Sat
3rd September:
Barbridge to Nantwich
Went
up to the boats after work and met member
Steve Hallsworth who is a 71 year old but
I don’t think he realized what hard work
working boats could be, even though I had
told him when he phoned me. Steve said he
was not willing to steer either of the boats
but was more than keen to lock wheel etc.
and so came on the motor with me, leaving
Dawn on the butty. Only a 1½ hour trip
to Nantwich and the sanitary station to empty
rubbish, empty toilets and fill water.
Sun
4th September: Nantwich to Goldstone
Wharf –
An 8.00am start saw us soon reaching the first
of many locks we would work today with flights
at Adderley, Audlem and Steve was most upset
that we did not stop at the Shroppie Fly for
a pint at dinnertime. As we headed off from
the top of Audlem Dawn made us all sandwiches
for our dinner. Steve had informed me that
he was a vegetarian when I phoned him in the
week, and it amused me when he gave Dawn a
tin of sardines to make him a sandwich. I
did not know a sardine was a vegetable! A
good days boating without mishaps even though
it was hard work with the pair and 29 locks
and I can only commend Steve for how hard
he worked all day. Steve said it will be some
time before he goes boating again. We tied
up at about 4.30pm and got washed up and went
to the pub for a nice meal and a drink.
Mon
5th September: Goldstone Wharf to Norbury
–
Another
8.00am start and a nice easy day today with
little to be done apart from admiring the
views. Arrived at Norbury at about 1.00pm
and Steve headed off along the towpath on
his folding bike towards Stafford to catch
a train home. Dawn and I stayed on the pair
for a couple more hours cleaning them down,
srubbing the ropework and polishing the brasses
until our lift home came.
Sat
10th September: Norbury Junction to
Gnosall –
Dawn
and I arrived at the boats at about 6.00pm
after she had finished work and we decided
to move the pair down to Gnosall for about
7.15pm only a short trip but there is a good
pub serving excellent food there called the
Boat.
Sun
11th September: Gnosall to Compton
–
Off
at 8.00am and a trouble free run down to Compton
and the ‘Odd Fellows Arms’ and another
excellent meal and surroundings. It’s
great to go boating with few locks and with
some one who knows what they are doing then
finish off with good food and drink!
Mon
12th September: Compton to Jackson’s
coal yard, Awbridge –
As
I am by myself loading the boats tomorrow,
I have arranged for Kim, my brother –
in – law to join me, though he has never
been on a boat at least it is an extra pair
of hands to help with the loading. We arrived
at John Jackson’s coal yard at Awebridge
by mid afternoon and tied up opposite next
to Saltaire. I went round to see John and
check arrangements for loading. With this
sorted out went back to the pair and cleaned
down and polished until Dawn’s Mom and
Dad brought Kim down to Jackson’s and
Dawn went home with them.
Tue
13th September: Loading coal at John
Jackson’s –
Spent
whole day from 9.00 am onwards loading the
boats with about 9 tonnes on the butty and
a similar amount on the motor. All I can say
is a huge thank you to Jenny and John Jackson
for keeping us going with offers of tea and
cobs and with both of them joining in and
helping us loading for without their help
we would still have been there now. Spent
the evening in the local pub washing down
the coal dust with John Jackson.
Wed
14th September: Jackson’s to Stourton
Junction –
We
were joined at approximately 8.10 am by trust
member John who was coming with us for two
days. The day started off badly with the discovery
that loading the boats the motors rudder had
sat down on something hard on the bottom and
lifed out of the cup, luckily John Jackson
came to the rescue with a long crow bar which
enabled us to lift the rudder and get it back
into the cup, delaying our start by an hour.
As Kim has never been on a boat I decided
to run the butty on cross straps although
slower, would hopefully be safer. I was hoping
that John was able to steer a butty but unfortunately
he informed me that he new nothing about butty
operation but that he was a competent motor
boat operator having been on a couple of coal
runs before and having a community boat handlers
certificate, a part share in a narrow boat
and that he had also operated a 70 foot trip
boat on the Calden canal. What a relief, after
a short distance I handed over the tiller
and stood on the backend of the motor with
him for a short while. It appeared that he
knew what he was doing although he had a nasty
tendency to cut all the turns on the inside.
