Granny Buttons

To Bugsworth from Trafalgar

Trafalgar Marine Services is a rarity in the canals world - a business with a really well-developed website.

The Dawson family make fenders and other rope products from their workshop in New Mills, nr Whaley Bridge, and sell them by mail order.  The website looks smart, performs admirably, and the product range is simple, unpretentious and easy to browse and find.

But I think that where it really scores is in the single link/page for every product, with excellent details of the product. 

This allows for 'wishlisting', whereby I link to the Short Button fender, so that you know exactly what I want for Christmas.  (I want buttons. What else?)

(Compare with the same product on Midland Chandlers, Get Knotted and Black Pig.  It's only recently that canal websites selling products started to give one link/page per product.)

The only weakness is the Terms of Sale.  Ask what the returns policy is, and you'll be referred to a 2,640-word soporific page.  There's no summary.  [Update: Mike Dawson says this will change, and says he's grateful for any feedback in enhancing the website]

Trafalgar are perhaps better known for the trip boats working out of Whaley Bridge.  The best known is the restaurant boat Judith Mary, and Whaley Bridge still talks of its glory-day, 18 years ago, when Diana (that one) had a dinner cruise on the Judith Mary on the Upper Peak Forest Canal.

They have a few interesting videos online.  One of them is a time-lapse of a trip from Whaley Bridge to Bugsworth Basin and back.

But the most interesting for me is the interview with Brian McGuigan, who now runs coal and fuel boat Alton on the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals.

Seventeen sellables

I loved this Adsense advertisement that appeared in my Gmail this morning:

We are Woot.com
Our tiny profit is lost. Haiku ads don't work.
www.woot.com

Last of the red-hot boaters

Couple to marry in their 80s| - Express & Star

Could this woman be the last original boatwoman to marry?

They say you’re never too old to fall in love – and Wolverhampton couple Dennis Jones and Sophie Scragg will prove that when they marry next week at a combined age of 171. 

... Mr Jones was born in Whitmore Reans, and worked at Harpers foundry, in Willenhall, while Mrs Scragg was born on the Lear narrow boat in Broad Street, Wolverhampton, where she lived with her parents and four siblings transporting goods on the canals. 

Citylocal has more detail on Sophie Scragg, who appears to have been one of the original Cadbury working boaters:

Sophie has had a fascinating life.  She was born on the narrowboat 'Lear' on the canal at Broad Street, where she lived with her bargee father, mother and three sisters.

Theirs was a working boat and they travelled miles, day and night, with just candles for lights.  She can remember delivering "crump" - pebble-like cocoa extract - to Cadbury's factory at Bourneville, and also carried sugar and travelled the length of the Manchester ship canal.

Sophie has vivid memories of life on the canal, where she lived until 1955 when she moved to Low Hill.

I'd like to meet her sometime and ask her about life on a boat with 'Bournville' written on the side. (There can't be many left apart from me!)

Oh, could she be related to the late Kevin 'Scraggy' Scragg?

[Picture nicked from the Express & Star - thanks]

Erewash and Derby Canals get good press

Waterways can barge back after years of decline - Derby Evening Telegraph

Yet another irritating subeditor-under-a-deadline headline, but it's a very nice article today in the Derby Evening Telegraph, summing up the regeneration plans on the canals local to Derby.

The prompt for this article is the £575,000  being spent on the Erewash Canal, courtesy of the EMDA. 

(Incidentally, that money is good in its way, but it's being spent on a 'Community and Visitor Access Strategy', which basically means making it easier for people to reach and walk along the towpath, rather than for boats.  Hopefully it won't mean that the blighters on the housing estates near Ilkeston will be able to melt away more quickly after throwing stones at the boats.)

But the Telegraph article extends the subject into all the other local regeneration going on, and paints an upbeat message of restoration for the Derby & Sandiacre Canal.  Hooray.

Trailboats at the Saul Canal Festival (and hopefully Caraboats)

My blog post about Caraboats, those little caravans that turn into boats (how did you guess that was their party trick?) inspired several requests for more information - including two people who thought I myself had one for sale.

[You can laugh, but it's understandable: Granny is still No.1 in Google for "caraboat for sale".]

But it also inspired Clive Field, the merry king of the Saul Canal Festival (pictured right, aboard Oliver Cromwell), to invite Tom Bradley to bring his superbly restored Caraboat to the 2008 festival (4th-6th July). 

