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What was it really like to live on board a 30ft canal boat in the late 1950s before there were such things as service points and fully equipped marinas?
This week we continue with ‘The Kathy Chronicles’ where Mum describes how they began to settle into life afloat, whilst making extensive alterations, as well their plans for the arrival of a new baby. She provides a fascinating picture of the realities of what it was like to live-aboard a canal boat in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Episode Information:
You can listen to part 1 of The Kathy Chronicles - here.
Hampton Hall Farm moorings on the right in the 1950s. Coincidentally, a converted ship's lifeboat can be seen moored (on the right). This is not the Kathy, but is close to the spot where the Kathy would eventually be moored.
The photograph (photographer unknown) is from the excellent canal heritage and history magazine NarrowBoat (Issue 56 Winter 2019) which offers some great resources for those interested in canal history. Permission for use granted.
Wendy and Kismus on the Kathy - two of the portholes are just visible at the top of the photograph
Wendy standing in the entrance to the new galley (water hose is bottom right)
All the mod cons!! - bathtime with plenty of hot water for Wendy.
You can find a bit more inforation about our time on the boat by clicking on the 'The Start of it All' tab in the menu.
With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.
Sean James Cameron
Phil Pickin
Orange Cookie
Donna Kelly
Mary Keane.
Tony Rutherford.
Arabella Holzapfel.
Rory with MJ and Kayla.
Narrowboat Precious Jet.
Linda Reynolds Burkins.
Richard Noble.
Carol Ferguson.
Tracie Thomas
Mike and Tricia Stowe
Madeleine Smith
General Details
In the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org.
Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence.
Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.
All other audio recorded on site.
For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters
You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com. It will also allow you to become more a part of the podcast and you can leave comments, offer suggestions, and reviews. You can even, if you want, leave me a voice mail by clicking on the microphone icon.
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Contact
For pictures of Erica and images related to the podcasts or to contact me, follow me on:
I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message using the voicemail facility by clicking on the microphone icon.
It’s summertime and, as the song goes, the living is easy, and it’s time for a slightly different summer readings as we continue with The Kathy Chronicles. Although tonight the rain is sweeping across the valley below us. We are on a rather uncharacteristic part of the canal at the moment. Usually, canals follow fairly rigid channels, often following river valleys. You get used to looking up to things. But here, we are on a high embankment. To our left, the ground drops sharply away to a broad glacial valley of old woodland and fields. Prosperous looking farmhouses are scattered along the valley floor, their roofs shining in the rain. From time to time a distant dog barks. The rain flicks and patters on the canal. To our right the ground drops away giddily, almost vertically to acres of tree plantations. Conifers. A bird’s eye view of military rows of Christmas trees.
This year’s summer readings are a bit different, so come inside out of the wet. It’s warm and dry. The coffee pot is still hot, the biscuit barrel is full. So come inside and welcome aboard.
A couple of weeks ago in episode 124 (‘A little clinker-built boat’) I read a couple of chapters from Mum’s unpublished autobiography, Life and Erica, in which she explained the reasons behind their decision to live on board a boat on the canal at the tail end of the 1950s – a period of her life that she always looked back upon with great fondness. Even when, in later life, her memories were fading she would often happily chat about life on the boat and at the moorings. There are probably many reasons for this. Having fairly recently arrived back (almost penniless) from Canada, she and Dad (Mick) were once more starting out on their life together. The stress and tribulations of what, reading between the lines, was clearly not an altogether easy time abroad had clearly cemented their relationship together and made it rock solid. They were both still young and finding their way in a world that was filled with possibilities – these were the post-war years when rationing was now, slowly, ending, and everyone’s thoughts were to the future. Wendy, my sister, had just been born and was soon to be on the way. The boat, therefore, formed a cradle in more ways than one. Literally for both Wendy and myself, but also for the formation of us as a family – that challenging transition from a couple (and their cat) to a family. Arguably, the Kathy constituted the cradle for us as a family. It is therefore, perhaps, not surprising that this was the time, along with her childhood, that, for Mum, became the golden period of her life and to which her mind and her thoughts would naturally settle.
The response to that episode was one of greatest I have received for any podcast episode with so many people asking to hear for more. Therefore, over the next couple of weeks, I will read her entire account of when we all lived on a boat.
In part 1 we heard how Mum and Dad, with an 18-month-old Wendy and cat Kismus, decided to move out of their rented accommodation at the Plough pub in Chesham and live on a boat. After a bit of a search, they eventually found a possible boat, the Kathy. She was a 30-foot, wooden, clinker-built, ex-ship’s lifeboat that had been converted, by adding an engine and a cabin, into a holiday cruiser. She cost the princely sum of £180.
Mum and Dad had already secured moorings for their new home (once they had found it) at Hampton Hall Farm, near Batchworth lock in Rickmansworth. It was essentially a stretch of off-side mooring alongside grazing pasture that was owned by the farmer, Frank Chapman.
We then heard about how they brought the Kathy up the Thames and onto the Grand Union canal and up to their home mooring in Rickmansworth. An undertaking that was more challenging and adventurous than they had initially planned.
We now take up Mum’s story….
[READING]
