Boating with the Purcells
Last Traffic: NarrowBoat, Winter 2013
David Blagrove
Mike Stone journeyed up the Grand Union Canal in the summer of 1961 on a pair of Willow Wren boats
As a pupil of Nottingham High School in 1960, Mike Stone won the Nottingham Chamber of Commerce’s Centenary Scholarship to study the “Inland Waterways of Western Europe”. The main part of the research for this was carried out in 1960 when he travelled by water and road around the waterways of the Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium. Ready co-operation from European shipping companies and waterway authorities enabled him to report on the latest developments in freight carriage by water, handling techniques and infrastructure improvements. He wanted to compare this with the situation in England, but arranging an equivalent trip on board a pair of narrowboats proved more difficult. It was not until 1961 that Leslie Morton of Willow Wren arranged for Mike to spend three weeks with Alec & Lil Purcell on the Grand Union Canal. In his thoroughly professional 60-page report, Mike was thus able to compare conditions and facilities in the UK and mainland Europe, and to make recommendations as to how Britain's waterways could be improved. He regretted however that the many colour slides that he took whilst carrying out his research could not be included in the report. Over 50 years later NarrowBoat is happy to be able to partly rectify this by publishing the slides that he took whilst accompanying the Purcells on their journey from Brentford to Braunston. Mike never lost his interest in canals and is currently chairman of the Grantham Canal Society.
Redshank motors past Bulls Bridge depot, with a number of British Waterways carrying boats tied stern-on in the lay-by. The fore-ends of three ‘dustbins’ (the derogatory boatman’s name for the new ‘River Class’ boats with blue plastic hatch covers) are evident. The distant white factory is Nestlé’s Hayes plant, which until about 1959 received its coal from Cannock by canal. The side bridge over the entrance to the Paddington Arm is just visible in the distance, on the right.
A few moments later Redshank passed the repair slip at Bulls Bridge. This fine installation has disappeared, replaced by moorings adjacent to Tesco. A road bridge now crosses the canal just beyond the gantry seen at the right hand end of the complex.
Nearing journey’s end for the beech blocks, Lil Purcell takes the loaded pair down Three Locks near Stoke Hammond. Alec stands by the middle lock ready to close the butty’s gate. This location was known to boat people as ‘Stoke Hammond Three’, to British Waterways as ‘Soulbury Three’ and to locals as ‘Three Locks’. It is a picturesque place and still a popular spot.
Alec Purcell (second from left) assisted by his wife Lil and a couple of youngsters, possibly from the Harrison family, load wooden blocks into Redshank and Drake at Brentford, with Brent Meadow Wharf in the background. The wood was brought up river from the docks by barge and manhandled into narrowboats above Town Lock. Drake was not Alec’s normal butty, which was Greenshank, whose absence is explained in the final picture of this series where she is seen newly docked at Braunston. Drake, formerly the Grand Union Canal Carrying Co’s Taunton, can be seen to have also been recently docked. She had been put into service in May 1960, having been acquired by Willow Wren the previous January, and was evidently in use as a ‘change’ boat. The beech blocks were destined for the Beacon Brush works at Bletchley and unloaded at Fenny Stratford.
Having been loaded, Redshank and Drake are beginning the climb out of the Brent Valley at Hanwell Locks. They have just left the bottom lock and the River Brent, which forms the course of the canal from there to Brentford. There are eight locks here, followed by another two at Norwood, before the long level that runs from Camden Town to Cowley and Slough. At this time there was still heavy barge traffic here and each lock from Brentford to Norwood Top had a regular lockkeeper who worked the outside paddles and gates. Boatmen and bargemen worked the towpath side. This was a tradition dating from the earliest days of the Grand Junction Canal, when it seemingly was applied to the whole canal.
Redshank and Drake are now empty and about to enter Blisworth Tunnel. The scene has been very much tidied up in recent years, but this photograph gives a good idea of how comparatively unknown the canals were fifty years ago. The nearest building on the right was a horse shelter dating from the early 20th century. Immediately beyond can be seen the ‘boat horse road’ rising from the towpath to join the road from Stoke Bruerne to Blisworth on top of tunnel hill. The other building, nearest the tunnel portal, is a forge and store built to service the tunnel steam tugs. Following the withdrawal of the tugs in 1936 the building was occasionally used as a store. Much more recently its use as a forge has been revived and it is currently occupied by a blacksmith. This end of the tunnel was altered to some extent in 1984 during the reconstruction of the central part of the tunnel, and the canal now follows a different alignment at the entrance.
This final picture – of the Willow Wren yard at Bottom Lock, Braunston – explains why the Purcells were using the butty Drake. The nearest boat is the Purcells’ regular butty Greenshank, which appears to have been undergoing a docking, and they have probably been using Drake as a ‘change boat’ whilst this work was being done. Apart from the Northwich-built Kestrel (ex GUCCC Triagulum), Greenshank (ex GUCCC Bawtry) was the only ex GUCCC metal butty then operated by Willow Wren. Immediately behind are three ex FMC motors, of which Willow Wren operated eight. The name of the nearest boat is not decipherable, but the load line shows how Willow Wren captains were wont to load their charges.
The yard seems to have originated as a woodyard for the Grand Junction Canal Co in the early 19th century. It was used for a while by Pickfords in addition to their establishment at Braunston Wharf and, after 1846, by the Grand Junction Canal Carrying Co. It was occasionally used for boat repairs after the GJCCC went into liquidation in 1876, but was essentially derelict and disused until 1953, when it was leased as a hire boat base by Michael Barnes.
This venture was before its time and Willow Wren was assigned the lease in December 1954. By early 1956 the yard had been refurbished and the firm then undertook its own repairing and docking which had hitherto been done by outside contractors. The slipway that is now a prominent part of this scene was completed in late 1961/early 1962, shortly after this photograph was taken.
On the left, the oil storage tank is visible. This was filled from road tankers negotiating a track across a field from Dark Lane. There then follows the engineering workshop, with stores above it. The crane whose jib may be seen protruding ran on a short section of standard gauge railway line and was used for lifting engines and other heavy components into and out of boats. It was pushed back and forth by hand. It now stands in Braunston Marina. The next building, now a chandlery, was the Willow Wren stores, an Aladdin’s cave of boating gear, normally kept strictly under lock and key. Beyond the retaining wall is the wooden office hut, presided over by Dennis Clarke, the yard foreman. The yard’s only telephone was here and this was fitted with a siren so that it could be heard above the general dockyard racket.
Beyond still can be seen the brick lock-keeper’s office, which also had a telephone and from where the boat control office was regularly informed of boat positions. Lastly, beyond the bridge, is the weigh dock, built by the GJCC around 1810 and part of the dockyard lease to Willow Wren. All-in-all this picture neatly encapsulates the workings of the canal in its commercial carrying days.
