Narrow Boat Albert: IWA

Showing posts with label IWA. Show all posts

BCN Bi-Centenary 1969

You may wonder why, after months of absence from the canal "blog-sphere" I am writing about an event over 50 years ago.

Well firstly I will try and explain my absence. After Edward Winter's untimely passing I felt I just couldn't get back to reporting on my mixture of canal and river journeys, old waterway's books and memorabilia. My heart just wasn't in it and to some extent I always though of Edward as being "My Reader" - I would write with him in mind.

Also my world of science, I am an editor of an international engineering science journal, just got busier and busier with researchers busy writing manuscripts during the Covid restrictions. I therefore set aside Albert's Blog "until the spirit moved me".

Well a couple of weeks ago my next door neighbour who knows my passion for canals donated some books and pamphlets that had been his fathers - mostly about the Llangollen Canal. He was de-cluttering prior decoration. As part of the handy package I obtained came a wonderful pamphlet for the 1969 IWA National Rally that was held on the Birmingham Canal Navigations to mark their 200th anniversary. The 53-page pamphlet is fascinating and the copy pristine. It has great articles that would not be out of place in Narrow Boat. In particular, the article on BCN history by J.L. Langford is really good.

But why did that particularly move me to post about this now. Well the next image is the big clue!

Yes, HRH Prince Philip who was patron of so many organisations was also Patron to the 1969 Rally of Boats in Birmingham. His interests in boats and sailing was well-known but I hadn't realised that he had a connection with the canals. At this time "Mr Birmingham" - Frank Price was Chairman of British Waterways and I just wonder if he was the one who persuaded the Duke of Edinburgh to oblige. The IWA were always trying to be well connected and I am sure they were pleased with the patronage. I can just imagine Peter Scott or John Betjeman asking him. However, I can't find a record of Philip actually visiting the rally. It was also a critical time for canals and the birth of leisure boating. Encouraging public interest in what were seen by some as dirty and dangerous waterways was vital for their survival.

As always with these booklets from bygone ages the adverts are revealing.

Braunston Marina full of GRP Cruisers

Early Steel narrowboats - note the prices

We will be out boating soon and Albert has had an updated galley. I will have to get back to more regular posting and perhaps even finish reporting on last year's cruising.

IWA Rally Milton Keynes 1985

I rarely discover collectible waterways books on eBay, probably because the ones that I wish to own are now more rare. That is probably why leaflets and brochures related to boating sometimes catch my eye. The other day I saw a souvenir brochure from the 1985 IWA National Rally for sale. The rally was held during the August Bank Holiday on the Grand Union close to the centre of Milton Keynes.

IWA National Rally Brochure 1985 Milton Keynes

Location of the photograph is Waterside, Peartree Bridge, Milton Keynes

Living close to Milton Keynes, and remembering that we visited the rally, I couldn't resist purchasing it. In those days we weren't boat owners but we were interested in canals; living close to the Grand Union we had visited Stoke Bruerne a few times. I must admit I cannot remember much about our visit to the Rally, but I did remember the approximate location of the site and viewing the boats moored up. We were certainly not intending to buy either a holiday or a boat, they were both well out of our league, but we did have a good day out.

The National Rally at Milton Keynes was held at a time when the New City was expanding rapidly and Blisworth Tunnnel had just been reopened after it rebuilding. There are many references in the brochure to the relining of the tunnel. It was therefore a time of modest optimism. The brochure includes an interesting section reflecting on the famous/infamous first IWA Rally at Market Harborough in 1950 where divisions in the newly-formed IWA came to the fore.

Lord Lucan and John Knill judging the best decorated working boat at Market Harborough in 1950

Commercial input into the 1985 rally was significant. The trade show directory featured eighteen boat builders including well known names such as Peter Nicholls, Calcutt, Colecraft and Springer. Of particular interest to me is the advert from K E Jones Steam Cruising. Keith displayed his steam boat Firefly and around nine years later he was responsible for the installation of the Ruston engine in Albert.

South Midland Water Transport, were based locally, obviously brought their wooden working boat Hesperus to the rally. It was formerly owned by Lord Lucan (father of the infamous holder of the title), who took her to the 1950 rally (above). For many years we saw her around our local waters - slowly deteriorating.

The site of the 1985 rally is also interesting. It is just north of Bridge 82 and near Campbell Park. This is close to the designated connection to the proposed Bedford to Milton Keynes Link and just north of the new marina that is being constructed close to the city centre. The maps below are from the rally brochure and from Google where I outline in red the location. Today the rally site is mostly occupied by the Gulliver's Land attraction.

