IN DAYS GONE BY
A Canals Rivers + Boats special supplement
We continue our exclusive serialization of the newly discovered canal
war diary of Evelyn Hunt, an ‘Idle Woman’ - edited by Tim Coghlan
- which gives a fascinating daily insight into life on the canals and
the Home Front in 1943. We rejoin Evelyn & Co on London’s Regents
Canal, heading north for Birmingham after loading steel billets - freshly
made steel in the form of long round metal bars - at Limehouse Dock.
PART 12: I think
boating is a remarkably
dangerous game!
Keep smiling through: After seventeen tough months on the Cut as an Idle Woman, the 23 year old Audrey Harper is seen still smiling at the helm
of the GUCCC motor Sun, and towing the butty Dipper past Victoria Park in London’s East End in May, 1944. Known to the GUCCC authorities as
Steerer Harper, she was in effect captain of the trio of volunteer nice gals, known to their namesakes as Audrey-Evelyn-Anne - the Christian names
of the trio. Audrey was a Stratford-upon-Avon farmer’s daughter, who pre-war had trained as a nurse. In late 1942, she volunteered to become an
Idle Woman, and proved to be a true natural when it came to canal carrying, and was probably the best boat-handler of them all. Within months of
volunteering, she could, on good days, equal the day-runs of the working boatmen. She also had natural English Rose looks that made her the first
port of call for the Home Front propaganda machine - and it is thanks to this, that so many photographs of her and her trio have survived, several seen
in our Evelyn’s War series for the first time. (John Monnington Collection)
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Thursday, 26th August 1943
Casey Bridge
(Ed: No entry for the day except stating place, the boatmen
name for Cassiobury Park Lock - an indication of increasing
‘diary fatigue’. The previous night’s full entry, recorded in
Part 11, was recorded at City Road Lock, after loading up and
leaving Limehouse Dock.)
Friday, 27th August 1943
Leighton Buzzard
A very bad day - another Black Friday! I excelled myself by
stemming a pair of Faulkner boats (Ed: carriers L.B. Faulkner
of Leighton Buzzard, who ceased trading in 1956) good and
hard on the bad corner before Nag’s Head 3 locks, and buckled
the guard on their motor bows. I was not cutting the corner,
but Audrey had warned me that they were coming, so I left
about a boat’s width on the corner for them to pass - but it
was too much, for my stern got caught by the mud and, try
as I might, I could not get the bows round and went straight
for them. It was a horrible feeling. They were very nice about
it and realised that I couldn’t help it, but I felt bad about it all
the same. They said, “They should clean the cut out”. Which is
quite true. Then at Neal’s lock we let the boats run back and
the motor helm just caught on the sill and off she came. So we
went on out of the lock as there were boats waiting to come in,
and as it was possible to steer we went on. Outside the lock we
met Cicely and her friend who had returned from their strange
travels to Manchester. They were 2 handed as Molly was up
in town on business. We went all right till we were nearly at
Leighton when the helm dropped and jammed. We managed
to crawl to Leighton and kind Alf Best put it on for us in the
dark. (Ed: Cicely was another Idle Woman friend. The diary
reference shows just how far around the canal system the gals
travelled and increasingly towards the end of the war, were
reduced to a crew of two, due to shortages of boatmen. Audrey
and Evelyn were to get a taste of it later in this episode when
Anne becomes ill with jaundice.)
Loading steel billets at Limehouse Dock: Audrey, possibly posing, looking up
towards the crane driver, whilst Evelyn replaces the cross planks after loading
the butty. The freshly made round steel bars were very heavy and dangerous to
carry - due to potential listing in collisions or taking a corner badly – so small
cargoes were carried. The steel probably came across the Atlantic in convoy to
Limehouse Dock from the Bethlehem Steel Works in the USA. Astonishingly as
Evelyn’s diary reveals, despite the best endeavours of the German war machine
– only miles away across the Channel, huge quantities of raw materials made it
right up the Channel and into the London Docks. And as the diary again reveals,
food, whilst rationed, was plentiful. (John Monnington Collection)
Saturday, 28th August 1943
Blisworth
We were lucky enough to get a lovely bath and quite
a good meal at the Hotel here tonight. (Ed: It survives
today as the Walnut Tree Hotel.) Audrey hadn’t had
a bath for a fortnight, so she was pretty glad of it. It
has been wet most of the day and very unpleasant.
