On the Themis Theme

Reader's Letters & Queries: NarrowBoat, Winter 2007

Further to the photograph on page 7 of the Summer issue of NarrowBoat and Pete Harrison’s letter in the Autumn issue, I can add a little more information about the Themis. According to an article in the Spring 1955 edition of The Hertfordshire Countryside magazine, both Themis and Denebola began running trips between Cassio Bridge (169) and Grove Mill Lane Bridge (165) in the summer of 1954. The photograph they published showed Themis below Lock 76 (“Bottom of Albert’s Two”) heading for Ironbridge Lock and down to Cassio Bridge. After Themis (by then renamed Water Kelpie) was sold in 1964, Arcturus (a former Ovaltine boat – see article elsewhere in this issue) took up the service through both Cassiobury and Grove parks until its retirement at the end of 1999. Bryan Nicoll, Welwyn, Herts…