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The Canals Before the 1990s


sal garfi

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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.

 

attachicon.gifPontoon @ Chirk.jpeg

 

Hatton Flight.

 

attachicon.gifJS18819518-6863167.jpg

 

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

 

 

World of the Waterways BTF 1968.

 

 

Thanks! I'll look up the book, and great photos and films!

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Everyone's accounts are really interesting, and the variety of boats, and the lack of fear to explore the system and 'rough it' is something that's definitely now passed. People have different expectations today. But please, more accounts, I for one love'em!

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My first experience of canal boating back in 1973 was related here

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=76485

 

Post #4.

 

 

The changes I have noted are in line with other posts, namely:

 

Vastly more traffic today (doing the Warwickshire Ring in July '73 we passed about 3-5 boats moving per day).

 

Much worse maintenance standards compared to today.

 

Everyone was helpful and out to enjoy themselves, less stressful.

 

Vast variety of odd looking boats (and characters).

 

Fewer fishermen and moored boats.

 

Almost no one living on boats.

 

Everything was an adventure, you really felt as if you were pioneering, rather than having just another holiday.

 

Still, even though it has changed, I still love boating today, and feel privileged to be able to do it.

 

Edited to add the post number.

Edited by cuthound
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This was my former company’s hire boat brochure from the ‘60’s.

 

BYBHireBrochure_zpseb6a0c32.jpg

 

 

It was successful enough apparently, but not so much that it was worth keeping on with, and because the then directors got bored with traipsing up and down the Grand Union for themselves, they ended up selling the 2 boats.

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The first eleven years of my life through the 50s were spent in the Maghull and Aintree area of Liverpool. The canal was my route to and from primary school and we spent hours watching the fewer and fewer passing boats.

Later we moved to a farming community near Rufford, a branch of the Leeds and Liverpool and this route rarely saw boats other than those making their way to Mayors boatyard in Tarleton.

My first long trip was a camping one aboard June, an ex working boat from Burscough to Skipton as a teenager in the mid sixties and from then on I was firmly hooked.

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Easter 1968, British Waterways hire boat called Water Fern, we cruised for a week from Oxford northwards, turning before Napton Junction to return to Oxford. I was 8 years old and it changed my life. I instantly fell in love with the canals. In the following years we then did more BW hire holidays in the Midlands which just reinforced my affinity with boating. Being so young my memories are hazy but I can remember a leaking stern gland flooding the back of the boat overnight so two chaps came out from Oxford to pump us out, running out of LPG and walking across fields to find a replacement cylinder, a 'fridge' which was just a cool box with freezer blocks in and we stopped at Cropredy village shop to swap them for frozen ones from the ice cream cabinet, and a sea toilet where I'd do my business and then excitedly run up on deck to watch my turds floating in the canal!

 

The most important contrast with today though was the solitude. We would cruise for hours without passing another boat.

 

post-20508-0-40399800-1465334472_thumb.jpg

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Water skiing!!!!! I think we must have lost ours here

 

VestaonSevernpushesthetide.jpg

 

 

 

I didn't realise your Father had put a cabin on Vesta.

When was that and how long did it last?

 

Nicely done by the way.

Thanks for sharing.

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September 1970 for my first time, I was about 4 weeks old and remember nothing of it unsurprisingly, apparently the only time I slept was when the engine was running.

My whole childhood was boats, rallies, old boatmen talking about boats, pubs by canals with people talking old boats and old times. Every trip was a history lesson, we used to go in this arm with such and such from so and so. I cant tell you how much I miss it all.

 

post-3500-0-07184500-1465368872_thumb.jpg

slightly later than first trip, about 78 somewhere on the shroppie iirc.

  • Greenie 1
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We knew quite a few people living on boats on the Thames in the Richmond and Twickenham area from going to Eel Pie Island jazz club, and when we saw a BWB ad wanting crews for the few pairs they still had working in about 1958 we went for an interview at Bulls Bridge. As I recall we were told we could earn up to about £15.00 between us in a 70+ hour week; we decided against it and took ourselves off to busk in France instead (and mostly 'earned' rather more while generally just slopping around).

 

Back in England and having our 1st son we saw a converted life boat for sale in the Exchange and Mart on a residential mooring on the GU at Cowley Peachey, near Uxbridge. Lived on that for a couple of years and then found the wideboat Progress, sunk at the end of the Slough cut. Bought it for £50 (borrowed from my father), converted it and cruised it to Braunston (a couple of times on up to Camp Hill), top of the Lee and the Stort, and up the Thames. Eventually sold it and bought the narrowboat Towcester and contracted to BWB to carry limejuice for Rose's.

 

 

 

There was a fair bit of traffic - Willow Wren, BW and Samual Barlow mostly, with lighters bringing timber up from Limehouse and Brentford towed by narrow-guage tractors. People living on boats on the towpath were certainly a no-no. There were probably at least 15 boats at Cowley, and the only narrowboats were Jack, Bergen, Bison and Severner Ash, plus a cut-down one lived on by ex-boatman George. The rest were a wide range of ex-naval craft, broads cruisers, caravans on pontoons etc. Only 3 or 4 of us cruised to any extent though, so I guess pas ca change there.