We tied early – at about 7 o’clock and didn’t feel
ashamed. The helm we found to be still off the motor
after we started in the morning. We could get along all
right but it was rather uncomfortable. When we got
to Stoke Bruerne I told the dear old lock-keeper that
we had the helm off the motor and he told me that a
pair of boats had been tied at the bottom for a whole
day whilst they tried to get the helm on. They thought
Racing through the wide-waters of London’s Regent’s Canal in
London’s East End: The butty Dipper is following in the wash of
the motor, which would have slowed the pair of boats – the normal
practice being to steer the butty away on one side in undisturbed
water. Possibly the two girls on the butty were having a break, with
only light steering required on this straight stretch of canal. A wharf
with crane and some moored wide-beam boats can just be seen to
the rear-right. To the left are signs of German bomb damage.
(John Monnington Collection)
32 / canals rivers + boats - december 2012
IN DAYS GONE BY
the ironwork was bent and had sent for a fitter, but the old
man said he “went across their butty and lifted it straight
on for them and they went off straight away”. So we said he
had better try ours, and in the second lock he came onto the
motor, lifted up the helm and dropped it straight on! I was
amazed and he said those were the only two helms he has ever
put on in his life! He seems to have a rare gift!
Sunday, 29th August 1943
Top of Radford
Audrey did a real boating feat at the Top of Itchington today
- she brought the boats single handed from above the Boat
into the top lock, when Anne got off the butty to try to catch a
little cat who looked extraordinarily like Ike. I had gone ahead
to enquire whether anyone had seen Ike about there, and had
found out from some children that he was living in the engine
house at the cement works. So I decided to go back in the
evening to see if he was there. I went on and made the top lock
of Itchington ready and then, seeing the boats coming, went
on to the second. I looked back and saw the boats coming into
the top lock very strangely and went back to find only Audrey
with 2 boats! She got them in all right too! Anne couldn’t catch
the little cat, but there is little doubt that it was Ike and that
he has found a comfortable home in the engine house. I am
ashamed to say I stemmed a Barlow boat in a bridge hole
today - once again I was on the bottom, but there was no harm
done this time. We did Braunston locks abreast today and it
did not take much longer.
Approaching Cosgrove having crossed the Iron Trunk Aqueduct over the
Great Ouse: The fore end of the motor Sun, with bicycle tied to the side cloth
lines, heading north. Ashore is Evelyn cycling ahead on her bicycle to set up the
Cosgrove Lock, seen in the distance. Evelyn would probably have disembarked
on the aqueduct. (John Monnington Collection)
Monday, 30th August 1943
Tyseley
We arrived here safely at 7.30 pm, having had a good road all
the way. I unclothed the butty in the last stretch of the pound,
so that it would be ready for unloading in the morning. Anne
abandoned the tiller from time to time to help me fold the top
cloths - very clever of us, we thought. So I went to bed early
and had supper in bed. We were all terribly tired.
Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom…: The legendary Sister
Mary Ward, later BEM, seen with Audrey at Stoke Bruerne Top Lock in May
1944, when Sister Mary was aged 59. The beloved Sister may well have just
returned from shopping for fish in Northampton, judging by her shopping bag.
Her home come-surgery is just visible to the right - now an Indian restaurant.
Sister Mary never trained as a nurse, but spent her early life working as a
‘travelling sister’ in convents in Europe and the USA, before returning home
to Stoke Bruerne to nurse her sick father, and thus becoming involved with the
boatmen. She died in 1972 and was buried in the now closed Baptist chapel in
nearby Roade. Her tombstone was rescued and now stands in the garden at the
rear of the Stoke Bruerne Museum. Sister Mary is recorded as saying, “People
think my boat people are dirty and crude and want to get rid of them, but they
are wonderful, proud, wise people.” She made a great impression on Evelyn, and
a 1950s magazine article on Sister Mary survives amongst her photographs and
mementoes of her time on the Cut. But her diary does not record the trio making
use of Sister Mary’s nursing skills. (John Monnington Collection)
Tuesday, 31st August 1943
Min’orth
(Ed: Minworth a village just beyond Birmingham on the
Birmingham & Fazeley Canal) I will try and write the Saga
of the Bottom Road! It is a lovely name, the Bottom Road,
romantic and appealing but the road is hardly as appealing as
its name, yet it is fun for us to travel it. (Ed: The Bottom Road
was the boatmen term for the long, relatively lock free run on
the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal from Salford Junction, at the
bottom of the Aston Locks, to the bottom of the Atherstone Flight.
