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The Historic NARROW BOAT OWNERS CLUB nneewwsslleetttteerr 2009/1 CONTeNTS Fore End . 2 Chairman’s Notes . 3 Membership Secretary’s Notes . 3 Joe Safe - A Tribute . 4 Mystery Pictures . 5 A Royalty Class Birthday . 6 Past Glories of the BCN . 9 River Weaver - Yarwood’s Basin . 12 Ellesmere Port at Easter . 12 Operator Licences . 13 BCN News . 14 Threefellows Carrying - Episode 3 . 15 Pioneer Days . 20 Notice Board . 22 Events 2009 . 23 Letters . 24 Responses to Mystery Pics . 26 Stern End . 28 IWA National Festival . 29 Advertisements . 30 FRONT COveR: Aquarius celebrates 40 years in the ownership of Glyn and Rosemary Philips at Dimmingsdale in 2008 Photo: Mike Harrison BACK COveR : Chimneys, Cans and Cabin Tops on the same occasion Photo: Jan Burnip Website: www.hnboc.org.uk HNBOC Newsletter 2009/1 1 FORE-END Greetings from Beggarlee Wharf First of all, we must record grateful thanks to our member Peter Lea who is a qualified accountant and has inspected the Club’s accounts free of any charge for the past 25 years. Peter has expressed the desire to retire after this years efforts and your committee are looking for another qualified member who will undertake this task. Any offers? Further to my comments last time regarding Valencia Wharf, it now seems that J Holloway and Sons, who own the land and the canal arms have applied to Sandwell MBC for planning permission to stank off and infil the arms. Application ref: DC/09/50509. If granted this will mean the loss of the last remaining navigable canal arm of the many that existed in the Oldbury area. The site has potential for good quality residential moorings close to Oldbury shopping centre, as well as potential wharfage with excellent road access. Members wishing to object to this planning application which would mean a loss of significant heritage value, should do so via the Sandwell MBC planning website, or in writing to: Development House, PO Box 42, Lombard St., West Bromwich. B70 8RU Sue Cawson who moniters navigation issues for the Club is becoming increasingly concerned by the instances of new top gates being fitted without gate paddles, contrary to an undertaking given by BW some years ago. Please let Sue know of examples that you are aware of. Mike and I are hoping to do rather more boating this year than of late. So to leave May and June free for this I have set the press date for 2009/2 for 29th June, which will be a little later than normal, so I hope you will let me off!! Please keep your contributions coming and I look forward to returning to a heap of mail and a full in box. We plan to return in time for the Braunston Gathering, where we hope to see you all. I am continuing to scan the Weaver Collection of photos, and we have made a presentation of a selection of these for you to see at them AGM, see below. Looking forward to meeting many of you there at Braunston Village Hall in March Val The ANNuAl GeNeRAl MeeTiNG to be held at Braunston village hall Saturday 14th March 2009 commencing at 2.30pm After the formal business of the meeting and the presentation of the Keay & Hemelryk Awards there will be a slide presentation of Photographs taken by Mr Philip Weaver in the 50s and 60s First we shall show a selection of BCN pictures and after the interval for refreshment a further selection of more general canal photographs of a similar period Many of these are unidentified, so as Alison said on the AGM notice “bring your specs and thinking caps!” and she will type up all the information that you are able to come up with We are looking forward to an interesting and very lively meeting Hope to see many of you there 2 HNBOC Newsletter 2009/1 ChAiRMAN’S NOTeS by Phil Prettyman The BW Heritage Advisory group has met recently and has been a useful conduit to offer the Club’s expertise on a range of issues. BW has been actively consulting with us around a number of potentially historic boats – mostly narrow boats but occasionally wider beam craft on other parts of the system. A process of information sharing with other interested groups (eg on the Thames or the Great Ouse) is starting to take place. We are trying to improve the accuracy of our data-base so that we can give authoritative advice. It is very helpful when Club members pass on to us up-to-date information about their own boats or any others with which they are familiar. Incidentally, I am particularly grateful for the suggestions and information on health and safety and other matters that members sent me following the comments I made in the last issue. These will enable the Club to develop a more coherent strategy in the future. The Heritage group has also advised BW to broaden their policy for the intended disposal of the heritage fleet. We have asked them to consider individuals as suitable owners of these boats as the HNBOC itself demonstrates that private custodians of such vessels can operate and maintain them at a high level of historical accuracy and with a strong personal and financial commitment. The Heritage group will discuss this again at its next meeting when we hope to clarify the next stage of the process and the details of any further disposals. The Easter gathering this year will return to Ellesmere Port. The results of the survey that we carried out at the November meeting showed strong support for the waterways museums, especially in the current economic climate, and we will continue to support events at Stoke Bruerne and Ellesmere Port and also Gloucester whenever we can. This year there is an exciting programme being planned starting on the morning of Thursday 9th April at Chester with an exhibition at the Tin Tabernacle and the loading of Saturn opposite Tower Wharf and another (motor) boat loading on the Friday morning. The moorings at Ellesmere Port will need to be carefully organised as it is intended to demonstrate boat movements, loading and unloading throughout the weekend. Previous favourites such as the boaters’ games will be resurrected and, together with some new delights, will form part of a packed programme. More details should be available at the AGM on 14th March – I hope to see you there. Phil HNBOC Newsletter 2009/1 3 Joseph (Joe) Safe 1922-2008 The recent death of Joe Safe at 86, has removed one of the last direct links to the earlier horse- drawn working days of the canals. Born in Birmingham in 1922 into a boating family working Joey boats, he had memories of the General Strike of 1926, when the lock keepers joined in padlocking the gates, and cargoes of coal became in short supply with the closure of the mines. In his time he worked the canal network extensively and for number of carriers, whereas most boatmen tended to work for one company and largely travel the same stretch. Joe left the canals in 1962 and worked for ten years building motorways. Following this he worked for fifteen years as a lock keeper at Brentford Lock, where the Grand Union joins the Thames, until he retired in Photo: Bernard hales 1987 aged 65. He then moved back to Birmingham, not far from where he was born, with his wife Mary Ward, with whom he worked the canals from their marriage in 1941 until they left the canals in 1962. She had followed him, working in motorway construction mobile canteens, whilst they lived in a caravan, and then living in retirement in Brentford, whilst Joe worked as a lockkeeper. Back in Birmingham, with the canal only a short walk away from their terraced house in Winson Green, Joe began a fourth career, making traditional rope fenders for sale through marinas, from the shed at the end of his small garden. This he continued to do until shortly before his death in December 2008. His wife, who was 17 years his senior, had died in 1994, and their son John in 1998. The couple had adopted John in 1945, after saving him from being drowned by his mother in the canal as an infant. Joe Safe was a great canal character, who unlike some former working boatmen, was always happy to talk to anyone about the working days, with happy memories of them, and without bitterness over their loss. He was a great raconteur and was a regular visitor to rallies and boat shows, wearing his beret and boatman’s belt. He enjoyed life to the full and even bought himself a small new car only months before he died, in which he drove round to see his few surviving friends from the working days in Birmingham, Coventry and Braunston. The next issue will carry the first episode of the life of Joe Safe. Ed. Tim Coghlan 4 HNBOC Newsletter 2009/1 Mystery Pictures N 578 Both pics from the Weaver Collection Well, you beat me again last time, so lets have another try! I think I know where these two pics were taken and suspect that they are roughly in the same area. However I’m looking forward to you confirming the location and sending me lots more info about both . N574 HNBOC Newsletter 2009/1 5 As we have now discovered some of Philip Weaver’s photographs I thought you might like to be reminded of an article which he wrote for the newsletter in the summer of 1982.