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Britain Afloat Narrowboat Episode


Tim Lewis

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Actually thinking about it there used to be a narrowing at the Stop House in Braunston that would only pass a narrow boat, I think, so there was at least one thing that needed removing even before you get to Braunston turn.  Now was that removed at that time, or earlier?  I realise without looking them up I don't actually know answers to some of these questions!

 

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4 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

Just watched the narrow boat one.

Quite a few boats and faces associated with the forum of course.

Jim (Koukouvagia) with Owl which he has since sold, get a starring role.
Fulbourne, though I didn't spot Tim Lewis or David Mack, I think.

Stanton (Peter O - though I haven't seen him post for a while)
Birmingham (The forum's former AllyBSC can be seen playing her fiddle in the hold - another who no longer posts).
And of course Lawrence Hogg.
 

Fulbourne was being steered by Elaine Scott. I wasn't there and I don't think Tim was.

Fulbourne's appearance at Cowroast while they were filming Owl was entirely coincidental, but fitted nicely with the point about the new GUCCC fleet, and as Elaine was wearing a bonnet (as she usually does when boating), they couldn't let the opportunity go by.

Another forum member featured was Mark Pullinger.

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22 hours ago, Ray T said:

The canal running between Braunston and Napton -  Warwick Canal junction was originally The Oxford Canal. The Grand Junction Canal didn't come along 'till later.

OxfordpreGJ377.jpg

GUOpened376.jpg

I never knew the oxford changed that much...

Looking here you can see the old canal.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=52.2888&lon=-1.2171&layers=168&b=1

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20 minutes ago, Dave Payne said:

I never knew the oxford changed that much...

Looking here you can see the old canal.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=52.2888&lon=-1.2171&layers=168&b=1

It also shows that what is now the marina arm, originally the main line, was built on an embankment across the valley of the Bragborough Stream, and that the valley on the upstream side was subsequently flooded to form the reservoirs, now Braunston Marina.

So does the Bragborough Stream now run into the canal above the bottom lock or is it culverted under the marina?

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40 minutes ago, Dave Payne said:

I never knew the oxford changed that much...

Looking here you can see the old canal.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=52.2888&lon=-1.2171&layers=168&b=1

The above map also shows the Braunston Branch Canal which the GJCCo built mainly  to access its wharf without going on the Oxford Canal but it had an added bonus of upsetting the Oxford Canal Co.

Braunston Branch.JPG

Edited by Ray T
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19 minutes ago, David Mack said:

It also shows that what is now the marina arm, originally the main line, was built on an embankment across the valley of the Bragborough Stream, and that the valley on the upstream side was subsequently flooded to form the reservoirs, now Braunston Marina.

So does the Bragborough Stream now run into the canal above the bottom lock or is it culverted under the marina?

Indeed,  when heading from Braunston to Napton, where there are some relatively new permanent moorings just before the abutments for the "Pink Floyd" bridge, you could see the route of the old canal, particularly when it had been raining for a while and returned the old bed of the canal to water.

Now the bed of the old canal is hidden by trees and the new mooring.

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23 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Indeed,  when heading from Braunston to Napton, where there are some relatively new permanent moorings just before the abutments for the "Pink Floyd" bridge, you could see the route of the old canal, particularly when it had been raining for a while and returned the old bed of the canal to water.

Now the bed of the old canal is hidden by trees and the new mooring.

It's all in water there behimd the chopped willow screen, and used for fishing.

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The footbridge (105) at Shuckburgh always spanned the full width of the cut (as does the one near Wormleighton, and just happened to need replacing at the point the GU had a lot of government money to spend. The GUCC and the OCC had in depth talks and the Braunston to Wigrams section was nearly sold to the GUCC, but the OCC directors changed their mind at a very late stage. The GUCC board must have thought it was a done deal in 1933 though because if you look next to bridge 105 there is a GUC boundary marker in the field!

In the end they reached a toll reduction deal with the OCC in return for carrying out improvements but I think they were limited to dredging and piling. None of the bridges would have required widening as far as I know being built 14' wide at water level, and a number of the original bridges survived until much later (101, 104) or still survive today (100, 102). 107 and 108 were rebuilt in the 30's, but that was as part of road improvements and paid for by the local authority I think.

Money was spent on widening the Grand Junction as although it has wide locks, it was technically a narrow canal, albeit of more generous dimensions then the Oxford, so the money was spent mainly on dredging and piling rather than obvious widening, and that's where the problem lay. At about the point the gov't money ran out as they got to the outskirts of Birmingham the channel in many places wasn't really suitable for the introduction of wide beam boats on masse (CRT take note!) so the subsidiary carrying fleet built a large number of narrowboats as a stop gap.