It seems to have been used only in times of water shortages
for the run from Birmingham to the North Warwick Coalfields.
It was unpopular because of the filthy state of the locks in the
wastelands of industrial Birmingham; and also that the all the
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locks including the flights were narrow, which with a pair of
boats meant a great deal more work, bow-hauling the butty
through by hand. It also took longer than the preferred route
of going back round the Grand Union and up the North Oxford.
That could be done in a day and half - whereas here Evelyn
is hoping to do it in two. Fellow Idle Woman Emma Smith
hated the Bottom Road, and in her book ‘Maiden’s Trip’ vividly
describes how ‘Instead of turning the boats round at Tysley,
we were being sent straight on, past the shunting-yards and
back-street grime of Birmingham, to battle for two days with
that unholy of all unholies, the Bottom Road… The factories we
passed were squalid affairs with blackish brick and smothered
glass. They crouched beside that disenchanted water like old
slum women nourished on gin and disease.’) We were unloaded
by dinner time today, and at 2.30 we set out for the Bottom
Road. Audrey disappeared down the locks with the motor
and Anne and I were left in charge of the butty. Everyone was
full of instructions and directions but as they were so long
and complicated we were unable to sort them out all at one,
so collected information as to the locks and the turns from
people we met on the way. The Camp Hill locks took us under
dark bridges and between dark buildings, but though they
were hardly clean they were in no way as dirty as the Saltley
locks - the sides of those were thick with oil, which covers the
boats, the ropes and consequently us. We were black when
we reached the bottom but felt that our blackness fitted the
dismal surroundings. After these locks, we passed through
a more open but hopelessly desolate part of Birmingham.
Everywhere chimneys belched smoke and sulphurous fumes
Lock 3 on the Braunston Flight in May 1944: The lock has emptied and the
butty - just visible - is leaving under tow. Beyond the lock is a bicycle with
the diminutive Anne about to set off for the next lock. In the distance around
the bend to the right is the roof of the Admiral Nelson at Lock 4. Today the
vegetation is much thicker with the hedges higher, but otherwise the scene is
little changed. (John Monnington Collection)
which got into the throat so that I coughed hopelessly. There
was nothing green to relieve the monotonous grey buildings
and chimney smoke - a grim place indeed. After Salford Lock,
we came to the famous bad turn about which we had heard
so many tales, but we managed to get round it safely and set
forth for Min’orth. We came through an extremely low tunnel
bridge and arrived at the locks accompanied by a stream of
amusing small boys asking unsuccessfully for a ride!
Wednesday, 1st September 1943
Atherstone
Tea and Sympathy: Anne (L) and Evelyn, with her hair-band, relaxing and
enjoying a fag in the butty cabin after a long day’s run. Audrey’s hand is seen
stirring the tea. Evelyn and Audrey slept in the butty with Anne in the motor. The
alarm clock ready for those early starts, is seen on the shelf.
(John Monnington Collection)
34 / canals rivers + boats - december 2012
As I write we are travelling down Bottom Road, having left
Min’orth half an hour ago. We were dragged from our beds
by hearing a man shouting at his horse who wouldn’t stop,
and of course we were tied too near the lock for his Joey
boat to pass, so out we had to pour, in a tousled condition,
to move our boats up! It is a lovely morning with a pale blue
sky mottled with gold edged clouds where the sun is rising,
while in the west, grey streaked clouds have been brushed
across the mottled ones. Isn’t it hopeless to try and describe a
morning sky? I must stick to mundane things and write how
we have just been stuck with “something in the blades”, and
how, soon after we got going again, we met another Joey boat,
with one man leaning over that boat’s side, lathering his face
in soap and cut water about to shave. All day we expected the
Bottom Road to get worse and worse because of the fearful
tales we had been told, but though the water was indeed low
after the Curdworth locks, we got along all right, going warily,
and navigated the second bad right turn better than the
first. It rained hard after the bottom of Curdworth which was
unpleasant and my shoes leaked fearfully. Two men with a
horse boat took over for us at Glascote 2 locks - one boy seized
our motor and took it up the locks and the other attached the
horse to our butty and roared it into the locks, knocking the
kettle off the stove, but they were very kind, as was another
charming horse-boatman we met up the Atherstone locks.
