CHERTSEY

BOATS, BRIDGES, BOILERS ... IF IT'S GOT RIVETS, I'M RIVETTED
... feminist, atheist, autistic academic and historic narrowboater ...
Likes snooker, beer, tea, rivets and solitude, and is strangely fascinated by the cinema organ.
And there might be something about railways.
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Wednesday 27 June 2018

Where's my widget?

Bastard Blogger...


Hi everyone,

To make room for some exciting updates coming soon to Blogger, we’re simplifying the platform to enhance the blogging experience for all of our users.

Updates include:
- Changes to features: G+ widget integrations, OpenID, and Localization & Blogspot ccTLDS.
- Retiring features: Third Party Gadgets, Next Blog, Polls Widget, and Textcube.
- Introducing new features: HTTPS for Custom Domains, Multilogin, Spanner, Google Takeout, and Video Management.

... have disappeared my 'Daisypath' 'ticker'. How will I keep track of how long I've owned Chertsey now? (Yes, I actually noticed it was gone when I went to check it for just that reason.)

But hey, it's all for a better blogging experience, so that's ok then.

PS. Eight years, nine months, one week and five days.

Tuesday 26 June 2018

Blazing Braunston

So, it's all over for another year, bar actually taking the boat away.

In some ways, this year's Braunston might have been a bit underwhelming - public attendance was certainly down considerable, following the doubling of the parking charge to £20. A couple of long-established traders have decided to call it a day - the fabulous brass stall where I got Chertsey's copper urn being one I knew about; the absence of the hippy clothes stall next to the toilets came as a surprise (fortunately I have sufficient supplies of patchwork trousers for now. Just.)

I don't know the final number of boats, but it felt very quiet and low-key on the Friday. Quite a few familiar faces weren't there - but then some new ones were - Gort, Daphne, Pintail, Seaford, being just a few I can think of off the top of my head.

But we had a fabulous time. Many aspects were excellent - David Daines's commentary on the parades was extremely knowledgeable and very professional (although we still weren't tempted to parade - the heavy handed marshalling has somewhat spoiled it - and does nothing to reduce the chaos - if anything it exacerbated it. Some people were complaining at a two and a half hour parade - should have been there in 2010, I say.). The beer tent music just might have been a bit less over-amplified (although we have long learnt our lesson and sat a long way away). The beer tent and surrounding seemed less crowded than in previous years and I thought that people might have made good on their threats to go to the pub instead. They still ran out of beer by Sunday evening though, so either they planned well for reduced numbers, or there were more people than it looked.

Our mooring by Butchers Bridge - right by the bridge, towards the marina main entrance - was lovely. It was the last available bankside space when Jim moved the boat last Tuesday - another reason for staying put. It was nice and shady, which was great for Jim and Ricky, but a bit frustrating for me, seeing the sun shining down on all the other boats but having to wait until about four o'clock before it got to me. The weather was fantastic, absolutely amazing. We had ice creams and a beanburger, Bass and cheesy chips. We had an impromptu Friday night towpath party (the very best sort) with Sarah and Andy on Enceladus (and the musical accompaniment of 78s of course), Pete of Renfrew and his old friend Mike, and Alan and Angie on Purton, with beer, G&T (thanks Angie!), nibbles and then, thanks to Jim, fish and chips from the village. When Pete Harrison stopped by for a chat, my weekend was complete - and it was only Friday night.

Other visitors included Bones (with Boots); Vicky and Craig whom we haven't seen for ages, but just happened to be on a hireboat holiday that week, the Moomins, Sarah from Little Venice and probably someone really important that I've forgotten.

This is how I described the weekend to my workmates: 'Basically a lot of people bring their old boats to a village in Northamptonshire. We spend the first day polishing our brass and dressing the boats up, then we spend the following days buying more brass, comparing the brass things we've bought, counting each other's rivets and sniffing each other's engines, drinking beer and complaining that the music in the beer tent is too loud. Braver souls parade their boats round while the rest of us catch up with friends and acquaintances (and drink beer).' Does that about sum it up?
Hard work, this socialising

This was the 13th Braunston in a row that I've attended - and I discovered with surprise when I read the programme, that's thirteen out of just sixteen that have been held in total.

Tuesday 12 June 2018

Would you like a leaflet?


I've just printed another little batch of  Chertsey information sheets. These started out as my A3 display 'boards' but I thought it would be nice to have something people could take away. It's also useful for quickly giving people information or contact details - or when asking for photos. And as it's been a while since I've posted any information about Chertsey and her history, I thought it wouldn't go amiss. The original has a photo, but you can just substitute the one from the blog masthead.