I often wonder had WW2 not intervened whether we'd have seen the introduction of the planned 100ton barges, and the impact that would have had. There would have been pressure on the Oxford to widen Hillmorton to provide access to the Warwickshire coalfields (The Ashby was regarded by its builders as a wide canal believe or not), and maybe then there would have been a second round of modernisation in south as there was in the north-east in the 1960's - things would look a bit different now!

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2 hours ago, matty40s said:

I seem to think the stream filters into the back end of the marina....exiting via a sluice wier...although might be completely wrong....

From "At the Heart of the Waterways " - David Blagrove:

"Relations with the Oxford Canal were still somewhat strained in spite of the extra traffic that was generated. The water coming down from the summit was run into the Bragborough Stream by means of special paddles at Bottom Lock. This was to compensate millers lower down, but meant that no Grand Junction water went to the Oxford Canal apart from the last 6" of each lockfull. The two companies kept physically apart, the Oxford built an narrow gauging lock and toll house just beyond the junction and their staff lived round about; the Grand Junction concentrated their staff at bottom lock, where eventually a weigh dock was built, and a timber yard for maintenance work laid out after 1806." 

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2 hours ago, matty40s said:

I seem to think the stream filters into the back end of the marina....exiting via a sluice wier...although might be completely wrong....

Bragborough Stream runs into the Grand Junction in the pound just below the Nelson. The last bit of the GJC was built down the course of the stream and there is evidence to suggest that there was a water mill where bottom lock is now situated.

The drydocks in Braunston Marina discharge into a culvert that runs under the old line and into the stream bed - hence the boggy bit between the canal and the A45 between the stop house and Castle Bridge, and there must originally have been a weir somewhere around the marina site too, but since the 1840's and surplus water goes over the "new" weir at the start of the puddle banks and back into the stream, which runs into the River Leam.

Edited by Rose Narrowboats
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Anthony, do you know at what approximate date the Bragborough Stream was diverted from Bottom Lock to the pound below the Nelson as shown in the second coloured map I posted and described by you in post #26?

Also there were paddles at bottom lock to divert water into what became the reservoir to pump water back up to the top pound of the GJC. 

Edited by Ray T
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4 minutes ago, Ray T said:

From "At the Heart of the Waterways " - David Blagrove:

"Relations with the Oxford Canal were still somewhat strained in spite of the extra traffic that was generated. The water coming down from the summit was run into the Bragborough Stream by means of special paddles at Bottom Lock. This was to compensate millers lower down, but meant that no Grand Junction water went to the Oxford Canal apart from the last 6" of each lockfull. The two companies kept physically apart, the Oxford built an narrow gauging lock and toll house just beyond the junction and their staff lived round about; the Grand Junction concentrated their staff at bottom lock, where eventually a weigh dock was built, and a timber yard for maintenance work laid out after 1806." 

Not sure Mr Blagrove got that entirely right - no way was the GJC going to give any of its precious water from the summit reservoirs away. They may have had to pass a certain amount of water from the Bragborough stream back into the Bragborough stream but:

1)I can't see how they did this from bottom lock as the stream doesn't exist round there - the stream was in the bottom of the valley and they built the canal and the reservoirs over it (and I'm pretty sure the reservoirs were built at the same time as the canal GJC)

2) What water mills (other than a possible one at Bottom Lock) - there's nothing else along the course of the Bragborough Stream until it flows into the Leam, and there's nothing on the course of the Leam as far as Staverton Road (Mill Farm....) to suggest any other mills in the immediate vicinity.

3) The OCC had abstraction rights from any watercourse within a quite some distance of their cut enshrined into their act, so I'm pretty sure they'd already nicked the water from the Bragborough stream and it was they that the GJC had to keep happy!

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5 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Anthony, do you know at what approximate date the Bragborough Stream was diverted from Bottom Lock to the pound below the Nelson as shown in the second coloured map I posted and described by you in post #26?

Either I've missed something, or it always came in below the Nelson - the lie of the land wouldn't permit anything else.

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35 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Presumably the narrow lock is out of use, a (temporary?) fixed footbridge having been provided to access the new lock behind.

Probably one of the Hatton locks, before the narrow locks would have been turned into wier eventually.

8 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Another great picture.  Any idea which lock it is? 

Not sure but I think it's Koukavagia Jim steering..:lol:

..

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32 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Probably one of the Hatton locks, before the narrow locks would have been turned into wier eventually.

Not sure but I think it's Koukavagia Jim steering..:lol:

..

Not easy to tell if it is looking across to the towpath or the offside.  If it were Hatton then it would be the offside, but if it’s the towpath then given the curve of the canal it could be Calcutt top.

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