Winter 2016 - Issue 44
The Winter 2016 issue includes the following features. You can purchase this magazine from our online Shop.
You can read the articles in this and all other NarrowBoat issues online by becoming a NarrowBoat subscriber.
Front Cover: On a pleasant autumn day in 1935, iron composite motor boat Elm and butty Ash are underway with full loads on the East Midlands waterways. The boats have spotless paintwork, having recently been delivered new from prolific boatbuilders W.J. Yarwood & Sons Ltd of Northwich.
Famous Fleets
Thomas Bantock & Co
Tom Foxon details the activities of a small canal-carrier that largely served the railway industry from 1852 with docks at Oldbury, Hawne, Withymoor and elsewhere. Chris M. Jones also explores the origins of the company’s iron-boats.
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Picturing the Past
Barging to Bishop's Stortford
Chris M. Jones looks at how the Stort Navigation once formed part of a vital cargo route between east Hertfordshire and London. The 14-mile navigation, opened in 1769, gave direct connection with the capital via the Lee Navigation.
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From the Archives
Spellweaver
Joseph Boughey looks at how the social history of the waterways can be explored on spellweaver-online.co.uk - a website dedicated to boating ancestors that has been set up by two enthusiasts with boating ancestors from Runcorn and the Thames.
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Historical Canal Maps
Kensington Canal
Richard Dean explores the Kensington Canal, one of London’s lost waterways. Image courtesy of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea
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Working the Waterways
Aspects of Wooden-Boat-Building
Chris M. Jones examines the small boatyards that produced and maintained large numbers of working craft.
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A Broader Outlook
Broader Outlook: A Long-Lost Country Wharf
Robert Hamilton traces the forgotten history of the Cambridge Arm of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal and its terminal basin. The arm fell into disuse 140 years ago, though the remains of it can still be uncovered.
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Art of the Waterways
Early Ron Hough Decoration
Another look through Patrick Rawlinson’s photo collection reveals some early decorative paintwork by the late Ron Hough. Hough was a legendary signwriter and waterways artist, and the images are colour painting from the 1950s.
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Time and Place
Sailing Through Sprotbrough
Chris M. Jones examines an early 20th-century photograph of a keel under sail on the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation. The photograph is dated 22nd November 1905 and shows the 1879-built craft Alboro heading downstream along the Spotbrough Cut near Doncaster.
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Traditional Techniques
Locking Through Stoke Top
We follow the progress of a pair of Blue Line Carriers Ltd’s boats negotiating Stoke Bruerne Top Lock during the latter days of commercial carrying in the 1960s.
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Working the Waterways
Halfway House
Chris M. Jones studies images of second-hand craft that were operated by L.B. Faulkner in their previous owners’ liveries until they could be repainted in his own colours.
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Time and Place
Shooting Old Belgrave Bridge
Chris M. Jones examines a World War I-era image showing cargo-carrying at Belgrave on the River Soar. The image captures a rare view of the location and some of the traffic that regularly plied the route between Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
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