CHERTSEY (GUCCCo. 130)

HISTORY

Chertsey was built for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (GUCCCo) by Harland and Wolff at their North Woolwich shipyard, and delivered in January 1937 with the fleet number 130. This was part of the last big expansion of the Grand Union fleet, eighty-six pairs of boats, built between 1936-8, at Woolwich (motors and butties), Northwich (motors) and Rickmansworth (butties), with a deeper (4'9”) hold than their predecessors, and Chertsey is therefore a Large Woolwich motor boat. All the large motor boats were built of riveted steel (although Woolwiches originally had wooden cabins) and all 86 are still extant in some form. It is likely that the names for these boats were more or less randomly selected from a railway gazetteer, and they are sometimes referred to today as 'Town Class' boats.

Chertsey would have carried a variety of loads for GUCCCo, between London and Birmingham, the East Midlands, and also to Northampton and beyond onto the River Nene.  These would include coal from the Midlands to London, and imported raw materials such as timber, metals and grain which could be loaded directly from ships in the Regents Canal Dock (now Limehouse Basin). When waterways transport was nationalised in 1948 Chertsey passed into the British Waterways South Eastern Fleet, and continued carrying into the early 1960s.

Chertsey was sold into private ownership in 1962, and for a while was registered as a houseboat, although there is no evidence that she was ever converted. During this period, she attended a number of rallies, and apparently had an organ in the hold, which was played at gatherings. We would particularly like to fill in details of what Chertsey was doing 1962-69.

In 1969, Chertsey was purchased by Richard Barnett, who owned the boat until his death in 2009. Under his ownership, Chertsey undertook some short term carrying contracts, including being one of the last boats to bring coal (from Gopsall on the Ashby Canal) to John Dickinson's paper mill at Croxley on the Grand Union, in August 1970. From the 1980s however, Chertsey was more or less abandoned at Valencia Wharf, Oldbury, although Richard Barnett was never willing to sell her.

Chertsey's engine is an air cooled Petter PD2 as fitted by British Waterways in 1960 to replace the original raw water cooled National DM2. One battery charged through a dynamo (rather than a modern alternator) powers the electric start, and lighting in the back cabin. The cabin was rebuilt in the late 1970s in solid oak (reclaimed library shelves) on the original frames, and later skinned in steel by Les Allen. The engine room is original as far as we know, and its roof shows the scars of previous exhausts and the G.U. toilet vent.

CURRENT OWNERSHIP
 
Since purchasing Chertsey in 2009, the following works have been undertaken to restore and improve the boat:

·        Steelwork repairs to the hull (particularly the knees, chine angle and counter) and overplating to the back end/engine room baseplate by Keith Ball
·        New oak gunnels, front cants, handrails, other woodwork, top planks and cloths by Pete Boyce.
·        Paintwork by Martin O’Callaghan and signwriting by Dave Moore

Chertsey's unusual livery represents the brief transitional period between British Waterways taking ownership of the Grand Union fleet, and the development of their own distinctive yellow and blue colour scheme a year or so later.

Chertsey has now retired as a working boat, and is used purely for pleasure. The hold is not converted with any permanent structure, but camping arrangements under the cloths provide plenty of flexible space for summer boating, which has evolved over time. Most recently we have built a platform in the cratch to provide additional sleeping/storage space and easy access to the fore end, and begun ballasting with concrete blocks rather than coal.

PHOTOS

I have a number of photographs of Chertsey at various stages of her history which can’t be publicly displayed for copyright or other reasons – please ask if you would like to see the album. And if you have taken any nice or interesting photos of Chertsey – either recently or in the past – it would be greatly appreciated if you could share them by emailing to  
[my email address] – please also get in touch if you would like to know more about Chertsey in particular or historic narrow boats more generally.
You can also follow my blog at www.chertsey130.blogspot.co.uk

Friday 8 June 2018

Gone for a... oh, has that one been done?

Revisiting day 2 of the trip, which was the Sunday. I had to go back into work on the Monday, so we stopped as planned on the Shobnall Fields mooring in Burton. Strangely, we'd never stopped there overnight before, but it was ever so nice, and a short walk to the station.
There's no denying that despite still being a centre of the brewing industry, Burton has the run down air of a post-industrial town. Nowhere have I been that felt more like a company town. Whichever way you turned, it seemed you could see the brewery dominating the horizon. In the past I'm sure you would have smelt it as well, but perhaps the modern plant does away with that.