This is because for the first time the Saul Canal Festival will be welcoming trailboats.  And this is because the new Saul Marina, opening in June, has a slipway. 

Tom's specimen would be an extraordinarily interesting talking point at the Festival.  Had he brought it last year, it would have been extraordinarily practical too, since the festival was devastated when the car parks and camping fields were submerged in a foot or two of flood water. 

I'm sure lightning won't strike twice in this extraordinarily beautiful setting, and this year you'll be able to set up your Caraboat in the field each night and then take it cruising each morning.

But if it does start to rain overnight, at least the only thing you need to worry about is whether you've put out your anchor, and you won't need the slipway.

No links from Weston

After my post a couple of weeks ago congratulating 'Weston Marsh' for his photo of three geese in a row, Adam asked if I'd seen his reply.

Well, yes, and I thought it was quite interesting.  'Weston' (as we'll call him) says:

When I look around very little of the blog stuff is original, just everyone commenting on everyone else and copying material.

I know some people feel that way; they think that everything on a blog should be 'original'. I'm not sure what they mean by that; you can use a blog for something brand new or you can reweave old material into new patterns. 

A newspaper is full of old stuff recycled; it's called journalism.

But more interestingly, 'Weston' seems keen to stay anonymous and not to link.  The life-blood of the internet is links, and not only does he not link to me, but he refuses to even write the correct name, calling me 'dunny' and Granny 'grainy', for example.   

Fair enough, but I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps it's a way of trying to stay pure and original, in effect saying "I have never copied anything - and that includes a link".  But I don't think it's pure; it's purist.

Pete Ballinger's Ballinger Tattoo

One of the more unusual requests I've had recently was for information on the boat Ballinger.  It's an old Bantock butty restored by Max Sinclair years ago, and now owned by Colin Adie.

I wrote about it in August 2006, and included a nice picture of the boat at the bottom of the Bingley 5-Rise.

The request was from Peter Ballinger, a canal enthusiast himself, who saw my post and was captivated by the idea of an old narrowboat with his name on it.  He wanted to get more photos of the boat, particularly side-on.

This afternoon came the reason for his request: he's just had an image of the boat done as a tattoo:

The photo was taken within seconds of the tattooist finishing so it looks a little sore, but it's not. Will photo it again once it has settled down.

We are in the middle of working on the video and will upload as soon as possible, having deleted the bad camera work (the wife’s doing shaky hands!)

And - bravo! - below is the result.  I'm not sure what part of his body it's on - this is a closeup, but on the full picture it looks to me like his shoulder.

Is this the first narrowboat tattoo? 

I couldn't ever imagine getting a tattoo done myself - I mean, it's so final, isn't it? - but then I'm incapable of making a decision.  I'm one of life's leafs; I fall off the tree and let the wind blow me where it will.  And in the end I don't have a choice anyway, people still stamp on me. 

At least with a tattoo you get to be stamped with your choice of image.

I think if I ever got a tattoo done of Granny Buttons, I'd have it on my todger.  That way, it could be a full 1/60th scale narrowboat called Granny Buttons or I could have a little tug and call it Gay But..., depending on my mood!

Herbie spots an invasive species

After I wrote recently about Canoe Polo  expressing surprise (and a bit scepticism), Neil of NB Herbie sent me this photo, taken from inside Herbie, and showing a game of Canoe Polo in progress.

This photo looks like it was taken in Paddington Basin.  I presume NB Herbie was moored up, so I don't suppose the canoes saw it as a threat.  However, it's clear that a non-native invasive species has landed on the waterways.

This species must be a delicate flower.  The flock would clearly scatter at the first sight of a fifteen-ton steel hull in motion.

Two tings from the cyclist, a counterblast from the boater

BW London have had another run at their Two Tings campaign, which tries to make cyclists on the Regent's Canal sound their bells (if they've got them) when approaching people on the towpath.

(They also 'ask pedestrians to listen for the 'Two Tings' and allow cyclists to pass'. This is designed as a sop to cyclists, so that if the pedestrian doesn't hear the bell that the cyclist doesn't ring, the cyclist can then say it's the pedestrian's fault.)

But the Two Tings campaign doesn't mention boaters at all.

Some people might think that this is stupid.  What concern is it to boats what cyclists do on the towpath?, they will ask.

I'd like to recommend a "Blast that cyclist" campaign for boaters when they see cyclists racing on the towpath.  You've got a perfectly good horn - so use it.