Not being used to having a butty in tow he
also steered the motor like a single boat
and did not account for the effect on the
butty in bridgeholes and at one bridge he
managed to hit the bridge with the motors
chimney and send the butty swinging wide under
the bridge crushing both water cans on the
low arch. (The one of which I have had since
1964) His habit of swinging tight on the bends
and going round the inside was to play it’s
part with him getting us well and truly stemmed
up on a couple of bends including the last
sharp turn before the Devils Elbow just up
from Stourton Junction delaying us for nearly
two hours and managing to fetch the motors
rudder out of it’s cup again. We limped
our way down to Stourton Junction where ,
as I had had more than enough by then, we
breasted up and tied up for the night, even
though I had intended to get as far as Stourbridge
16 locks.
Thur
15th September: Stourton Junction to
Delph Lock No 3 –
We
were joined at 8.00am by trust member Steve
Morgan who was going to be with us just for
the day and who told me he could handle anything
I wanted him to do, thank heavens I thought.
Spent the first 30 minutes trying to get the
rudder post back in its cup on the motor,
as we were having no luck I decided to set
off. Steve said he would try and struggle
by and I told him to just let me know if it
was a problem. I told Steve and John to work
the motor and Kim could help me on the butty
especially as we had a total of 29 locks ahead
to bow haul the butty through today. Already
delayed by an hour the day was only going
to get worse. John and Steve got on the motor
and off we set, or at least the motor did
as John forgot to pick the butty up on his
way past and carried on down to the junction
without the butty! He said he had forgot it
and proceeded to stem the motor up just before
the junction. I cast off the butty and bowhauled
her round the junction and up the first two
of the Stourton four then waited in the middle
pound while Steve and John brought the motor
up. No problems on the Stourton four but the
long pound from Stourton top to Stourbridge
bottom was at least 6” down and we ground
our way to Stourbridge. As the motor entered
Moor Street bridge hole just past the Fenn’s
feeder it picked up a right bladefull and
with the engine belching black smoke John
carried on down the pound. I asked Kim to
take the butty tiller and I ran up the butty
top planks and onto the counter of the motor
to try and resolve the situation for I don't
think John had even noticed. Chucking the
engine into astern several times did nothing
for by now whatever it was was well and truly
wrapped on the blades. A little prodding in
mid channel with the cabin shaft and I could
feel something rather large wedged between
the blades and the back of the rudder. Lifting
one end with the shaft, I was able to lie
across the counter and eventually pull out
a full rubber lorry mud guard with metal fixing
brackets and all. A further 15 mins probing
with the cabin shaft saw a growing pile of
rags, plastic sheeting, rope and wire building
up on the butty bow deck. With this removed
I stayed on the motor and pushed on to Stourbridge
bottom lock only to find when we got there
all the pounds were down with some of them
nearly empty. At this point I handed the motor
back to Steve and John and proceeded to bowhaul
the butty with Kim. Luckily for us an old
boating friend of mine, who was also a retired
BW section foreman, who knew we were about,
was driving bridge to bridge with us in his
landrover keeping an eye out to help us. He
disappeared off up to Stourbridge and loosed
a little water down then went off to Delph
flight and saw the waterways staff who got
the weirs running then to Blowers Green to
run some water off the summit. Exhausted.
Soaked and cold and hungry we tied up just
before dark at Delph No 3. Steve and John
left at this point after gaining a lift back
to Stourton with my friend. Half an hour later
I noticed that the BW lock security key was
missing so telephoned Steve to see if John
had taken it with him by mistake when I heard
John in the background say Shit! My boating
pal who had helped us today and was giving
them a lift said he would run it back over
to us in the morning.
Fri
16th September: Delph Lock No 3 to
Windmill End –
At
8.00am the waterways staff turned up at the
old stables at Delph 3 and suggested we used
the ‘temporary dry dock’ between
locks one and two and helped us to re sit
the motors rudder in it’s cup, with this
done Kim and I had an almost trouble free
run up to the rally site apart from the butty
ellum jumping out of both pintles at one bridgehole.
