Granny Buttons

You choose your friends, but not your relatives

I was startled to read last week on Nev's Waterlily blog that his boat was built by the same man who fitted out Granny Buttons:

We were joined at Branston lock today by NB Clarice Elizabeth. The lady on board asked us if our boat was a Delph Marine which we confirmed.

She went on to tell us she knew the guy who fitted it out - Jack Prince. He brought the shell and fitted her out at Sawley Marina in 1992. She told us he came from Derby ... where we live !!

She said he did not have her long, selling her at Napton, which is where she was moored by the only other owner, who had her from 1994 until we brought her in 2007.

She then told us the next boat Mr Jack Prince build was on a Liverpool shell and is Granny Buttons!

So that make out boat related. Welcome to the family, Andrew !

Granny is indeed born of the boatbuilding skills of the late Jack Prince.   He started it as a retirement project, and it hit the water as a sailaway from Liverpool Boats in 1995, which he fitted out himself, helped along by his wife Sue.

It was largely her interior design skills which 'sold' me on the boat.  She it was who created the 'four-poster' effect of the bedroom, swathed in lace, and the spacious saloon and handy kitchen, amongst many other design features.  Some were impractical, some gimcrack, but all of them had a certain flair.

They called the boat Jessel, an initialism formed from their family names - Jack and Sue, together with their children Simon and Louise.

Sadly his dream retirement, as so often happens with dreams, turned into a nightmare.  He had barely finished it when he contracted cancer, and died before they had the chance to make many of the journeys they had together dreamed of.

I never knew Jack Prince, and bought the boat off his widow after she met another man and decided to strike out on a new life together with him. 

I soon renamed Jessel as 'Granny Buttons', and I struck out in a new life on my own.

To be honest, all was not well behind the scenes of Jessel.  I spent much money getting much of the work redone, and if you look closely at a lot of the woodwork you can see the joins.  I remember going through Netherton Tunnel about six months after buying her, and all the lights went out!  It turned out that much of the wiring was substandard and had to be redone.

Still, like an old slipper or a mistaken marriage, I grew accustomed to it and even learned to love my Granny.   She has served me well.

Dudbridge Locks hydroelectric scheme

The Cotswold Canals Trust wants your help.

Last month I walked down the six miles of the Cotswold Canals restoration, a perambulation chronicled in my article in the July issue of Waterways World.

I was very impressed with the project, and it looks like being the next big contiguous canal project to reopen (after the Droitwich Canals next week).  What's particularly interesting is the many little 'work-arounds' they've incorporated into the restoration to get it going. 

One of the most intriguing proposals is a proposed mini-hydroelectric scheme at the two Dudbridge locks to the west of Stroud (pictured below, location on Google Maps here).

This section of the  navigation incorporates two streams - Painswick Stream and Slad Brook - that together turn this section of the canal into a tributary of the River Frome a few hundred yards downstream.

So someone from the Trust had the bright idea:  Instead of the surplus water just spilling over the weir, why not harness the latent energy of the 16ft drop over two locks? 

The Trust reckons the electricity generated could be worth £21,000 a year at current prices, and would contribute to the canal's maintenance costs.

However, to be practical, the construction work needs to be done very soon, before this section of the restoration is completed.  Installing the scheme later would be unrealistically expensive.

So the Trust is urgently looking for £110,000 now, to start the essential work this year, and another £200,000 next year to install the scheme.

This is where the Energyshare fund comes in.   It's a scheme set up by British Gas to offer funding to local community energy projects just like Dudbridge.  The introductory video outlines ways to do it.  

It's said to be 'in partnership' with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage empire - one presumes that River Cottage is the reassuring 'smallholding' image; I wonder if Fearnley-Whittingstall is a genuine partner or a paid 'friendly face'.  

Initially Energyshare has half a million pounds, going begging, and the Cotswold Canals Trusts wants  you to support them in getting a share of that to kickstart the hydroelectric works.

