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The Canals Before the 1990s


sal garfi

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I have been musing, and out of curiosity, how many here remember what the canals were like in the 50s to the latter 80s. I've always liked this site: http://www.canalscape.net/Dont%20Call%20it%20a%20Barge/Dont%20Call%20it%20a%20Barge.htm

So how many of you cruised and even lived on the cut back in the days when, it seems, the variety of boats was quite interesting indeed! The pre-80s seems to have been a kind of 'heroic age', and if any one lived on the cut then, I'm expecting that their type of boat, and lifestyle would have been much different from is common, or expected, today.

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Easter 1965

My Father hired a boat for us from the famous Holt Abbot (as mentioned in your link).

The following year we went boat hunting for our own. The range was mainly wooden cruisers in the form of ex lifeboats, and very strange conversions. There very few purpose built wooden canal cruisers. Fibreglass Loftus Bennets, Normans etc with burbling outboards were everywhere.

My Father bought a narrow beam carvel built Thames half deck launch with an upper conversion and a wheelhouse powered by a Meadows Kittiwake. (rolled like a pig)

When out boating cruisers tended to shout to each other "Narrow Boat Coming!" due to it meaning either a Birmingham & Midland or Blue Line was about to appear. It wasn't unusual for cruisers to leap for the bank and hold the ropes until they'd passed.

The only live aboards I saw where tramps on rafts with a tent mounted. They'd beg a tow if they wanted to move.

 

I returned to the cut in 74 and between then and 1980 I had a two wooden cruisers including a Dolphin. I couldn't afford a plastic one. The metal clone boats were starting to appear and the towpaths were becoming littered with DIY fitouts painted in primer.

People said that Springer allowed a lot of people to take to the water. I disagree, those same people could have bought a discarded working boat which even its knackered state would likely to have still had a thicker hull. Fibreglass hulls were becoming less popular. Liveaboards were still rare as the law about living on board was very vague but seemed to be fraught with illegality.

 

I moved on from a 30ft Dawncraft to a pair of Small Woolwich. Steel Clonecraft in differing stages of primer, no windows, windows cut and ply wood panelled over the holes, floating on the surface due to lack of engine ..... they were everywhere.

Up into the 90s people were starting to live on their boats but still not openly. Some marinas turned a blind eye, some were stung for Poll Tax or planning permission, even parish councils were known to trudge down the towpath as someone had asked them to investigate, but truthly they had no idea what they were investigating.

In Shardlow there was a police boat that used to come up from Trent Lock weekly, and it was common for everyone to run out and bring the washing in in case they stopped and accused you of living aboard.

 

My experiences

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Started crewing on ex GUCCC working boat Pisces in 1965. I remember the last days of commercial carrying on the southern GU. but thate are people on here that go a lot further back than me.

Edited by David Schweizer
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Zenataomm.., your reminicence, sounds great; and Dave, you go back a fair deal, and working on the cut. But Zenataomm, what precisely do you mean by 'metal clones'. I presume this is a euphemism?

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Zenataomm.., your reminicence, sounds great; and Dave, you go back a fair deal, and working on the cut. But Zenataomm, what precisely do you mean by 'metal clones'. I presume this is a euphemism?

 

Metal clones or clone craft is a euphemism used by some to describe modern leisure boats, i.e. they all look the same.

 

But my thoughts are you could use the same argument to describe all of the Large Woolwich's of the GUCCCo craft in corporate colours. Or any other working company boats for that matter.

 

Look some clone craft here:

 

 

Edited by Ray T
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Metal clones or clone craft is a euphemism used by some to describe modern leisure boats, i.e. they all look the same.

 

But my thoughts are you could use the same argument to describe all of the Large Woolwich's of the GUCCCo craft in corporate colours. Or any other working company boats for that matter.

 

Look some clone craft here:

 

attachicon.gif10336698_648073428596122_6962752164655573734_n.jpg

 

I thought it was something like that, but after any of what I'd call an 'heroic' or 'exploratory' period, 'samey-ness', or 'clonelike-ness' is bound to creep in. The lack of samey-ness is what I find attractive about the mix of boats that used to frequent the canals. Anyway, that's a great photo!

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If you can get hold of it The Canals of England by Eric de Mare, published by Architectural Press in 1950, reprinted in 1956, 1961 and 1965 has a chapter "The Canals Today" of the period you are interested in.

 

A motorised pontoon from the book.

 

 

 

Hatton Flight.

 

 

 

Take to the boats Britain's Inland Waterways in 1962.

 

 

World of the Waterways BTF 1968.

 

Edited by Ray T
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The lack of samey-ness was what was fascinating amongst the pleasure boats back then.

In my view the photo above of the layby at Bulls Bridge shows narrow boats probably awaiting orders.

A clone of those would be one of the excellent versions built by Roger Fuller for example.