Rally Site Location as shown in the brochure (1985) and Google Streetview (2019)

The "Events Bowl" shown on the right of the brochure site plan is still a noticeable feature - you can see it well on Google Street View. The circular area near Willen Lake hosted a Barron Knights concert on the Saturday evening. We didn't attend, so I can't report on how well attended it was, but it was a modest venue. This is unlike the National Bowl in Milton Keynes where earlier in the year U2 performed in front of 50,000 and they were supported by REM, Billy Bragg and The Ramones (what a line-up!).

Whilst discussing numbers, the attendance at the rally was nearly 30,000 people with 514 boats present.

I leave you with this thought; next year it will be 70 years since the first rally at Market Harborough and the 35 years since the Milton Keynes Rally. I think the changes in such boat gatherings in the last thirty-five years have probably been greater that in the first.

Keep Left?

I had taken for granted that, except for special circumstances, boats PASS ON THE RIGHT (i.e. port-to-port). This accords with the international rules of navigation and all current and recent guidance confirms this (e.g. from BW, CRT, IWA, EA) .

I had also assumed that this guidance was both universal and historic. However, I recently obtained a 1950 1st edition of the Inland Waterways of Great Britain & Northern Ireland by Lewis A Edwards and a section in the book led me to consider that some navigations required boats to PASS ON THE LEFT, perhaps as recently the nineteen-forties.

In the appendix to the book there is a note on Navigation Hints for Pleasure Craft. The note provides interesting insights into the days when our canals and rivers were first and foremost commercial highways. It provides lots of helpful advice on how to ensure working boats are not impeded; one can easily imagine the frustration of working boatmen with amateur crews, particularly at locks.

Concerning boats passing, the advice is clear:

"On our rivers, and over most of the canal system, ... the passing rule is KEEP RIGHT; but there are exceptions to this such as the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, where the rule is KEEP LEFT"

The writer goes on to advise pleasure craft crews to ask boatmen. This came as a surprise to me since I had not read anything similar.

The book is edited by Lewis Edwards who is credited as being Honorary Secretary of the Inland Waterways Association. It largely consists of factual material but the note about navigation was written by none other than Tom Rolt. The advice originally came from a leaflet originally published by the IWA. Tom Rolt was Honorary Secretary of the IWA until 1950, the year of the book's publication and Lewis Edwards was in the process of taking over his role. Later in the year considerable changes occurred in the IWA with "Civil War" breaking out. Rolt and others resigned.

Some questions arise from the note:

Is there other evidence for this navigation advice?

Does the particular reference to the W & B come because Rolt was moored up for several years at Tardibigge?

Did canal amalgamation, and ultimately nationalisation, bring uniformity or were there other reasons?

When did uniformity occur?

I can recommend the book as offering insights into an interesting period of waterways history; on the cusp between commercial and leisure boating. It is easier to navigate (pun intentional) through its chapters to find a particular waterway than Bradshaw, which annoyingly groups navigations by their ownership (mostly railway companies) and not by geography or given name. My copy was not expensive, obtained via eBay and is in good condition.

Toasting the Queen - Inland Waterways Bulletin 66

I recently bought a copy of the Inland Waterways Bulletin from 1962. I have got a couple of other early issues and find them to be fascinating insight into waterway's history; in particular how the we managed to move from a canal and river transport system being part of a nationalised industry, to today's charity run heritage organisation working in the leisure age.

In 1962 things looked dire for the waterways. The Conservative Government, with Ernest Marples as Minister of Transport, had just published a Transport Bill. Robert Aickman, as founder and Vice President of IWA, with characteristic forthrightness titled his leading article in the bulletin "DEFEAT". He bemoaned the fact that the Transport Bill "takes the principle of profit at all costs as far as it will go". An new Inland Waterways Authority (note the likely initials) was to be established with the power to "make charges for their services and facilities ..... subject to such terms and conditions as they think fit". Aickman considered it to be "a charter to close the entire system". He reports in the leading article how the IWA had tried unsuccessfully to get the concept of "reasonable charges" incorporated in the Bill and he alludes to what government might have in store for the railways. I was wondering where this argument might be leading when I noticed over the page the infamous name Dr. Beeching and then the penny dropped! Aickman goes on to describe the Conservative fantasy of making every mile of transport "pay", pouring scorn on their ideas and promising that the Conservatives will have lost the support of those struggling to keep the waterways open. Aickman didn't hold back!

Problems on the Marple Aqueduct, 1962

Although the IWA at that time was very much involved with political lobbying at the highest level, and there is an extensive section reporting on canal restoration, the letters section of the Bulletin is entirely taken up with discussing protocol and manners at the Associations dinners. It appears that steps had be taken to "democratize" the Annual Dinner and that in a earlier bulletin this had been criticised. The argument appeared to revolve around making a separate charge for dinner and for the wine so as to allow those that could not afford wine to opt out but still attend. The criticism appeared to be that you could not make a toast (particularly to the Monarch) without using wine! In Bulletin 66 several members with military backgrounds came to the defence of the Association by pointing out that toasting royalty with water frequently occurred in the Forces. By today's standards the argument appears somewhat arcane, if not a little silly. One of the correspondents, whilst supporting the argument for not including wine, nevertheless called on the Association to maintain standards and not reduce the Annual Dinner to "the level of a popular cafe". He pointed out that the formal Annual Dinner was in fact a lobbying opportunity which "can help the cause in Parliament". I think given the political situation at the time he may have had a point, but what a difference to the IWA Branch dinners of today.

