Found at Adeleide Dock

[Tonka]

"A couple of weeks ago we posted pictures of the British Transport Waterways sign that had been found in a Canal and River Trust maintenance building. There were - and still are, two mysteries. 1. Where was it displayed originally? We still do not know although we think it was almost certainly in London. 2. What is the word after "this"? It is a four-letter word, from the spacing, and the penultimate letter is probably S but we cannot really make this out.

The news is that the... Canal and River trust have kindly donated the sign to the London canal Museum and we have collected it. One of the pictures shows it with some packaging to protect it in the back of a hired van. It has been taken to a specialist carpenter and the pictures are of the sign in his workshop, some way from London. The carpenter specialises in conservation work and has a remit to replace the missing parts but to preserve and protect the original material to the maximum possible extent. We are spending some hundreds of pounds on the conservation and transport costs. The front will be cleaned to the extent that it can be cleaned without damage to the lettering or paint surface. - it is quite dirty.

The sign was at Adeleide Dock near Southall, where CRT have maintenance facilities. It was previously at a now-closed facility at Norwood. We don't know much about its past.

The intention is to hang the sign on the wall of the museum early in 2018. If anyone can add any more information to what we already know, please post it on our facebook page, or in a private message. We would love to know what that word was, find a photo, or to know more about the boat trips advertised and where they went."

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Edited November 9, 2017 by Tonka

[LadyG]

 

 

 

 

 

I;m sure forensics could work it out, with UV or lasers or some'at

and the year might help, there;s folks work these things out

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by LadyG

[Derek R.]

From this - Dock; Wharf; Point?

Messrs. Murrell may know.

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, Derek R. said:

From this - Dock; Wharf; Point?

Messrs. Murrell may know.

That was why I posted it here with the title hoping Tam & Di would see it

[BWM]

It looks like 'from this point', using the dot to denote point-possibly due to running short of space for the word. 

[RLWP]

Not much room for a long word. Elsewhere it has been suggested the word is 'pier'

I'm really surprised that there are no traces of the letters left at all

Richard

[Tam & Di]

DitchCrawler just alerted me to this.

BW took over Adelaide Dock when the guy we sold it to went bust, and they moved out of Norwood Top and sold that to developers. It's certainly not a thing we would have left so the comment that it came from Norwood is probably correct.

It is obviously pre-1971 as it is pre-decimalisation. The most obvious answer would be it was at Paddington, but I think the zoo buses ran more frequently than just on Sunday. I'm fairly sure they never ran anything from Norwood top itself. We ran a couple of trip boats from the Swan & Bottle at Uxbridge in the late 60s-70s and I seem to recall being told that BW ran one of their Water Ouzel type cut-down narrowboats from there at one point, but I may be mis-remembering that as Di doen't recall it.

Tim Wood might have some idea - he has a much better memory for such detail than I have; also he worked for BWB before he came in with us and had quite a bit to do with Norwood Top, and a good friend who moored his boat there. I've sent him a link to the thread but he is generally too busy to look as stuff like this.

I assume the London Museum people have actually asked C&RT? Their museums are pretty chaotic but there should be something in one of them which could cast a light on the sign.