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I started boating on canals in the early 1970s first with parents and then on my own (or rather a friend or two) I was very much into the history and heritage of the canals even then and went on working weekends etc helping to restore disused canals and worked on the K&A mostly.

 

There were more cruisers (GRP and wooden) about then both for hire and private use. There were still quite a few ex-working boats about either converted/part converted or not. We hired all sorts of boats even a wooden one a couple of times but one of my favourites from that time was a Frobisher narrowboat it had a metal hull and a glass fibre top with a sliding mid section. A very nice boat and quite rare these days. I did meet a chap that had one in Tamworth a very nice maintained boat too. He had it for 30 years or so.

 

It was different times with fewer miles of connected canal available and some canals although open were in very poor state of repair and only passable with care and some struggle but we were young and enthusiastic so it was all part of the adventure. It took all day for example to go down the Rochdale 9 attempting to do the Chesire Ring when newly "opened" The locks on this still privately owned section (you paid a toll for a 1.5 mile section) were terrible and water levels very low. We went aground many times and got jammed leaving a lock there was so much floating rubbish. There was even a mini clubman in the water. It is not all roses now but the state of the system is much better than it was then.

 

I don't really agree with the term of "Clone boat" as on narrow canals the "gauge" is very limited in both length, width and height. The practical possibilities are also limited as a result. The leisure format has developed to fill a need just as the working boats all look similar because they were filling a need and requirement to fit in the gauge and carry as much cargo as possible. There is a great deal of variety of leisure and working boats of course when you look past the general format and see the wealth of detail differences between the types.

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I have been musing, and out of curiosity, how many here remember what the canals were like in the 50s to the latter 80s. I've always liked this site: http://www.canalscape.net/Dont%20Call%20it%20a%20Barge/Dont%20Call%20it%20a%20Barge.htm

So how many of you cruised and even lived on the cut back in the days when, it seems, the variety of boats was quite interesting indeed! The pre-80s seems to have been a kind of 'heroic age', and if any one lived on the cut then, I'm expecting that their type of boat, and lifestyle would have been much different from is common, or expected, today.

I started in early 1957 on a 70ft FMC unconverted motor boat, aquiring a butty in 58 living & working them to 68 & then having them converted to continue Hotel Baoting leaving the cut in late 72 due to family ill health There was a wider spread of boat types as folk got afloat in what they afford a good few ex ships lifeboats & boats made from ex WD pontoons,not to many metal ones other than the Ex working craft, the general attitude was much more pioneering problems fixed by boaters & not relying on the the then BW board. Sheets of ply & corrugated iron to stop lock leaks & a "Tirfor"to pull ones self from obstacles I guess being much more self reliant than a number of today"s boaters I think the big difference was back in the day most boaters were intent on keeping & improving the cut that was then left open to cruise nowadays the system is pretty much safe from abandonment so boaters focus on other matters Many fewer boats back then so possibly less problems re mooring & seemingly less canal/boat rage

Edited by X Alan W
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I started as a schoolboy in 1962. My school owned a converted Stewart's and Lloyds Joey boat, kept at Harris's yard Netherton. After a visit I joined the boat crew and went to the now famous Stourbridge National Rally in August of that year. Soon after I met Malcolm Braine, another waterways stalwart, when he brought Cactus and Penguin to the yard for refurbishment. I think he was interested in acquiring the yard, the Harris brothers were ready to retire. Malcolm took me under his wing and I broadened my waterway horizons, joining the Staffs and Worcs canal society, becoming involved in restoration and helping another local boater to convert the josher butty Grange to a motor. It still has the same Kelvin J2 in that I laboured to clean in those days. I became involved with a local carrying company soon after, Birmingham and Midland, meeting working boaters and other enthusiasts in Gas St. I remember towing rubbish boats from Hockley Port to Moxley tip among other jobs.

As others have said, there was a pioneering spirit and sense of camaraderie amongst many boaters along with a willingness to solve problems themselves. B W were only called out in the worst situations! The whole atmosphere was much more relaxed, one of my good friends, Alf Langford, lived aboard his small tug all year round without hassle from officialdom. He wintered at Barkers Coal Yard adjacent to the middle lock of Factory 3, moving to Autherley in the summer months. How he'd cope with today's signs and restrictions I don't know. Maybe it's me, but after a lifetime around boats and the cut, I detect much more a " client/user " mentality among some modern boaters and a lack of interest in the traditions that drew me to the boats in the first place. I still boat occasionally,though with less enthusiasm than previously, a combination of changed circumstances and medical issues being responsible. I meet other old timers regularly as I work around yards or attend gatherings...strangely, they all hold similar opinions. Phil Speight has described himself as a dinosaur in the modern waterways world. I'm proud to be another!