IN DAYS GONE BY
‘We did the Braunston locks abreast today and it did not take much longer’: Audrey showing her skills at
kicking open the bottom gates of a Grand union double lock – a time-saving but very dangerous procedure,
especially when the locks were wet or frosty, or on a dark night when the person falling in the water might not be
seen, and few boatmen could swim. The lock here is probably Lock 4 on the Braunston flight - called Shop Lock
by the boatmen because of the shop, then open, that served the boatmen. (John Monnington Collection)
Thursday, 2nd September 1943
Longford
We are through the Bottom Road, loaded and ready to be away
tomorrow morning as soon as Audrey gets back from B’ham.
Daphne (French) appeared ahead of us up Atherstone locks
last night, having loaded at a colliery half way up the locks.
We all tied at the top and we got off just before them this
morning - late - I am ashamed to say, but we were tired after
hauling the butty through all those locks. There are no more
locks after Atherstone and it took us till 11 o’clock to get to
Hawkesbury but the pound was very low. We got very short
of food on the Bottom Road and were out of butter, jam and
cereals by this morning. So immediately we got here I dashed
off up to the Co-op and bought all our rations. Audrey joined
me and we went to the greengrocers. I didn’t realise there was
not much money in our kitty when I dashed off, but we told
the lady in the greengrocers how much we had to spend and
we spent it all but ½d! She was most kind and let us have 1lb
of tomatoes - our last 1/4d! They said at first they wouldn’t
load us till tomorrow. But after lunch, as we were comfortably
settled, reading an absurd book Audrey was given by a man in
the oil barge down Limehouse way, Old Bill came to tell us he
wanted us right away.
Friday 3rd September 1943
Top of Buckby
A very good run, ending with a trek through the Braunston
Tunnel and on in the dark to the top of Buckby. We plan to
get to Finny tomorrow so that Anne may see her sister and I
may see Philip. (Ed: Evelyn’s older and very clever brother who
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‘I went on and made the top lock of
Itchington ready…’: Lock 12 on the
Stockton Flight in about the 1950s effectively the bottom lock with the lock
keeper’s cottage. (Weaver Collection/HNBC)
worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park.
She was one of eight children. He only recently
died.) The water stopped coming through the
engine halfway up the Braunston locks, and
when Audrey had done the mud boxes it came
through again practically boiling hot. “It soon
gets hot, don’t it”?, said the old lock keeper
who was looking on. “Yes, it do!” said I.
Saturday, 4th September 1943
Finny
We followed Kitty (Gayford) all day - we
knew she had left the bottom of Buckby this
morning, but little did she know that we were
behind! The Wilsons told us as we were coming
down the locks and they also told us that
Marjorie had left her dog at Stoke Bruerne,
and I promised to collect it and clean forgot.
Wasn’t it awful of me? We reached Finny
before 8 o’clock and I bicycled off to see Philip
and Eleanor, who happily, were at home.
Richard is really lovely and says, “Ogly, Ogly”,
as a result of Eleanor saying, “Golly, Golly” to
him! Audrey had a great party with Kitty and
Co. Anne’s sister came to visit her for a few
moments.
‘We arrived here (Tyseley) at 7.30 pm, having made a good road all the way… We were all terribly
tired’: The last pair of GUCCC boats to unload at Jimpson Yard, Tyseley in 1947 before this great
canal carrying company, for which Evelyn & Co served two and a half years, was nationalized to
become part of the new British Waterways. Within a few years canal carrying was in steep decline,
despite good intentions on the part of its new owner. (Laurence Hogg)
36 / canals rivers + boats - december 2012
Sunday, 5th September 1943
Berkhamstead
We had a terrible road all day behind Mr
and Mrs Hunt (Lord how slow they are!) who
IN DAYS GONE BY
‘The Camp Hill locks took us under dark bridges and
between dark buildings…’: Sampson Road depot looking
towards Camp Hill top lock in the 1950s. Already this once
thriving canal dock, as described by Evelyn, was empty, with
buildings falling into dereliction. Amazingly the canal depot
buildings (left) still survive and could be restored as part of
Birmingham’s industrial heritage.
(Weaver Collection/HNBC)
were behind Hughy (still slower!) (Ed: Other
volunteers who worked the canals. They
included some retired naval servicemen.) Kitty
was behind us and caught us up at Gas 2 and
we all decided to tie at Berko. We were tired
of breasting up outside every lock and Audrey
seemed to be lock-wheeling for Hughy and
the Hunts as well as for ourselves, and got
very little thanks! We had Kitty to supper and
afterwards had a nice gossip in the Crystal
Palace. It was grand to see so much of Kitty
and we gossiped tremendously as usual.
