter,
My name is Mervyn ---- and I was GSL when you were on the canal trip. Chris ----, the current GSL, passed me your enquiry and I have been having a search around to see if I could come up with an answer. One of my sons, Andrew, was also on the trip so he was my starting point, with no luck. You may remember Mike ----, one of the leaders who I meet fairly regularly but he could remember the trip but not the names!
I left answerphone messages for John ----, the Scouter leading the trip and, out of the blue, he turned up here today to talk about my calls. As he said, a lot of time has passed since then and, at first he could only recall one name. This morning while he was painting his fence!! he suddenly remembered the other name.
The company he used was Union Canal Carriers Limited out of Braunston. The two boats were the Mendip and the Quantock. One had a canvas cover for most of it’s length and the other a hardtop.
Hope this helps you in your research, I, having spent some time following the trail, think that is about as much as I can do to help you.
Well at least you gave John a chance to remember the event and some of the things you all got up to!!
Best wishes,
Mervyn.
I have looked on Jim sheads site but none of the boats fit the bill although one was built by UCC. Does anyone know if the boats from my trip are still around?