 

Dave

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I'm another of the '65ers. In the summer of 1964, on a family Sunday afternoon walk along the newly-reopened South Stratford Canal my parents got chatting to a couple on a boat, which they had hired from Blue Line Cruisers. And so Whitson half term week the following year we hired Blue Peter, a 24 foot centre cockpit plywood cruiser, from Blue Line and we spent a week travelling from Braunston to just south of Banbury and back. I still have the cine film my father shot on that trip, showing me age 7 and my 5 year old sister in our life jackets and matching pullovers knitted by Granny specially for the holiday.

 

In the following years we hired from Anglo Welsh - Market Harborough to Cossington Lock and back - and Wyvern Shipping - Linslade to Foxton, including down the locks to connect with the previous year's waters then winding and going straight back up again.

 

After that my parents bought a 20 ft fibreglass cruiser which we had a few family trips on, and also hired out a few times. One early Autumn hirer abandoned the boat on the South Oxford, and we had to weekend her back from Somerton to Solihull. As a result of other commitments it wassn't until Winter we were able to do this, and the first attempt was one of those memorable family occasions - the "Daddy, we're sinking!" incident when boating through thin ice the drumming noise inside the cabin convinced me the end was nigh. That trip was abandoned, and it was a while longer before the boat got home.

 

In 1972, on another walk along the Stratford, we found an abandoned and sunk 17 ft plywood dayboat. Enquiries of the National Trust put us in touch with the owner and I became the proud owner of my first boat at the age of 14, for the princely sum of £5. I sold it 3 years later for £200! I wish all my deals had been that profitable.

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A downside of the mass number of Clonecraft that the hire boat industry and later the private boat builder market turned out, was building boats to fit the under maintained canals.

Because Waterways weren't repairing locks to the original dimensions nor were they dredging correctly.

This resulted in boats built to draw 18" instead of 36" which meant smaller propellers which had to spin faster to make up for their lack of bite.

Boats were built to a maximum of only 69' or maybe 70'. I once got The Marcellus (as a butty) stuck in a lock on the upper Stratford because Waterways had rebuilt a chamber to nearer 70', I had to lift the elum off to get her in.

 

Worst of all the industry was building to a new width of 6' 10", eventually Waterways capitalised on this by declaring these measurements were the new standard. Therefore not having to attend when a genuine full size boat got stuck. I too carried a Tirfor and used it often to get both boats out of locks. I was told by BWB on more than one occassion that I needed to get my hull altered because they knew the chamber was 70' by 6' 10".

The next round of stupidity from this was they declared any boat over 70' by 6' 10" was not narrow beam which brought into question their licence.

I seem to remember one of our esteemed members here playing a major part in them backing down ...... thanks.

Others may remember these times differently or with better accuracy.

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My first canal was the Llangollen/Shroppie in the late 70's along with 5 other pals. As I had previous boating experience (the Broads) as was put in charge. It was August, so the routine was early morning start with breakfast stop after a couple of hours, then cruise till lunch, the cruise till overnight stop.

We hired from English County Cruisers from Wrenbury and made it to Trevor and back and then to Chester and back in a week.

It was a brilliant introduction to canal boating.

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We started in 1970 - here I am a year or two later with dangly fenders (the shame...)

 

Lots of ex-army pontoons being used for camping of various sorts, as others have noticed. Plastic boats seemed very much in a majority (at the time I coveted a Norman 32 as the height of sophistication!). A few ex-working boats - I recall one trip down the Oxford with JAGUAR, quite heavily loaded with coal. We overtook them between locks, and set the next lock for them and let them overtake us.

 

sg_shetland.jpg?w=875&h=413

 

Here's an amusing video I came across recently, courtesy of Canal Cavalcade. Apart from the shots of dollybirds on the pedalo ...

 

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Soon after I met Malcolm Braine, another waterways stalwart, when he brought Cactus and Penguin to the yard for refurbishment.

 

 

Dave

Dave

 

For your information Penguin is moored at Sileby Mill alongside a butty whose name I don't know as a I've never seen it with the covers off. Ivan had Penguin slipped last year for the first time in ages. Interestingly the uxter plate had been 'underplated' using old railway sleepers which had rotted and were replaced. I can only surmise this was done to help stop cavitation with the baot not sitting as deep in the water as originally built. It does normally go on an extended cruise each year.

Richard

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We hired our first boat in 1976 from Stone (via Hoseasons).

It was an attractive wooden boat, quite short (we often shared narrow locks with other hire boats), and wheel steering from the centre well.

We wanted to do a complete ring but the Harecastle tunnel was closed, so we turned at Chester. The Shroppie was fantastic, eerie cuttings! And the junction with the S&W at Wolverhampton was like a graveyard.

It must have been an Olympics year because we hired a tiny B&W tv. Not sure if I remember correctly but I think the loo emptied into the cut ....

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Our hire boat in 1964 at Llangollen.(Toilet flushed straight into the canal.)

tug825.jpg


Another hire boat in 1980s

 

JANNEL-1.jpg


Another one from the 1980s

LadyJayne.jpg


1980s on the Broads

 

tug862.jpg

Edited by Dalesman
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