Using the motors cabin shaft and a length
of thin rope we had it back on in a jiffy
and were off again arriving at the rally site
by the afternoon only to find they had no
water space allotted for us even though conformation
had been received months previous. The ‘harbour
master found us a suitable mooring along with
some of the other working boats attending
with us (Cepheus, Starling, Swallow, Stour,
Atlas, Leo, Manchurian, Otley, Moon and others
I can’t remember) At about 3.00pm Kim
went home and I set about preparing the pair
for the show. After securing the boats and
washing them down and polishing the brasses
I had a bite to eat then disappeared over
to the beer tent to sample just a few of the
‘real ales on offer all at £2 a
pint along with ex Thomas Clayton skipper
John Blunn off Cepheus and Dave off the Stour.
Slept like a log!
Sat
17th September: Windmill End Show –
Excellent
show with lots of new faces and interest in
the Trust and the boats. Dawn is coming back
tonight after she finishes work so there should
be a chance to go over the site to see what’s
about. Finished off the day with another excellent
evening in the beer tent with a live band.
When Dawn arrived she informed me that Peter
Shepherd had phoned and the schedule has been
changed and that he is not picking up the
boats until next week now which could mean
trouble leaving the boats unattended here.
Sunday
18th September: Windmill End Show -
Showed
a few people over the boats and talked to
many more during the morning. At dinner time
we locked the boats and went over to the show
ground to have a look. Mannaged to buy a replacement
can for the motor off one stall and being
as we bought two cans I managed to knock him
down to £85 each instead of £95.
As Peter Shepherd was not picking the boats
up until next week and as Windmill End is
not a safe place to leave the boats, I decided
that they would need to be moved. Spoke to
a guy from the Black Country Living Museum
and persuaded him to let me enter the boats
for the Working Boat show at the BCLM next
week end. Clive Stevens, the retired boater
who had helped us yesterday, joined Dawn and
I to help us round to Tipton. With him on
the butty with Dawn I dropped her on a 50
foot snubber. We left Windmill End and entered
Netherton Tunnel at about 3.00pm, after fixing
the headlight on the motor. Netherton tunnel
is still deep and clear so we made excellent
time with the butty on a long line and with
the Motors Lister going full chatt. Pudding
Green Junction at the end of the tunnel branch
is now filled up with soft mud which eagerly
sucked the motor on to it as I started the
turn, needless to say I just didn’t quite
make the turn giving the towpath guard rail
a gentle nudge. I turned round to see Clive
grinning all over his face! As we approached
Factory locks we were met by Nick Hill, who
used to run the Jaguar and has been boating
since the late 1950’s who had also heard
we were on the move and he was waiting to
help us up through Factory three. I was so
thankful when we made a text book turn around
the 90 degree turn at Factory with Nick Hill
watching. As we made the turn by ‘The
Fountain’ we picked up another blade
full which refused to come off so we crawled
round to the narrows at the entrance of the
Dudley Tunnel pound and removed yards of plastic
banding strip along with the normal plastic
sheet/bags. With that cured, we went up the
tunnel pound and moored the pair right by
the lift bridge at the entrance of the museum
arm where they will be secure. Dawn and I
are going back up on Friday to show the boats
at this event, then Peter Shepherd is taking
them off down to Thrupp on Monday. I am looking
forward to the show next week as they are
expecting at least 20 working boats and tugs
on top of their own exhibits of Stour, President
& Kildare. Already some visiting boats
are there including Starling, Swallow, Atlas
& Leo, Bellatrix, Lynx, Anne and the tugs
Sandbach and Nansen. To enhance the weekend
the BCLM have given boat crews concession
prices at the fish and chip shop at £1.00
for fish and chips cooked in beef dripping
and the ‘Bottle & Glass the on site
pub will be open in the evening after the
museum has closed with beer at £1.50
a pint, can’t wait.
Blossom.
