Canal Boats , Blisworth, Northamptonshire, UK.

All pictures are presented at relatively low resolution.  Any interest in copies of a picture at a higher resolution (ie. clarity) should be directed through contacts given in the Blisworth "Round and About" parish council publication or using the comment form on the home page.  In some cases the pictures are not available due to copyright restrictions.  However, permission has been obtained, where possible, to include them here.  Printed below each image is the photographer's name, if known.

A link to Richard Thomas's website on canal steamer boats - www.steamershistorical.co.uk

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This page was established at a very early stage in the assembly of this website - recently, however,
Jim Payler has offered a much more extensive collection of narrow boat pictures.  If you find boats
irresistible then please take a look.

 

A Revised Story of the Construction of Blisworth Tunnel

Photographs of Traditional Narrow Boat Decoration on this site.

Very much typical of boating family groups.

It is though that the boat was called Mirium and the family there are Lamsdons, William Lamsdon and two grand-daughters, photo taken 1895 - 1905 and information supplied by a present day William Lamsdon.

08-19  Teal in 1959. On the far bank are the remnants of the old limestone and ironstone wharfs.

08-20  Southam in 1960.

 

 
08-21  Princess in 1959.  The boat subsequently was docked and ran under Willow Wren colours.
08-22  Kenilworth in 1958, probably carrying aluminium ingots to Birmingham.
08-23  Cygnet at the A508 bridge lock, Stoke Bruerne, 1958.
08-24  Beverley approaching the top lock at Blisworth Arm - 1960.
08-25  Coln in 1959.
08-27   The "Ovaltine" boats.  They were used to transport coal from the Coventry area to the Ovaltine factory in Kings Langley.  They were maintained spotlessly and served as a floating advertisement for the companies products, primarily the chocolate-based "health drink".
08-28   Progress   One of the few wide-beam boats.

 

 

 

 

 

08-29   "The 95"   Ice-breaker - with power from a dozen men to rock the boat as it runs forward, so snapping off slabs of ice.  Date January 1962.

This was the Gayton iceboat and originally a horse iceboat, converted to Bolinder power, and later to a "multi-cylinder".  I have heard tell that it was experimentally fitted with some hammers, which were unsuccessful.

 

 
08-51  President at the Bicentenary event - built 1909 by FMC as a steam boat, currently owned by the Black Country Museum.  It is drawing butty Kildare, a rivetted iron bottomed josher built 1913.
08-52  A restored BCN tug called James Loader built in 1945 for Leonard Leigh Ltd.  She is now owned by Peter Boyce.
08-53 President and Kildare.
08-54 Adamant
08-55  Heron in 1958 at West Bridge.
08-60  President emerging from the tunnel at the time of the Bicentenary event, June 2005.
08-61  Adamant a few moments later.
08-64   This arrangement of brushes set on a circle of wood was built in 1908 in order to sweep soot from the roof of the tunnel.  An earlier idea was simply to fix a large hawthorn bush onto a boat and tow that through the tunnel.  Photo by T. W. Millner.
08-65   GJCCo Steam tug "Spider".  One of a small fleet of tugs used to draw groups through the tunnel once the practice of legging had been discontinued.
08-66   A steam tug in 1930, resting by the old ironstone bridge at the Blisworth end of the tunnel.  The tug has been identified as the Anslow.