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A transformation is taking place
at Taylors Yard in Chester. The old Shropshire Union Canal Company
dockyard has at last been let to a new tenant by British Waterways and a
long overdue restoration and reclamation has begun. Good news then?
Well, yes, but it is a process that is viewed with a tangle of feelings
by some of us that have been campaigning for the preservation of this
very historic canal boatyard for years and years. More this way» |
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May 2011 |
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There are eighteen separate
pieces of art sited around Ellesmere at present with more to come later
this year. They all therefore impact on the canal environment in some
way and therefore have relevance to those of us whose prime concern is
with the historic canal heritage. Are they a good thing or a bad thing
-- do they help or hinder understanding or appreciation? Hmm, big
questions. More this way» |
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March 2011 |
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Tony wonders if canal
restoration has worked. "In the sense that the water channel for
pleasure boat use has been preserved and extended then canal restoration
has been a great success. However the preservation of the
traditions, knowledge and skills of the old reality is another matter,
the things that made canals special in the first place.". More this way» |
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November 2010 |
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This trip was a highspot for
Saturn in two separate ways. It was the first she has made to Llangollen
since she was a hotel boat butty behind Jupiter back in 1987 which
seemed significant to us. But it also gave us a wonderful opportunity to
try for some serious publicity by attempting to take her right up to
Llantisilio. More this way» |
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August 2010 |
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The
start of the centenary year of L.T.C.Rolt’s birth would seem to be an
opportune moment to celebrate -- re-evaluate perhaps, certainly to
reconsider his influence and impact on the whole waterways scene today.
Tony considers why 'Narrow Boat' was so popular and influential,
and whether Tom Rolt would be satisfied by the leisure industry that he
helped to create.
More this way» |
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January 2010 |
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Tony discovers photographs of
Welsh Frankton Junction in the 1920's and considers just how much can
change in a lifetime, from busy transport artery, through rural
dereliction, to the most popular waterway holiday route in the country. L.T.C. Rolt discovered canals right here in the 1920's, writing the book
that lead to the rebirth and restoration of canals for leisure. More this way» |
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November 2009 |
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Canals have inspired many flavours of
art, from the decorative paintwork of the boats to fine art landscapes,
carefully crafted drawings and illustrations, and the working
architecture of bridges, bollards, paddle gear and iron guards grooved
by decades of towropes. But what about the sculptural stuff that
increasingly litters the towpath, does it actually add anything? More this way» |
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August 2009 |
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Waterways Recovery Group working on
pushing the Montgomery Canal Restoration further south came upon the
remains of an old boat partly embedded in a tree trunk, a boat which may
have had an unhappy history involving a headless boatman decapitated on
a Shropshire guillotine! Tony investigates.
More this way» |
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June/July 2009 |
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I am sorry to be so smug but I feel I
have to tell you how well our latest bit of horseboating went. We had
two day’s worth, bringing the restored Shropshire Union boat Saturn from
her winter moorings on the Montgomery Canal up to Ellesmere, ready to
start her season’s commitments.
More this way» |
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April 2009 |
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Let’s try and be optimistic, let’s
look for the silver lining in this cloud of recession. In a period of
non-development the gloomy can take comfort that whilst things may not
be actually getting better at least some of our historic survivals are
not getting developed out of existence.
More this way» |
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March 2009 |
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In
1999 a volunteer work party carefully cleaned and recorded the contents
of a Shropshire Union fly boat stable, due for conversion to a house,
taking photographs and notes before they dismantled as much as possible
for removal to safe storage at Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. Now it is all
headed for the bonfire.
More this way» |
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February 2009 |
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It still surprises me that the
extraordinary decorative paintwork tradition of the Leeds and Liverpool
canal is not better known, not lauded or loved more profoundly and
proudly.
More this way» |
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January 2009 |
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A
group of volunteers have been surveying some of the buildings at
Taylor's Yard, the old Shropshire Union boatyard in Chester, prior to
forthcoming repairs, cleaning them out and recording any surviving items
of boatyard history.
More this way» |
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November/December 2008 |
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In this hard financial autumn our old
historic canal boats have had a very hard month indeed. Their natural
rot has been accelerated by the Waterways Trust museums at Ellesmere
Port and Gloucester shutting down to part –time opening, operating with
even fewer staff than they have been struggling with anyway.
More this way» |
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October 2008 |
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In principle I am all for the idea –
public works of art that enhance the landscape and expand the viewer’s
cultural experience – great! It’s just the end results that are often so
disappointing. Why?
More this way» |
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September 2008 |
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From one canal extreme to another this
time, from dusty nineteenth century boatyard to sparkly twenty first
century boat rally (- from the sublime to the ridiculous some might
say).
More this way» |
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August 2008 |
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Volunteering.
Why do we do it? We undoubtedly get some
fun and satisfaction along the way but underlying these personal
benefits is the understanding that if we didn’t do it, it probably
wouldn’t get done, and the world would be a poorer place.
