Christopher James

[Crob Inson]

Re tugboat Christopher James, in the late 1970's and early '80's it was moored at Hockley Port Basin, and owned by Betty and Eric Foulkes, and their son. It was used by them to clear obstructions from the pretty weeded and debris filled parts of the Soho Loop, and the Arm up to the Port. On occasion a small number of the youngsters who used to play at the Adventure Playground, and City Farm had a brief ride on it. At that time I recall it was painted in a dark browny red and a pinkey light lilac, very reminiscent of vintage railway colours.

What a shame that the play and educational facilities for children, where the Christopher James was moored were eventually closed, later in that decade. A lot of people ourselves included put their hearts and souls into making it a thriving community link between the cut, and the community.

 

[pete harrison]

CHRISTOPHER JAMES under the ownership of Eric and Betty Foulkes was also used extensively by the B.C.N. Society during the late 1970's to tow the day boat that they had on loan from British Steel, Coombeswood. I am pretty sure that CHRISTOPHER JAMES was the first ex-commercial boat that I steered, and we used it to clear the day boats from British Steel (exStewarts and Lloyds Ltd.), Coombeswood in 1976 with many being taken to the Ridgeacre Branch for tidying prior to their conversions to 'luxury liners' of one sort or another.

CHRISTOPHER JAMES has since been subject to considerable renovations and is now based on the River Wey / Basingstoke Canal.

Like 'Crob Inson' I remember Hockley Port being a very different place to what it is now, but that could be said of many canal locations and their communities 

Edited August 26, 2017 by pete harrison

[X Alan W]

Were the Foulkes family the owners in the latter half of the 60's? I remember the then owner(can't remember his name) living in the cottage next to the "Wharfe pub at Shebdon he used to sell canal related pottery, among them small pottery narrow boats that you could plant small flowers in, the "hold" I remember at that time it was painted & lettered in "Lenard Leigh" livery & will stand corrected but seem to remember if was AS3 powered Always thought it a classy Tug.

Edited August 26, 2017 by X Alan W

[pete harrison]

52 minutes ago, X Alan W said:

Were the Foulkes family the owners in the latter half of the 60's? I remember the then owner(can't remember his name) living in the cottage next to the "Wharfe pub at Shebdon he used to sell canal related pottery, among them small pottery narrow boats that you could plant small flowers in, the "hold" I remember at that time it was painted & lettered in "Lenard Leigh" livery & will stand corrected but seem to remember if was AS3 powered Always thought it a classy Tug.

I have George Bunting then Colin Sidaway as consecutive owners post Leonard Leigh Ltd. but prior to Eric and Betty Foulkes, and yes it was / is AS3 powered 

[BuckbyLocks]

It spent quite a long time at Keays Yard  before the Foulkes' bought it. It certainly had an AS3 in it at that time because I helped change the oil on it before the sale was completed.

[dave moore]

I have a memory of boating from Gas St to the top of Hatton with Peter Freakley on James Loader, another Leigh tug, to collect Christopher James and bring it back to the Allens yard at Oldbury over a weekend in the late 60s. Why it was towed back, I can't remember. Can anyone add to the story. The Bunting name rings a vague bell.....

 

Dave

[X Alan W]

14 hours ago, pete harrison said:

I have George Bunting then Colin Sidaway as consecutive owners post Leonard Leigh Ltd. but prior to Eric and Betty Foulkes, and yes it was / is AS3 powered 

George Bunting rings a bell couldn't remember his surname but the George bit fits Thanks.

[Proper Charlie]

A few months ago we came across a CaRT work boat across the cut in Tamworth (or maybe Bedworth). I retied it with a bit of help from a youngish lad, and in return I gave him a lift on our boat down to the next bridge. He said his grandfather once had a famous boat called Christopher James which is why he had always loved boats, and that the boat was named after this young lad himself. That's probably not right given that he was probably born in the 1990s, but I may not be recalling the conversation correctly. Maybe named after his father? 

[dave moore]

As far as I know, the Leigh tugs were named after children of that family, though I can't recall where I learned that. Dave

[black cap]

Christopher James is named after Christopher James Rosser, grandson of the founder, when Roland Wood used it on the Weldless Tube contract, fitted a new set of piston rings to the Armstrong, it spent a lot of its time on the Wolverhampton Power station job.