Go to www.energyshare.com/dudbridge-locks-hydro to register your support. It's a good cause. But hurry - you only have until June 30th. The projects with the highest number of supporters recorded by June 30th go forward to a shortlist to win the money - or at least a share of the money.  In a round-robin to supporters yesterday, the society said: 

At the time of writing we are lying in 19th place with 184 supporters recorded, the leading group has 386. With our membership numbers coupled with the enthusiasm for schemes of this nature we should be able to leap up the table in the time remaining.  Just think - if each person who has already registered introduced just two other people to do the same then we would instantly have over 400 supporters. It is as easy as that. 

Of course, there are loads of other local community energy projects for you to support, and if Dudbridge Locks doesn't appeal you can search for one here. 

The trouble with the Energyshare approach is that you can only look on the map for ones local to your 'community', which means a town or postcode.

But - but -  but the whole of the inland waterways is my local community!

I typed 'canal' into the search box and it said "We have not found any groups into your area", and listed a handful of London schemes that seemed to be irrelevant.  

A search for 'waterway' was similarly unproductive, bringing up something Portuguese called 'Energias Alternativas'.  Dear me.

I'd be interested to hear of any other canal power schemes as imaginative as the Dudbridge Locks scheme.  In the meantime, this is the one I shall support.

[Thanks to Brian Holt of NB Harnser for alerting me to this]

The boathouse - for the moorer who has everything

When I was at Mercia Marina, I noticed they had 'superberth' moorings. These are 'first class' moorings - they have pontoons on both sides of the boat - giving greater separation from the next-door boats - and individual water taps and electricity points. 

Naturally, they also have premium prices. 

Residential moorings installed by the fast-growing BWML chain even include telephone landlines, allowing you to have the fastest broadband that your neighbourhood allows. We are surrounded by growing numbers of upmarket marinas with luxury moorings.

So what's the next big development in premium moorings?

I'd say it was the boathouse.

Granny was put into the covered service bay at Streethay this month. This is the section where engineers can carry out work without being interrupted by the tiresome constraints of rain. 

And while I've been here I've been delighted by the way I can leave my back doors and hatch open - even overnight - without worrying about the possibility of rain entering overnight.

For example, the photo below was taken during a heavy evening shower, but everything aboard Granny was snug and dry. 

I can't be alone in liking this. A rain shelter - perhaps even a boathouse - would be quite in demand for those seeking a bit of extra convenience in paid moorings.

Sheltered moorings do exist in places. Mainly they are heritage features, where old warehouses had rain-proof unloading bays for wet-sensitive cargoes, but I can't think of any modern examples. 

I mentioned this recently to Tony, the marketing manager at Mercia Marina.  I said that that it didn't need to be a complete building, it could be a simple 'canopy' of some kind.  He quickly came back with the word canalopy. If he's quick off the mark he might already have rushed out and registered the word as a trade mark. Or one of you reading this might want to do so.

I'm surprised that you don't see boathouses built on the canals - leastways not ones build for narrowboats.  I wrote about 5 years ago of a modern, smart boathouse being built on the Grand Union at Stony Stratford near Milton Keynes, although even that one was clearly for a very short boat.

Max Lowry memorial exhibition

Sorry to learn from the Islington Tribune that '3D pavement artist' Max Lowry died last year.  

He was one half of the duo who created the towpath crevasse' I wrote about a couple of years ago in 'Crevasse' PR stunt is brilliant for London towpath cycling campaign. 

I'd love to have seen more of these on urban canals.

He was only 36, and according to the Islington Tribune there's a memorial exhibition for him in the works.

Max formed an artistic partnership with fellow artist Joe Hill for their pavement stuff, on www.3djoeandmax.com, while keeping separate websites on maxlowry.co.uk and joehill-art.com. 

Surprisingly, none of these sites mention his fate, so perhaps he is still alive and well.  If so, I'm sure he will be as surprised as I am to learn that he is about to have a posthumous retrospective.

But what will such a retrospective be like?  Will it have photographs of chalk artwork, or have these pavement pieces been painted on vinyl and do they simply roll up?  You can find out at the free exhibition at the Mall Galleries from 12th-18th September, details here.

Intelligent dogs on the Itchen Navigation

'Dogs get swimming access on the Itchen Navigation' said a local BBC report last weekend.

It's a problem that has plagued dog owners for two hundred and fifty years, viz:

How do you persuade your nervous dog to leap safely into the canal?  And how to persuade it that it can clamber out again without feeling guilty about the damage it might cause to the bank?