More this way» |
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June 2008 |
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By a happy coincidence of interests I
was recently asked to paint a pub sign. I have always been interested in
the subject and find it a deeply satisfying tradition if strangely odd
and strangely British, a leftover from the days before street numbering.
More this way» |
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May 2008 |
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The job was to tow the restored
Shropshire Union narrow boat Saturn from her
winter mooring to the historic boat gathering at
Ellesmere Port for Easter, and then return home to
Ellesmere proper with the Canal Junction tug Greenman.
More this way» |
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April 2008 |
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Tony remembers Joe Skinner ... "a
symbol of something so special about the canals that I think we could do
with being reminded yet again of this iconic man and the vanished world
that he came to represent. " More
this way» |
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March 2008 |
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A painting of a canalside cottage on
the Llangollen Canal was painted in 1888 but the cottage is still there
a hundred and twenty years later and is still virtually the same –
un-modernised, un-extended, and from a historical viewpoint almost
unspoilt. More
this way» |
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February 2008 |
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With the leaves off the trees
and the ground vegetation at its lowest it is far easier to see the bare
bones of canal engineering in the winter, the artificiality of its
structure which is disguised in the summer by two hundred years worth of
vegetation. More
this way» |
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January 2008 |
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Tony has been
revisiting his 'adolescent
ambition to be a painter of the old fashioned sort, an artist painting
landscapes and portraits in oils and watercolours' and was led to
wonder why canal scenes make such good landscape subjects. Surely not
just coincidence?
More
this way» |
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December 2007 |
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The isolated Welshpool section of the Montgomery Canal
sees very little boat traffic. Although restoration is moving south from
Maesbury it will be a while before this beautiful stretch is on every
hire boater's route like the nearby Llangollen. Tony enjoys it now!
More this way» |
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November 2007 |
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“Right” said Ian “I’ve booked the sailing barge for the
end of August. The only unexpected problem is that we will have to take
part in the River Colne Thames barge race over that weekend, is that O.K?”
More this way» |
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October 2007 |
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Off the Mainline Archive
We did consider sorting these previous 'Off the
Mainlines' into categories but it just can't be done! So we've
left them all here for you to dip into. There is a lot of
stimulating reading and many fascinating photographs buried here,
enjoy! |
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I
have been given an old cabin door - a very tatty cabin door it has to be
said, but one that pleases my soul more than it has any logical right
to. |
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A
visit to Venice and a trip along the central waterway is 'a
startling eyeopener to an English canal enthusiast.' |
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A
new magazine and a new exhibition could be signs of Springtime
regeneration on the canal heritage front, but will they be
successful? |
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Why
canal castles? Why are they painted on canal boats and why is it
so important that they should be painted on boats anyway? |
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A
canal without boats and boats out of water – is this a good way
to preserve and interpret waterway history? Tony suggest it could
be. |
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Tony
doesn't really want to reveal the 'quite extraordinary
qualities of an old Shropshire Union
waterways maintenance yard'. |
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Maybe
the best way to preserve an old wooden
barge is to pull it up on land, cut a hole in the hull side and
let visitors wander through it; better than letting boats rot in the
water for shortage of funds. |
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A
unique Arun barge sunk at Ellesmere
Port in Cheshire is probably doomed because the Museum has no money
to restore her. |
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Tony
rediscovers a forgotten pair of narrowboats
which still have original decoration done by Harry Bentley, a
potteries boatman, and were built by an ex-boatman called John
Preston who worked as a mechanic at the Anderton Company dock. |
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The
Shropshire Flyboat restoration is nearing completion and we are
about to present Saturn to a twenty-first century public as a
statement about how we think things were a hundred years ago. Have
we got it right, do we even know what colour she should be? |
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The
Montgomery Canal continues to amaze me. Yes, I realise that I am
becoming uncomfortably obsessive about it, but its survival,
conservation and future development potential just seems to sum up
so many philosophical canal problems all in one place. |
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The
heritage and skills invested in a friendly
footpath gate by a bridge on the Montgomery Canal lead Tony to
consider whether we should allow that much craftsman’s time to be
re-invested in a simple gate again. |
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Canal
restorations. 'We now know what it will be like, what British
Waterways would like it to be like, and what the commercial mind of
the hire boat and pleasure boat business will say it has to be like
to get their commercial return.' |
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Houseboats
continued - 'If you want to live on the canal without spoiling
it then be prepared to live within the canal conventions.' Are
houseboats a blot on the canal landscape? |
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Houseboats.
Now, be honest, what is your instant reaction to the word? Delight?
Distaste? My own subliminal response is certainly a rosy glow of
romance... |
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Canal life 'was a
historical traditional way of life
being lived on a network of secret water roads, still doing real
work'. Tony ponders what has lost to the 'new commercialism'. |
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So
when was this written? “Canal
boats and canals we suspect are going fast out of use, and will very
shortly give place entirely to railways... ".