[John Brightley]

Here is a copy of an article by Mike Miles about CJ, from the BCN Society's 'Boundary Post' No.97, July 1987:

Edited August 29, 2017 by John Brightley
smaller files

[Leo No2]

Christopher James at Datchet on the Thames - September-2013

 

 

[Joseph]

Fascinating. I'm sure I saw Christopher James on the Main Line in 1990. 

My father and I met John Phillips at Longwood in July 1970, when we were cruising the BCN; he then had a cruiser Cirrus V. Does anyone know if he is still with us? I think he was a bit younger than my father, who would now be in his mid-90s, but some people are long-lived!

Thanks in advance.

Joseph

 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, Joseph said:

My father and I met John Phillips at Longwood in July 1970, when we were cruising the BCN; he then had a cruiser Cirrus V. Does anyone know if he is still with us? I think he was a bit younger than my father, who would now be in his mid-90s, but some people are long-lived!

And I had a crush on his daughter when we were both about 16 (although I don't think I ever plucked up courage to speak to her). I wonder what happened to her?

[Andy Hall]

My wife and I have now owned CJ for thirty years. I first saw it when we were on our first canal holiday aboard a Gordon's pleasure cruiser. It was at that time owned by Eric and was in the colours descibed earlier.What I could not work out was how it went through the water so quickly and without hardly a ripple. That is compared to the craft we were in which if I recall was so small you could do everything from the bed! Had no power and certainly did not steer in a straight line I was smitten. I now know CJ goes very well especially on the Thames, it also goes very fast in reverse and can be steered in deeper water as the swim starts half way down the boat, cheers me up each time I do it.

With regard to George Bunting under his ownership it was painted green and red.

Christopher James is still alive and well.We took him out for the day a couple of years ago. When he arrived I was most interested to see he had bought with him Les Allens original model of the boat in the form of an ink well, this had sat on the chairmans desk until closure.

With regard to construction its true the story (I think it was second plank down )it had one piece planks front to back thats on both sides. This could not be easily seen because of the ice plating.I'm told Les Allen did this for a bet.The main side planks are thirty two foot long,fourteen inches wide two inches thick so on first glance it looked like it's steel.The last big job I did with the help of my friends Martin and Peter was to replace the stern post and the two aft lower strakes.The stern post is nineteen inches long and that was from a tree one side of its heart no sap some bit of timber.

At the moment I am painting the exterior of the cabin.I have always painted it in tecoloid dark admiralty grey,as per the Chris Cleggs photographs of it outside the works in the sixties. This paint vairies quite a lot in shade of colour.

So CJ is still fit and well. I don't know how brother tug James Loader is, I think it's on the side at Braunston.

 

[X Alan W]

Was CJ Red/ Green all the time George Bunting was the owner? in my "brain fadey state " I seem to remember it being tied at Shebdon & being Grey/Black, that would have been around the mid 60's But I could be wrong. Old age is my excuse & I'm sticking to that, lovely lines a "Proper Boat." Still fitted with the AS3?

[black cap]

Good to hear she is still Ok., I have not set eyes on it since it left Lane Head, she replaced Monarch, which I purchased from Roland & Tom, Pat which was in use for a short while as well, but was too deep, plus the 30hp Bolinder was a pig to start, the remains of her are still at Lane Head in the reeds, she came off Mallabeare & Prince, who went bust piling the Trent & Mersey at Alrewas, she was a shortend up Severner, Two old lock gate balance beams were bolted in to combat vibration, but the bilge pump still had to be on all day !, anybody know if the Severner motor which served as a landing stage at Stourport, and was subsequently purchased by Leonard Leigh and had the top of the stem post cut off at Joe Worsey's to enable her to pass under the Cobbles belt at the Grove colliery, I cannot remember the name of this boat, Leonard Leigh sold it to a guy named Geof Heritage, from Shortheath ???

[Athy]

55 minutes ago, black cap said:

Good to hear she is still Ok., I have not set eyes on it since it left Lane Head, she replaced Monarch, which I purchased from Roland & Tom, Pat which was in use for a short while as well, but was too deep, plus the 30hp Bolinder was a pig to start, the remains of her are still at Lane Head in the reeds, she came off Mallabeare & Prince, who went bust piling the Trent & Mersey at Alrewas, she was a shortend up Severner, Two old lock gate balance beams were bolted in to combat vibration, but the bilge pump still had to be on all day !, anybody know if the Severner motor which served as a landing stage at Stourport, and was subsequently purchased by Leonard Leigh and had the top of the stem post cut off at Joe Worsey's to enable her to pass under the Cobbles belt at the Grove colliery, I cannot remember the name of this boat, Leonard Leigh sold it to a guy named Geof Heritage, from Shortheath ???