Leek Basin, Caldon Canal, 1962

(following abandonment in 1944)

There are some interesting reports in the Bulletin from around the country on the progress (or lack of it) in restoring canals such as the Ashton, Chesterfield and Caldon. A interesting short piece on drownings also caught my eye. It appears that those wishing for "disused" canals to be filled-in often quoted drownings as a reason: the Bulletin reports that the Ashton had been called a "Killer Canal" by the press. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents had reported that in 1960 there were 25 drownings on canals, between 20 and 30 on the Thames and 43 in public baths. A correspondent pointed out that most canal drownings were in disused navigations and that if the argument was about public safety then why not fill in the River Thames and close all public baths!

Sappers restoring the Stratford Canal

Friends of the Canal Museum Boat Gathering, July 2007

We went up to Stoke Bruerne on 16th July to attend the boat gathering. Took our neighbours the Gibbards with us to Stoke. Their kids particularly enjoyed working the locks. Both Roisin & Sean managed to steer Albert. Sean even managed a couple of bridge holes.

The weekend was a good time for Steve to try out his new camera. He has had an Minolta SLR for some time, but for the last few years he has usually used a Canon Digital A40 Powershot. He has now moved to digital SLR with a Canon EOS 400D. Under poor lighting conditions it was certainly faster than the compact digital and the quality of the images is far better.

Helping with the bottom lock on the Stoke Bruerne flight

Lots of working boats at the gathering. Obviously not as many working boats as for the 2005 Blisworth Tunnel Bicentenary but this event appears to be a useful addition to the "working boat calender" as it comes a week before the Braunston gathering.

Sqeezebox players with a dog that has heard it all before

We were invited aboard Kingfisher, the former Grand Junction Canal Company inspection launch, by Alan Paine. Although Kingfisher moors near us at Yardley Gobion it was the first time we had been able go on board. It's such a unique boat with so many of its original features preserved. The canal company china is still in use. I understand that Alan has also got a load of the old logbooks that record the director's trips. They ran to a strict timetable.

Kingfisher on its return journey to Yardley Gobion

Despite the weather on Saturday there was a resonable crowd, but Sunday with better weather Stoke was packed. Among the different attractions this year were Denis Fellows, the blacksmith who works from a narrowboat and radio controlled narrow boats.

Managed to get Denis to make us a keb (weed rake). Steve only recently discovered what they are called after coveting one for some time. It would have been handy last year when we went down the Nene where to the floating weeds at the locks in Wellingborough were particularly difficuly. The keb was made from an old fork that we supplied. Chatting to Denis he told us he intends giving up blacksmith's work later in the year. He will be missed if he does. He livens up the canal wherever he stops.

Denis Fellows making us a keb

We managed to go aboard Gifford. Great painting by both Tony Lewery & Phil Speight. It was interesting to see the elegent lines of the hull inside the back cabin.

NB Gifford's stunning paintwork

NB Gifford's beautifully grained back cabin

Colin Dundas, who added some of the signwriting and decoration to Albert and whose work we admire, was doing demonstrations on the Saturday. With better weather on the Sunday, Colin was at work on NB Towcester outside the Museum. He got quite an audience.

Signwriter Colin Dundas at work on Towcester

We moored Albert in the "long pound". On Sunday evening, because we wanted to turn Albert around, we took her up through the top lock and turned her around at the winding hole just south of the tunnel. On the way we were joined by Mike Partridge on NB Jubilee. He appeared to be taking Trevor Maggs and others for a trip. Great to pass through locks with an historic working boat and a full crew to help. Rapid locking! Above the top lock the canal was very crowded with boats. Stoke Bruerne looked like it did during the Defra blockade last November. Almost bank to bank working boats.

NBs Jubilee and Albert sharing Stoke Top Lock

Returned to Kingfisher Marina on the Monday morning with heavy showers and lots of water coming down the flight. There was so much water it was very difficult to get out of the second lock. We contemplated calling BW to help.

Cascades of water, Stoke Bruerne Bottom Lock

Blisworth Tunnel Bicentenary

On June 17-19th we took Albert up to Stoke Bruerne to join in the celebrations. Great event well organised by the Northampton IWA. It was blessed by good weather and large crowds. There were over 50 working boats on show and they were joined by over 160 private boats. A weekend to remember, especially as we invited our friends from Norfolk and Yorkshire to join us for a Watling Way First School Staff Reunion.