Monday, 6th September 1943
Apsley Mills
Reached Apsley at about 9.30 and found our
gentle crane driver and his mate were on
holiday, and a Holy Terror was in charge of the
‘We were tied too near the lock for this Joey boat to pass’: A horse-drawn Joey boat leaving the 2nd lock down the Camp Hill flight The boat was doubled fronted, so
it could go in either direction by moving the rudder to the other end, without having to turn the boat round. On this occasion the cabin is seen at the front of the boat.
Many Joeys had no cabin, as they were mainly day-boats, but this one has a rudimentary one, suggesting that it travelled further afield than the Birmingham Canal
Navigation, as recounted here. (Weaver Collection/HNBC)
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crane. He was terrified of the crane, obviously, and dropped
the grab onto our side cloth and bit a great chunk out of it. We
were really scared and feared he might sink our boat. In the
evening we went to the ‘pictures’ and saw Colonel Blimp, which
we much enjoyed. We found the gate into the Mills locked on
our return, so we scaled them - a dangerous procedure as they
were highly garnished with iron spikes! There are few factories
we can’t get into if we try!
Tuesday, 7th September 1943
Bull’s Bridge
The motor was unloaded without mishap and we left Apsley at
midday. It was dark when we reached the Bridge this evening
so we tied by the Oil Store to save getting into the layby. I
believe it is rather an illegal thing to do, but who cares?
Wednesday, 8th September 1943
Addison Road
Off on leave!
Thursday, 9th September 1943
Steyning (In West Sussex)
Until Friday 17th September 1943
(Ed: No entries made as diarist on leave.)
Saturday, 18th September 1943
Bull’s Bridge
Orders for Brentford. Telegram from Anne to say she is in bed
with a temperature. (It transpired to be jaundice from which she
quickly recovered - so fit were the gals.)
‘We brought the motor down ourselves and then went back and ordered a
horse to pull the butty down...’: The horse-drawn Fellows Morton & Clayton
butty Columbia leaving Saltley (Garrison) bottom lock at an undetermined date.
Clues are that it was built in 1907 at Saltley Dock in Birmingham, and had its
last repaint and overhaul in Uxbridge Dock in 1936, before being converted to a
motor at Yarwoods in 1939. (Cyril Arapoff/Laurence Hogg)
‘It rained hard after the bottom of Curdworth, which was unpleasant and my shoes leaked fearfully.’: An unidentified large Woolwich motor entering Curdworth
lock No 6 in about the mid 1950s. (Weaver Collection/HNBC)
38 / canals rivers + boats - december 2012
IN DAYS GONE BY
Sunday, 19th September 1943
Brentford
Audrey and I started off two-handed. Reached Brentford at
11.30 am. (Ed: Sadly this briefly recorded visit to Brentford was
the only occasion in the diary when Evelyn & Co visited that
bustling canal port on the Thames.)
Monday, 20th September 1943
2 Bridges above Bull’s Bridge
Loaded after lunch by Johnny Sidwell and Peter Tyler, who
eventually adopted our boats, clothed up for us, collected our
tickets and whistled us up through the locks. We reached
the top soon after 8 o’clock. (Ed: The Hanwell Flight) Were
cursed at by the amusing lock keeper who pretended to be
wild because Johnny and Peter let us draw up the top paddles
before the side ponds had run out. “You bloody perishers”, he
said, “you aren’t half teaching them a thing or two!” He was
horrified because Audrey had had all three side pond paddles
up at once, when we were coming down, and banged with his
windlass on the gates in his wrath! He was laughing all the
time behind his cursings! Johnny burped and said, “Manners”
and Audrey and I nearly collapsed with giggles.
Tuesday, 21st September 1943
King’s Langley
Most of the locks with us today. Left Bull’s Bridge at 11.30
am and reached King’s Langley at 7.45 pm. Picked up a motor
tyre in the blades outside Widewater lock and had to pull the
boats into the lock. Elspeth and the Fearful Amy were waiting
outside the lock - they were also two handed.