 

Tam

post-6882-0-94333300-1465371734_thumb.jpg

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It's always exciting to be involved at the start of something. I relate to all that's been said because of my own profession - archaeology. Back in the 70s, when I started, we were putting archaeology and 'heritage' on the map, and I knew of some fellow 'diggers' who also worked on restoring canals. These were, as I've already said, 'heroic' times (though 'episodes' would be a better term). Now there's a virtual homogeneity on the cut, as in my own profession. I'm intrigued by the variety of boats (and boat styles) that existed just a few decades ago, and that there was this sense of purpose in exploring, as well as preserving, the inland waterways.

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My first boat at Golden Nook farm Waverton c1967

 

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Another one from the 1980s

SpringerCH.jpg

Another 1980s canal view

tug880.jpg

The 2 boats tied in front of the pub are I think part of Holidays Afloat hire fleet of Mk Drayton

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The cabin was put on Vesta in the early 60's and I think removed by Mike Woodhouse in the early 80's? (he was featured in the waterworld series on ITV) he had a 1936 Rolls Royce

 

vesta3_1.jpg

 

Vesta on her way to Stratford in 1964 to meet the Queen Mother. I think Alan Smith and Dad designed the window shutters.

 

vesta2_1.png

 

vesta1.jpg

Vesta in Bancroft Basin at the opening of the Stratford canal

 

DSCF0711.jpg

This was Dad's prize for the best conversion at the Stratford Rally, it is still hanging on the wall at his house.

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Buying a modern narrowboat in 1981 and taking it to London to Brunel university mooring it at Crowley lock and finding work in London... Nothing changes. Getting the bug swapping a superior 3 year old narrowboat for an unpowered wooden bottomed butty( on a resident mooring. Moving off the mooring 2 weeks on an outboard and cruising around up to stoke bruerne part on tow part on outboard

Buying a motor and playing on a pair for 16 years before it got too crowded.

Thumb sign on boat to get tows, chalk on the bridge holes and lock beams ( no mobiles) towing the butty with farnworth ( you never knew that Di .) whilst trip boating, towing over the tring summit with a 100 foot tow rope,

Meeting lifelong friends , meeting characters, carrying charged batteries down the towpath from the university science labs to the boat by bike, impromptu rallies and mass movements of mostly old boats...memories

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If only we could turn back the clock. I take a crumb of comfort from the fact that there are a handful, if not more, of youngsters interested in the traditions and practices that I cherish. All is not lost, though survival may well be a tiny facet of the waterway scene today.

 

Success to the younger ones!

 

Dave

  • Greenie 1
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Buying a modern narrowboat in 1981 and taking it to London to Brunel university mooring it at Crowley lock and finding work in London... Nothing changes. Getting the bug swapping a superior 3 year old narrowboat for an unpowered wooden bottomed butty( on a resident mooring. Moving off the mooring 2 weeks on an outboard and cruising around up to stoke bruerne part on tow part on outboard

Buying a motor and playing on a pair for 16 years before it got too crowded.

Thumb sign on boat to get tows, chalk on the bridge holes and lock beams ( no mobiles) towing the butty with farnworth ( you never knew that Di .) whilst trip boating, towing over the tring summit with a 100 foot tow rope,

Meeting lifelong friends , meeting characters, carrying charged batteries down the towpath from the university science labs to the boat by bike, impromptu rallies and mass movements of mostly old boats...memories

 

I also have a fond memory of you marching down the bank opposite the Shovel at Cowley one New Year's day (34 years ago?) with your long shaft. Muttering loudly about "I'll get her on the boat" we were all interested that you appeared to be heading for Sue who seemed to be pleading to a tree "please come with us". Serious money was lost that morning as most bet on Sue as being your target, I bet on the tree ...... nobody looked up to see your cat comfortably settled on a branch thirty feet in the air.

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If only we could turn back the clock. I take a crumb of comfort from the fact that there are a handful, if not more, of youngsters interested in the traditions and practices that I cherish. All is not lost, though survival may well be a tiny facet of the waterway scene today.

 

Success to the younger ones!

 

Dave

Wishful thinking I fear Dave even with the younger (enthusiasts) they will not have the same conditions /ways that were the norm in the the days we our selves wish could return but never will, for me I'm pleased I boated/had my go when I did. I don't think I would bother getting afloat now, but to all still afloat ,all the best in whatever type of boat/boating you are involved in

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As time passes each generation will lament the past in some degree, even those joining the cut today they will look back with nostalgia in thirty years time, and those looking back fifty years or more will indeed have seen changes in so many walks of life. Bobbies on point duty, and walking around singly with just a whistle, truncheon and notebook (and a uniform of course!). Now, where did I leave that Tardis . . .

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1st time on boat my father hired from Bathursts at Tewkesbury 1959 /60 ? limit of Avon navigation Cropthorne watergate. Tankers working on the Severn Then onto the canals.in the years difference then and now . Towpath over Pontyscllte rather than missing gaps, The safety elves have removed the chains from the lift bridges. The BCN is green with trees and no .phosphorus from Albrights . .Without the leisure growth we would not have a system today but we have lost a lot., Privileged to have seen and met some of the boatmen and women of the last days of carrying. The absence of lock queues. As mentioned in a previous post we patched gates to get through locks .cut fallen trees.to get past . Aye Derek nostalgia is not like it udes to be

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