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Post by on Sept 22, 2024 7:36:18 GMT
Wet night at the country estate.
No one died and its still mild but autumn is definitely kicking in now.
Next week will be time to beef up the mooring lines a bit and get some winter chains on.
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Post by Our Glorious Leader on Sept 22, 2024 8:51:15 GMT
It rained quite a lot last night.
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Post by Telemachus on Sept 22, 2024 9:03:43 GMT
Pissing down here with thunder and lightning, the weather app say 17mm of rain for the day. For tomorrow it says 34mm. Time to build an ark! At least the pounds at Atherstone should be refilled for our return journey.
Yesterday was wall to wall sunshine in Scotland, not quite so good today but no rain. We definitely went the wrong way.
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Post by Tony Dunkley on Sept 22, 2024 9:15:25 GMT
I've been asked to add some more background and/or detail to what I put yesterday : - There's a bit more added in the three short paragraphs below, but I think Leslie Morton, who was mentioned yesterday, should have something more than just a passing mention here. This photo, looking down the arm towards Bedworth Hill Bridge, shows two pairs of boats, all big Woolwich's, operated by Willow Wren Canal Transport Services - formerly Willow Wren Canal Carrying Co. until *Leslie Morton re-formed the company in the late 1960's, and the boatmen became self-employed, renting/hiring the boats by the week and responsible for buying their own diesel and ropes etc. Both pairs are loading slack for Colne Valley Sewage Works, . . one of Willow Wren CTS's last traffics, ending in, as far as I can remember, late 1969, when I was sub-contracting to Blue Line, loading from Baddesley Pit (at the wharf at the top of Atherstone by 1969, after the NCB closed down the loading facilities in Baddesley basin) for Kearley & Tonge's jam and cooked meats factory at Southall (the 'Jam Hole') with 'Jaguar' and 'Achilles'. Unlike the DS Nuts (DS stood for Double Screened) we loaded from Baddesley, the slack for Colne Valley had to be kept bone dry, otherwise it clogged up the furnace blower burners at the sewage works. The pair loading - butty 'Bedworth' already loaded and 'clothed-up', and the motor that's loading, I think it was either 'Alton' or maybe it was 'Aldgate', were worked by Ronny and Mrs Green, and the pair waiting to load next, 'Dipper' and, I think 'Baildon', were worked by John Henry and Mrs Meese, . . Ronny Green's father and mother-in-law. Out of the four big Woolwich's in the photo, Willow Wren owned only one, 'Dipper', the motor on the extreme right with the red and cream painted cabin end. The two buttys and the other motor were on hire from British Waterways, . . and had been, along with a lot of other pairs, since BW finished most of the Southern carrying fleet after the long freeze-up in the 1962-3 Winter. Until two or three years earlier, 'Dipper' still had the National engine that was standard fitment in all the GUCCCo. motors built in the mid to late 1930's, but that had been replaced with an air-cooled Lister HA2. The other motor, 'Aldgate' or 'Alton', the one that's loading, had an air-cooled Petter PD2, . . the standard replacement for the Nationals, and the odd RN, that BW took out of the Southern carrying fleet from the late 1950's on. * Leslie Morton is a subject that could fill endless pages, on this forum, or in any book, . . or encyclopedia ! With GUCCCo. at the time of the big fleet expansion in the 1930's, he went on to form the Willow Wren Canal Carrying Co, which then became Willow Wren CTS, . . he was a major figure in commercial narrowboat carrying for most of his working life. In his early years he was was a merchant seaman, and after a particularly bad experience one day whilst on look-out duty on a big passenger ship called 'Lusitania' off the Southern coast of Ireland, he decided a change of career was in order. He was the look-out who first spotted the torpedo that sank her. If anyone would like to read up a bit more on Leslie Morton, I would think the best choice of where to look for starters would be the canal books written by a man called David Blagrove. That's all for now, . . but there's plenty more to follow.
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Post by Our Glorious Leader on Sept 22, 2024 9:30:14 GMT
If there's one constant about TB it's that he never shuts the fuck up.
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Post by dogless on Sept 22, 2024 9:35:03 GMT
To be fair he has all his followers to communicate with 😊
Rog
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Post by Jim on Sept 22, 2024 11:20:03 GMT
How many were there at the last count?
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