Dogs need worry no longer. At a stroke the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has solved this problem. On the Itchen Navigation it has installed what it calls 'dog dips' - 'to help protect the waterway's wildlife'. 

Dog dips are where you basically cover a section of canal bank with concrete steps, allowing your dog to enter the water without causing bank erosion. 

The trust is asking dog owners to encourage their pets to use the access steps into the water.

"Dogs getting in and out of the water have trampled vegetation, eroded the bank and disturbed wildlife, [the] trust says.

There are now two dog dips on the 10-mile stretch, and it shouldn't take too long to hunt them out. Presumably bloodhounds, retrievers and other born-to-seek dogs will find them more quickly.

I'm not sure that concreting over the canalside is the best way to do it, though.  My sister often takes her dog walking by the canal near Loxwood, and here the Wey & Arun Canal Society has installed wooden dog diving boards. 

My sister's black lab Bosco loves to seek out the boards and conscientiously refuses to trample down the canal's delicate muddy edges if he can help it.

This is an environmentally friendly approach, although it's obviously only half an answer; the Wey & Arun people hope to install step ladders on the boards soon. 

It's ironic that down on the Itchen they are choosing to create what are effectively concrete 'wharves'.  This is because  the Itchen is essentially a dead-to-boats canal, largely in good condition but with riparian, angling and nature-loving interests now far too embedded to allow boats to return.

As the Southampton Canal Society remarks:

Public rights of navigation between Winchester and Wood Mill were conferred by Act of Parliament in 1802. These rights have not been extinguished legally although, in practice, they are not easy to exercise.

Parts of the Navigation have no water supply but even where water does flow, fishing interests and landowners actively discourage the use of any boats.

Perhaps the dog dips on the Itchen can one day be converted to secure moorings and will thereby find a use.

Death wish for canal travellers

At times the English canals seem to be the last refuge from excessive health and safety legislation.

At least, it often feels that way when one witnesses the contrast between children dancing around on the lockside and the absurd sight of BW staff and other operatives wearing garish hi-viz vests, helmets and lifejackets just to work the locks and cut the towpath grass.

I'm not encouraging the scene I saw at the Etruria staircase locks last weekend, where children dangled their feet in the lock (above) while an intensely cautious man operated it (below). 

There's a balance to be struck in lock safety (mainly by ensuring you're not struck by the lock balance beam), and the boys pictured do need a telling-off.

Yesterday Australian newspaper columnist Colin Pearce wrote about the dangers of the English waterways, in his column 'Death wish for canal travellers'. 

He was being humorous, but he writes a litany of doom.

I'm on a narrow boat on an English canal. I suppose those on the Titanic were on holiday, too....

None of this is scary until you realise the canals are only 10cm wider than two boats side by side. This means you can only avoid death and mayhem - driving your boat - by being a very good shot....

If there is a crash, it's not just the sharp edges and the blunt instruments that will kill you. There's all that water. You may drown. If not, cholera will get you...

He calls the boat a "lethal weapon", and the lock "just a big coffin, really."

[Hmm, I'd be inclined to call the boat the coffin, while the lock would more technically be a waterlogged grave. But, no matter.  Or, 'yeah, whatever', as surly teenagers say.]

A lock is a thing that helps you get your 70-tonne lethal weapon uphill and downhill. It (the lock) is just a big coffin, really, full of water, with enormous, heavy wooden gates at either end.

Should you fall in, there's a 90 per cent chance you'll die. And falling in is a real possibility because to operate the lock and actually go anywhere, you have to walk across the top of it, on a little beam 30cm wide. And slippery. You're also provided with a big metal handle to wind the sluice gates open and shut. Sometimes they slip, too, and smash your teeth. Or your brain.

You never see a workplace health and safety officer on a canal. They all fell in years ago.

The canals have an olde-worlde to a certain class of freewheeling Australian - long oppressed by health & safety measures, and by their government's fanatical obsession to metricate everything. 

Colin Pearce clearly had a great time, and enjoyed himself hugely.  His intended audience would too. Going on holiday with a lethal weapon must be bliss for them.  It's said that when Australians return home, the first thing they see at the airport is a huge sign saying DON'T!