‘At Curdworth locks two pairs of boats caught us up… There was on pair of
Barlows…’: A pair of Samuel Barlows boats tied opposite Newdigate Colliery
Arm, just loaded with coal bound for Apsley paper mills in 1956.
(Weaver Collection/HNBC)
Wednesday, 22nd September 1943
Leighton
Left King’s Langley 7 am and reached Leighton at 8.15 pm,
when it was pretty well dark. Had every lock ready for us!
We were followed by two pairs of Wilsons who passed us at
Leighton. Picked up another motor tyre in the blades outside
Boxmoor lock!
Thursday, 23 September 1943
Top of Stoke Bruerne
Left Leighton at 7.30 am after pumping the butty. Arrived
Stoke Bruerne at 7 o’clock - an easy day. Let 3 pairs pass at
Finny whilst we did our shopping. The dear old lock keeper
gave us a huge apple.
Friday, 24th September 1943
Top of Wigrams
Left Stoke Bruerne at 7 am, having fixed the masthead lamp
on the motor bows as the headlamp wasn’t working. It came
on however soon after we got into the tunnel. Reached the top
of Wigrams at 7.30 pm. Dark and raining. Had liver and bacon
and tomatoes for supper.
Saturday, 25th September 1943
Black Boy
‘We all tied at the top (of Atherstone locks)’: There were a number of collieries
north of Atherstone with their own arms to the Coventry Canal, where loading
took place, as seen here with Idle Woman Daphne French’s loading. Coal was
also delivered from collieries further afield by lorry to Atherstone Wharf, where
it could be tipped straight into narrowboats, a practice that continued until the
last Jam ‘Ole Run in October 1970. Seen here on 3rd April, 1970 is the Blue Line
narrowboat Stanton starting to be loaded with slack for the Jam ‘Ole in Southall,
with boatman Jim Collins supervising. (Jim Stadnick)
Left Wigrams at 6.30 am and did a damn good run reaching
the Black Boy soon after dark. All Itchington and Hatton locks
were against us! What a sweat! (Ed: A truly astonishing run
when considered the gals were only double-handed, the boats
were loaded, and all the locks were against them.) There was a
bloody man in the bloody pub who had bloody rubber on his
bloody shoes, and was very attached to his bloody bike - but,
Gor’struth!, he couldn’t ride it in the snow in bloody 1916! I
have never heard so many bloody bloodies in all my life.
Sunday, 26th September 1943
Camp Hill
Reached Camp Hill at 1.15 pm, having left Black Boy at
about 8 o’clock. Met some Jossers in the worst possible place,
just before the Anchor and spent over half an hour trying
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to pass them, both of us going hard ahead and hard astern
alternately, and neither of us moving at all!
Monday, 27th September 1943
Warwick Wharf
What a place! A filthy little hole in a low part of Birmingham,
where grit blows into your cabin continually, and rats run
about on the wharf side! But we found a grand place for
‘dinner’! An ex-pub, where food was served from behind the
bar instead of drinks, and very good food too - roast veal and
two veg, very well cooked, followed by jam tart and tea - nice
tea! The man behind the bar was most polite to us, called
us ‘Madam’ and said “ta–ta” to us when we left. We brought
the motor down ourselves and then went back and ordered a
horse to pull the butty down, as we couldn’t possibly manage
it ourselves. A nice man called Albert came with the horse, a
gentle stout man, and it was lively sailing quietly down the
locks in the butty. The crane is broken down here so they
cannot unload us today.
Tuesday, 28th September 1943
Warwick Wharf
Still parked in the filthy little hole and nowhere near being
unloaded - we have to wait for lorries. An occasional one
comes to take a load from us, then another lorry will come
laden with brass rods to be loaded onto a pair of Fellows boats
behind us. So we keep swapping our boats over, no easy
job, as there is only just room for two pairs of boats in this
little backwater! Audrey and I are occupied painting - she is
doing the other ship and I am getting on with the doors. We
have many onlookers who appear impressed! It is considered
wonderful by the boatpeople to be able to paint! (Ed: The
cargoes going into the FMC Warwick Wharf, near Warwick Bar,
were mainly foodstuffs, termed ‘groceries, by the FMC - hence
the rats. These foodstuffs came up from Brentford, ex-lighterage
from the London docks, and were probably what the girls
carried in their ‘sacks.)
‘A very good run, ending with a trek through the Braunston Tunnel’: The
western entrance to the 2042 yards long Braunston Tunnel, opened in 1796, as
seen in May 1944. That scene is little changed today.