The detail which you give offers a glimpse into a rather secret and fascinating world of the wheelings and dealings of modified ex-working boats and their owners!

I see that you live three miles from me. Do you have a boat moored there? Forgive me if I have asked you this before.

[black cap]

Hi,

 Now live at Gedney Drove End, Nr. Sutton Bridge, used to be at Worlds End Farm, Silt Rd., Nordelph, 2 things you might know about, that little boat "Icaurus"  intrigues me, also one further along at Outwell, that hales from Shardlow and has not moved in the last Seven years !, whilst I was at  Nordelph the "Heather Bell" was sold to someone in the South, have not heard of it since, she was high and dry next to Doubledays farm, Outwell at the time

[Leo No2]

7 hours ago, black cap said:

Hi,

 Now live at Gedney Drove End, Nr. Sutton Bridge, used to be at Worlds End Farm, Silt Rd., Nordelph, 2 things you might know about, that little boat "Icaurus"  intrigues me, also one further along at Outwell, that hales from Shardlow and has not moved in the last Seven years !, whilst I was at  Nordelph the "Heather Bell" was sold to someone in the South, have not heard of it since, she was high and dry next to Doubledays farm, Outwell at the time

I know a little bit about Heather Bell as it was, when new, owned by my Uncle and Aunt (Christopher and Daphne March - brother and sister) and used by during the war (see - http://www.dodington.net/Daffy.html).  I know Heather Bell spent some time with Wyvern Shipping and was owned by someone (now in Australia I think) for building rocking horses.  It ended up in Norfolk (I think) and was shown on an ITV series being lifted.  After that (according to a contact I have) it went to a gentleman at Lewes in Sussex and now is (hopefully) being rebuilt in a barn in that area.  Again my understanding is that said gentleman did (at least a few years ago) attend the Braunston Historic weekends but all attempts by me to make contact ended with me talking to his wife and he did not, sadly, return my calls.  I hope we will see Heather Bell again before too long.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Leo No2

[Athy]

8 hours ago, black cap said:

Hi,

 Now live at Gedney Drove End, Nr. Sutton Bridge, used to be at Worlds End Farm, Silt Rd., Nordelph, 2 things you might know about, that little boat "Icaurus"  intrigues me, also one further along at Outwell, that hales from Shardlow and has not moved in the last Seven years !, whilst I was at  Nordelph the "Heather Bell" was sold to someone in the South, have not heard of it since, she was high and dry next to Doubledays farm, Outwell at the time

Icarus is indeed an interesting, and a sad, little tug. A few years ago it was sold to a young couple whom I spoke to and who told me of their plans to renovate it. From memory, it was then moored near us just above Marmont Priory Lock in Upwell. It then moved to Nordelph, perhaps 4 or 5 years ago. A local boater did make enquiries after that with a view to buying it, but I don't know if he even managed to trace the owners. So it just sits there looking rather unhappy.

   The "Shardlow" boat does ring a bell. Is it called 'Starling'? I don't pass that way very often these days.

[X Alan W]

Are you referring to the ex Cowburn & Cowper " Starling3 or are there more than one boat of that name in the ex Working boat ranks?

[black cap]

Not sure on Starling, but I will check later today, Icarus is still there, with regard to Heather Bell, my father used to meet her occasionally on the SU, when he wad on the coal run to Knighton and also loading at Anglesea and Walsall Wood, , circa 1940/43, also Charlie Ballinger and his 2 mules, among the stories he told to me as I was growing up, as it happens I was not a big enough target for Hitler, or just lucky may be

[Ray T]

4 hours ago, black cap said:

Not sure on Starling, but I will check later today, Icarus is still there, with regard to Heather Bell, my father used to meet her occasionally on the SU, when he wad on the coal run to Knighton and also loading at Anglesea and Walsall Wood, , circa 1940/43, also Charlie Ballinger and his 2 mules, among the stories he told to me as I was growing up, as it happens I was not a big enough target for Hitler, or just lucky may be

Slightly off topic

Edited September 4, 2017 by Ray T

[Athy]

6 hours ago, X Alan W said:

Are you referring to the ex Cowburn & Cowper " Starling3 or are there more than one boat of that name in the ex Working boat ranks?

No, this one isn't an ex-working boat.