See also:
Ding! Ding!
So that explains Ting! Ting!
Tings ain't wot they used to be (co-starring Diamond Geezer).

Pickles No.2 is No.1 in boating blogrolls

Pete of Pickles No. 2 says his blogroll now numbers about 60 - "even more than Granny". 

Yikes!  I can't have that!  I need to check my own list and compare with Pete's.

Mind you, my own boatroll has been pruned occasionally, and while I still watch others, if they haven't updated in several months, I'll often quietly drop them from my 'boatroll'.

BW press release is confidential

I've just received an email from British Waterways. I don't think it's private, because it attaches a statement made today to all BW staff by BW Chief Executive Robin Evans. 

But I'm not sure. I think it's very interesting reading and I'd like to comment. However the disclaimer at the bottom of the email says:

Unless stated to the contrary in the body of the above email, British Waterways (BW) does not assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any information contained in this document.

[the body of the email doesn't 'state to the contrary', so I presume BW disclaims responsibility for accuracy]

... Views or opinions contained in this document, which is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual(s) to whom it is addressed, are those of the author and may not represent those of BW.

If you are not the intended recipient please inform the sender immediately and be advised that any use of this document is strictly
prohibited.

[How would I know if I'm the intended recipient?  It doesn't have a personal salutation]

The information contained in this email may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this email and your reply cannot be guaranteed.

I'm confused.  Is the information in the email confidential and only for me, or can I tell you about it?   Is is background, or can I start talking about it?  Am I betraying a confidence by even telling you the above?

Therefore, I won't comment on Robin Evans' new statement until I see it republished elsewhere.

My point:  This is a recurring problem with bloody email disclaimers, especially in press releases.  They are - to office workers - what those orange sash-lifejackets are for bankside staff; in other words, the stupid precautionary stuff that staff are forced to wear which no one else has to wear.

By the way, here's the disclaimer I put at the bottom of my own emails:

Come flyboat with me to Brum, says Councillor Badham

Canal Trip Commuters - Express & Star

Fly boats to Birmingham?  There's talk of commuter water buses from Smethwick to Birmingham, says yesterday's Express & Star. 

But the idea by Councillor Bob Badham that it would be a 20 minute journey is a bit optimistic.   

It's 2 1/2 miles from Smethwick to Old Turn Junction (the NIA) according to Canalplan, and at average cruising speeds that's almost an hour.  I can't see BW - or any boaters - putting up with the 9mph pace of Mr Badham's boats.

Yet at a more relaxed pace (with breakfast and coffee, newspapers and entertainment), the Baggie Barge could well catch on as a commuter vehicle.

Update - Club Class Canal Boating: See the comment below from Birmingham blogger D'log.  Brilliant suggestion!  A mobile office.  In fact, you don't have to start at Galton Bridge - why not further back along the canal's main line, from Tipton Station?   Just imagine, the whole morning at your mobile desk.  Of course, this is club class canal boating, but it could be in demand.

IWA Members Survey 2008

The IWA is running a survey of Members.  They sent a survey form came with the latest copy of Waterways, so I got out my pencil and licked the nib (ugh - it's a ball-pen!)  and started to fill it in.

Gosh, a lot of questions.  I started to lose heart halfway (Q 17: "How much more are you willing to pay to continue boating?" - I ticked '26% or more')

But I gamely struggled to the end, to the bit where I had to fill in all that personal stuff:  Name. Rank.  IWA Serial Number.   

Oh no, haven't got a clue what that is.  So I gave up. Too much trouble.

Then I noticed I could fill out the survey online.  But online, they've got the name, rank and serial number right at the top. 

In other words, if I'm going to fill out the form online I'll have to start with the bit I don't like and the information I don't have.

I went back to the paper form and under 'membership number' I wrote 'surely you don't expect me to remember that?'

It's not unreasonable of them to ask for my membership number.  But why didn't I read the bold print above that section before I moaned? :

If you would prefer to remain anonymous, your answers will still be very helpful to us. 

Really, I'm such a twit.   

Forms returned by 31st March will be entered into a free prize draw for £100 worth of goods from IWASHOP (it says here).

Full of Weston (but little Weaver) promise

Weston Promise - Property Week

The merger of Westbury and Eddie Stobart could bring prosperity to the Port of Weston.

I missed this article from last October's Property Week the first time round.  It's quite interesting. 

But it's only interested in the Manchester Ship Canal.  It doesn't mention the River Weaver or boats thereon.