(John Monnington Collection)
Wednesday, 29th September 1943
Warwick Wharf
At last we are unloaded, swept up and ready for a perilous
voyage round the bottom road. Audrey and I went off for a
bath, leaving Ken on the boats. (Ken was Audrey’s boyfriend,
whom she married in 1946. We believe he was a medical
student in Birmingham, and so able to join Audrey from time
to time.) When we came back there was a large red label
“INFECTIOUS” tied to our butty chimney. Ken was looking
very innocent. Larry Tyler, Peter’s brother unloaded us.
Quite a family affair, as the old man remarked. Larry said he
must speak to “our kid” about some bags which were loaded
higgledy-piggledy into the boat! There is a nice old chap here
with a wooden leg, an ex-boatman, who tripped and caught his
foot in the strap in a lock at Stoke Bruerne. I think boating is
a remarkably dangerous game!
Thursday, 30th September 1943
Bottom of Curdworth
‘We had Kitty to supper and afterwards had a nice gossip in The Crystal
Palace’: The Crystal Palace at Berkhamstead in the early 1960s and bar the
bright external colouring, much as Evelyn would have known it. The pub was
always popular with the working boatmen. In Evelyn’s time there were three
canalside pubs built close by to each other, the other two now gone. Today The
Crystal Palace survives and thrives, though its external colouring is a postSixties whiter shade of pale. (The Crystal Palace)
40 / canals rivers + boats - december 2012
A pretty fiendish day down the Bottom Road. At Min’orth we
let the Beechies through and at Curdworth two pairs of boats
caught us up and we parked our motor in one place and our
butty in another and let them through while we had dinner!
They were awfully nice. There was one pair of Barlows and one
pair of G.U.’s - the Barlow boy was driving the G.U. motor and
the G.U. man was on the Barlow boat, so we didn’t quite know
where we were! When we got the butty up to the motor we
found it hard on the bottom and we had a fearful job getting
it off. No sooner did we get the motor off than the butty would
be blown onto the mud; then when we got the butty free the
motor would be on again! We went on like this for ages and we
were exhausted when we reached the bottom of Curdworth.
IN DAYS GONE BY
Friday, 1st October 1943
Hawkesbury
A much better run today. We found the two pairs of boats we
had let through yesterday tied at the top of Glascote and they
took our orders for us and waved us on! They caught us up
again half way up Atherstone, the Barlow boy still on the G.U.
boat! We reached here just before dark so found the planks
down.
Saturday, 2nd October 1943
Longford
We ran out to Longford this morning and I tootled off to
Leamington and Audrey went home. Orders for Apsley.
Sunday, 3rd October 1943
Longford
Had a very nice day in Leamington and returned here at about
6.30! I met Audrey on the bus at Leamington and we had to
wait ages in Coventry for a bus to Bedworth. It was bitter cold,
too. Next time I shall bring a bike.
Monday, 4th October 1943
Newbold
Audrey and I have excelled ourselves today - we have left all
three bikes behind at Longford! I realised it half way between
Hawkesbury and Newbold and laughed uproariously to
myself and had no-one to tell the joke to! Oddly enough I was
reminded of the bikes by seeing 3 independent looking pigs
taking a stroll along the towpath. I suppose it was the number
The ‘crystal’ Crystal Palace: The original frontage of the pub was made to look
like a Crystal Palace - it is said because William Paxton lived in Berkhamstead.
He was the brother of the architect of the London Crystal Palace, Sir Joseph
Paxton. Built in 1854, it replaced a small beerhouse called the Engine Inn. The
façade was changed in the early 20th century to its more cottagy smaller window
appearance, it is said, because the façade became a target for footplate-men on
the nearby passing trains to throw lumps of coal at it - and what missed, the local
vandals took up with glee. A photograph survives in the Crystal Palace pub of
the local militia parading before the original façade for the coronation of Edward
VII. (The Crystal Palace)
3 which jogged my memory! I broke the news to Audrey at
Newbold. Kitty arrived at Longford this morning and helped us
cloth up and, as usual, it was lovely to see her. Perhaps she
will take care of our bikes for us. The people who have followed
us - overtaken us - and followed us again were so kind and
helped us load our motor boat as Old Bill was away. They had
spent all the weekend painting and their boats do look lovely.
They were impressed by our painting, too.