You might be surprised! |
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Where can you go
on our increasingly busy canal system and get anything like an
accurate flavour of a piece of canal in proper working trim.. ?
Tony has a suggestion! |
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Tony
returns from his Summer travels to the South West with tales of
horse boat trips on the Grand Western and the last surviving Bude
tub boat, back in the mud after 34 years! |
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Tony ponders the New Waterway Art - '... add-on
art that seems to be being blue-tacked on to the canals in an
attempt to broaden their appeal and make them more like urban parks' |
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‘Colours
of the Cut’ appeared in the inside back cover of the monthly
magazine Waterways World from 1987 to 1994. Now there's a new book
on its way. |
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We
all like the ‘picturesque’, but do we all agree what it means?
Tony reflects that part of the problem is that it is so dependant on
the time it is written, or is written about. |
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Tony decides that the time has come to admit to the world that
he 'harbours a guilty secret gnawing away at my vitals'.
Details this way! |
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Does a breakers yard
beckon for the veteran twin screw steam
tug Daniel Adamson, commissioned originally for the
Shropshire Union Canal Company in 1903? |
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Traditional
canal skills are disappearing. What were the day-to-day craft
skills; how do you sheet up a narrowboat, run a canal stable, rig a
Joey boat mast ...? Sight Seen Partnerships are trying to video the
past before even the memories have faded away. |
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The act of
digging out preserved evidence means
that nobody else will ever be able to interpret it afresh, any time
in the future. We’ve only got one chance to get it right. Oh Lord,
what a responsibility! |
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Our waterways
have lost a great champion recently with the death of
Edward Paget-Tomlinson, author, artist,
museum curator and painstaking historian - and that’s just the
start! |
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Just
what gets us hooked on boats and canals?
For Tony it was a sandbarge in Shoreham harbour, 'Now this
did have it all for me - boats, romance and mystery, like something
out of a Famous Five book.' |
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How quickly the
everyday needs of a working canal become obscure ancient history in
an age of leisure and pleasure boats. Who
knows what
is an icebreaker? |
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Horseboating
today takes three people person to make sure other towpath users
don't get hurt. How far should we go to
make canals risk free? |
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Saturn, the
last Shropshire Union flyboat, no
longer exists except as a pile of old knees, a set of
measurements and a very big pile of firewood. Is this
restoration? |
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The
Waterways Trust has now hit financial trouble. Costs must be cut
and money saved, and the first target for cost cutting has been the
waterways museums of course. Can we trust the Trust? |
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Strapping posts, do we need them on
modern canals? And if British Waterways started putting them
back, would we know what to do with them, and would they know
where to put them? |
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The
traditional art of the boats, that special
unique culture of the boatpeople, was quite suddenly stolen by the
holiday boat business and became a staple ingredient of a souvenir
industry. |
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Telford spanned
valleys and housed lock-keepers with it, Sister Mary delivered
babies with it, Ken Keay caulked coal boats with it...
What is it? Tony poses a Spring Riddle! |
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A sticky
quagmire became a swamp, a quarry & a
mudpool in turns but after a couple of hours heavy digging by a
relay of strong persistent men the remains of a beautiful boat
emerge. |
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But what is it
about boats that makes them so eternally
fascinating, whether big barges, wooden narrow boats,
plastic dinghies or tiny toy boats? |
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Recreating the
traditional sounds of the canals; not the slow thump of diesel
engines but the click of horses hooves, the creak of harness and the
crack of the smacking whip. |
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A soon to be
restored wooden narrowboat travels a
hopefully soon to be restored waterway, promising signs that old
attitudes are gone. |
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Tony goes
film making in Birmingham this month,
focussing on the precise techniques of sidecloths, topcloths, tippet and topstrings! |
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Decorating a
working boat with 'roses & castles' recently, Tony found that few
modern canal users even noticed, maybe they don't want canal
history. |
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Heritage.
We can’t pick and choose our own heritage, but we do alter the
future by deciding what there will be for our future heirs to
inherit. |
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Hunting for money to
preserve historic wooden boats, and heaving
tons of oak into the boatyard where in 3 years it will be ready to
use. |
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We need to keep a representative
number of historic horse-boats in existence
and mobile because they provide the best possible simple ‘heritage’
check! |
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There’s a
maintenance backlog but must it take 3 months winter closure
to do what used to be done in one summer week, especially when it
restricts trade? |
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When the first seriously hard frosts
of the winter hit the River Weaver in Cheshire
it
revealed the dignified remnants of many old working boat wrecks. |
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How did Symbol, the last surviving wooden narrow boat to be built in
Wales come to such a state of dangerous collapse that it had to be
destroyed? |
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The September
Gathering of Boats at the Black Country Museum is a
major events for traditional narrowboats and boaters. Tony
Lewery reports back. |
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A fully restored
wooden
narrowboat was launched in Runcorn while the
unique wooden boatyard was being demolished around it. |
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