Paul H

Some intersting pics including some I haven't seen before - thank you. The paint spec is a useful guide but is not of course a contemporary document. I would also say it includes a typo - the boat name and fleet number should be 4" high. Paul

The late Chris Lloyd owned ex-Clayton's Stour and also built a few replica tugs one of which was called Tamar. He was an accomplished decorative painter as well as much else besides so this could be one of his. Paul

I am of course the PH referred to as the source of this information. I was brought up in Uxbridge in the 1970s when Water Vole (ex-Kelso) was on the Benbow Way houseboat moorings at Cowley. I was told by more than one person that the stern was on Cowley Tip. Neither of these were Sam Lawton who was lock keeper at Denham at the time but I accept their information perhaps could be traced back to the same unreliable source although this was only about 15 years after the conversion date. I have a photocopy of the BW staff magazine dated May 1959 showing Aurora at Stanley Ferry but Kelso is not alongside. If a photo exists of the two boats together it unfortunately means that the boat was not converted at Bulls Bridge or Birmingham and both the oral history and the documentary history are wrong! In fact the situation may have just been more complicated than it first appears with an individual boat being worked on at more than one yard. I get the impression that one of the motivations in converting these boats was to provide work for otherwise idle craftsman at the various yards rather than with an eye on efficiency or economy. Certainly the boats were converted to a very high standard regardless of expense - I once looked after the sole converted lifeboat from the fleet which had a cabin that was incredibly solidly put together in chunky hardwoods - the cabin would have outlasted the hull by several decades! Paul

My guess is the painter is Penny Burdett who used to live on NB Fern at Cowley nr. Uxbridge in the late 70s

The Historic Narrow Boat Club will shortly be holding another auction of canal and narrow boat collectables. Amongst the items we are cataloguing are a number of "Cooke" windlasses. Some have the name G H Cooke stamped and others just the clay pipe mark. Can it be confirmed absolutely that a windlass with the pipe but without the name is made by a relative of G.H but not the man himself. There are also a collection of brass miniature windlasses with the kite mark. It has been suggested that they were made as boatman's gifts but could they be modern copies? Also one or two have notches ground out around the eye - was this a boatman's way of identifying his own windlass or something else? Further details of the auction nearer the date! Paul

Very fond memories of Fern as it was the first real boat I ever steered but now imho has a rather unsympathetic conversion. Rumoured also to be too wide to get through Hurleston and off the Llangollen (it was craned in.) Paul

Joel

Presumably Vanguard photographed towing on the Regents was officially in the maintenance fleet?

I know the boat looks in some shots only about 45ft but that is due go foreshortening as a result of perspective and indeed when the boat is first glimpsed behind the gate handrail it appears much longer. Other distinctive features of Bison were the cabin roof curving down at bow, segment of tyre over stem bar and the castle panel at the stern. All very distinctive and as far as I know unique to Bison. I remember the boat at Cowley in the late 60s from "boat spotting" walks as a schoolboy and was always intrigued by its hump-backed appearance. Paul

The converted boat is the full length Bison identifiable by its distinctive front window and headlight. There is a pic with this cabin on in its entry on the National Historic Ships website but I can't add a link or copy the pic on my phone. Could someone else oblige? Paul

Many of the Thames Conservancy "joey"-type boats were built by the Steel Barrel Co at Uxbridge. The same company was responsible for the George and Mary built for the predecessors of the GUCCC. Paul

Bath (see above!)

Different boat! Bert Dunkley's Prince with the cabin gap was a wooden Barlow's motor long since broken up. Malcolm Webster's Prince is an iron ex-josher steamer. There is also another Prince still around - the ex-GUCCC Royalty motor. Paul