Tuesday, 5th October 1943
Blisworth
Arrived at the Arm End at dusk and went to the Hotel for a
bath and a meal. There is something very strange about that
place and I believe eyes are closed there to all sorts of ‘goings
on’ and strange practices. They have taken to charging us a
great deal for very little, too. Perhaps we are not quite their
‘type’ or a little too moral, or something. I don’t believe they
are encouraging us! (ED: Another frank revelation by Evelyn
- never intended for publication. Just what ‘goings on’ went
on, at what was then called the Blisworth Hotel, is open to
much speculation. One thinks of ‘Brief Encounters’ galore, the
hotel being so isolated and very close to then Blisworth Station
on the mainline - hotels have always made a good revenue
from what is termed in the trade ‘day-lets’. Or perhaps being
out in the country and with good access to friendly farmers,
black marketing went on there a massive scale - remember
Maggie Smith’s A Private Function? Evelyn mentions the meals
she enjoyed here. She also comments elsewhere on the free
‘Orders for Brentford’: Busy Brentford dock in about 1930. Whilst Evelyn’s
diary gives many wonderful descriptions of loading in Limehouse Dock, her
description here is sadly only a few words. Today almost nothing survives of
this village-dock beyond the lock structures. The environs have been given
over to waterside flat developments, with the one surviving warehouse awaiting
demolition. (Waterways Trust)
canals rivers + boats - december 2012 / 41
A Canals Rivers + Boats special supplement
IN DAYS GONE BY
availability of food, if you knew where to get it. With the station
long closed, and rationing gone, nothing of course goes on like
that today! Instead the welcoming family owned hotel - now
called the Walnut Tree - is run to a very high standard, with
excellent food and drink - not to mention the good meeting
facilities, which are used regularly by the Northampton Branch
of the IWA.)
Wednesday, 6th October 1943
Leighton Buzzard
This seems to be becoming one of our most popular tie-ups.
It is certainly a good tie-up. We reached here just before dark
this evening having followed another two-handed pair all day.
They were very slow as they had many children to wash, dress
and feed on their way down the locks. We were shocked to
see the baby’s nappies being washed in the cut. They must
become immune to most diseases at a very early age!
Thursday, 7th October 1943
Apsley Mills
All the locks, practically, were against us today as we are
again following the two handed pair with the many children.
But we got here nicely at 7o’clock and there is another pair
with one boat still to be unloaded, so we can stay in bed late
in the morning. The James’s caught us up at Salter’s lock - at
Fishery we were surprised to see two boys leap from boats
tied above the lock and fill it for us. They then leapt onto the
‘Did a damn good run reaching the Black Boy soon after Dark’: The Black
Boy Inn in the 1940s, as Evelyn would have known it - then very much a remote
canalside pub. It was also popular with cyclists from Birmingham accessing it
on the good towpath, as seen here. The original ancient pub on the Warwick road
was one of many post- Restoration pubs named, or renamed, after the nickname
that Charles II was given by his mother, because of his dark skin and eyes. The
pub was moved to its present position in 1793, with the arrival of the canal.
(Knowle Local History Society)
The Black Boy inn today: Although much extended
in recent times, since it was acquired and restored
by the Rigby family in 1993, the original building
is still easily recognizable. And despite attempts
by political correctionists to change its name, the
Rigbies have stood their ground, emphasising the
Charles II connection wherever possible - including
its pub sign. The neighbouring boat club succumbed
and is now The Black Buoy Cruising Club!
(Tim Coghlan)
A country girl on a country canal: Farmer’s daughter Audrey Harper steering
the butty Dipper heading north on the Grand Union, probably near Weedon, in
May 1944. Spring flowers gathered in the hedgerows by the towpath make a
floral display in a milk jug. (John Monnington Collection)
bows of our boats, checked us, tied us abreast, and had us all
fixed up in two seconds. It was little Albert and George Sibley.
They really are cute little kids. The James’s, too, were most
kind and sent their boy on to fill the two Apsley locks for us.
Boats were coming up, which saved him the trouble, luckily.
Mrs James went off to get fish and chips at Boxmoor and told
me where to go; they are a nice family and Audrey and I have
really quite fallen for the delightful Mr James. Our gentle
crane driver is back again.
We will continue with the fascinating wartime adventures of Evelyn & Co. as they continue to work the triangular route of
London, Birmingham and Coventry via the Grand Union and North Oxford Canals.
42 / canals rivers + boats - december 2012