On the way back from the station on Monday evening I spotted a poignant ghost sign:

Wednesday 6 June 2018

Almost feels like home

Day 10: Foxton bottom to Watford top
Day 11: Watford top to Braunston

On Monday we were up early and waiting at the bottom of the Foxton locks at five to eight. As it turned out, there was no competition - there's been surprisingly little traffic over all this trip - but I suppose it's early in the season yet. We didn't start up the locks until 8:30, but were finished in the advertised 45 minutes and celebrated with an ice cream (me) and a bacon cob (Jim/Ricky) at the top. Sadly there is no photographic evidence of me tying up the boat with one hand whilst holding a large and precarious cornet in the other, but I assure you, my talents multiply by the day. It was a much cooler, overcast day, and we sailed serenely through the green green world to tie up at the top of Watford locks just after five.
Watford has an amazing book swap. I took about ten books over, and came back with as many, that I really wanted to read (rather than 'that'll do if I'm desperate'). After the lock keeper had gone for the night we pretended that their little cottage and garden was our very own, although Ricky had to be confined to the boat to stop him digging up their lawn.

In another 45 minutes (starting at 8:35) we were down Watford and on the last leg of the journey to Braunston. I was pleased to note that we beat CanalPlan's estimate - on default settings - by eleven minutes. We tied up by the ladder bridge, but were a bit perturbed that the mooring suspension for the show only starts a week in advance - I'd expected a fortnight, so thought we'd get away with plotting up there.

Pete came to the rescue though (again) and offered us the use of Renfrew's mooring, while he prepared Renfrew for the show. The offer was made over dinner at the Boat House - definitely my second choice Braunston pub, but the Nelson, it transpires, don't do food on Monday OR Tuesday :-(
The trouble with the Boat House is that it's not dog-friendly (you wouldn't think it would be hard, a place that size) so we had to sit outside. Despite the afternoon having warmed up, we anticipated the evening becoming chilly again, so Jim brought two jackets, which he put down on the bench beside him, and we brought Ricky's jumper (that he'd been wearing all morning) as well as his fleecy bed. Ricky decided that the bed alone wasn't wholly to his satisfaction, and that he could do better for himself:
Jim was so engrossed in conversation he didn't notice his garments being purloined and repurposed.

On the way to the Boat House last night, we met Kevin and Vicky, former Star- and then Harry- Man and Woman, who have a new boat. So this morning, after moving Chertsey down to the turn we went and had a cup of tea with them, before finally setting off in the car to Alvecote.

And so ended a fairly uneventfula nd very enjoyable holiday. The weather has been brilliant throughout, wioth lots of sun, and only the occasional rain - and never while we were boating. The do at Langley Mill was great; I actually enjoyed the Soar (and of course the Erewash, but that's not so newsworthy) and we had a lovely sociable time - all the better for boing unplanned - on arrival in Braunston too.

Back to work for me now, until the weekend of the show.

Sunday 3 June 2018

Pressing on

Day 8: Sileby Mill to Bush Lock
Day 9: Bush Lock to Foxton

Well, it's still been nice, but a fairly heavy couple of days. Two of the pounds today - shallow at the best of times - were down as much as eighteen inches. I'd done really well, creeping along the middle, until I got firmly stuck just short of Pyewell lock, trying to go in on the right to let a hire boat join us. In the end they had to help get us off, and went up before us.

Today has been wonderfully hot and sunny, almost since we set off at 7:30. When I washed my hair with the solar shower at about five, it was almost too hot.

But we pressed on, and made it to Foxton tonight as planned, so hopefully two more, slightly shorter, days should see us to Braunston.

And talking of hot water.... we're currently in the Foxton Locks (because we needed CHIPS! And very nice they were too) and like many establishments, there's a sign in the ladies saying 'caution: very hot water'. But this time they really mean it. The water coming out of the taps is scalding; you could not wash your hands in it. Which means they might as well not have it. Now, what I wondered is, rather than going down the cash and carry and buying 'caution: very hot water' notices, why don't they just turn the boiler down so that their customers can wash their hands in suitable hot water. Just a thought. Also, £4.10 a pint. Only place I've paid more than that is London. Or possibly Brighton. But - especially considering how busy they were - the food wasn't bad at all.





Friday 1 June 2018

Hold the front page: enjoying the Soar!

Day 6: Langley Mill to Sheetstores
Day 7: Sheetstores to Sileby Mill

Today I had a nice day on the Soar. I did not get swept away by the current, not stuck on a bridge pier. We haven't got to Leicester yet. It has actually been rather lovely, and I have had a good upper body resistance workout (a.k.a. river steering) to boot. I'm getting a taste for shorter days now and was itching to tie up by four o'clock (we didn't leave until 8:40 this morning though) so ended up on the lock moorings at Sileby Mill which is lovely. There is a weir (over which water is rushing quite impressively), which is my favourite sound for getting to sleep to. Last night we were between two railway bridges, which was OK - I don't mind trains - and would have been very interesting I'm sure to anyone with a train passion. A weir is better though. Today has been yet another which started overcast but became sunny at lunchtime and really hot later - enlivened this evening by a sudden and very heavy downpour which occurred, of course, while Jim was taking Ricky for a little walk. On the whole so far the weather has been really great. I'll post retrospectively in more detail with pictures when I get back.