On 25 Sep 2007, at 17:22, Ray Butler wrote:
> Mike's mystery object looks like either:
>
>
But:
>
> 1) A handrail to be used in conjunction with rungs driven into the
> wall
> or footholds in the brickwork to let boatmen climb up the wall from the
> boats to operate the locks (In common with Marple, Bosley locks lack
> landings at the tails and are beasts to work single-handed) Any rungs
> will
> have been removed as being too useful by the safety police, and any
> brick-moulded foot / handholds will have been removed or concreted up
> for
> the same reasons, in BW's campaign to remove regional differences from
> the
> waterways (You have only to watch the "By canal in the 1950s" DVD to
> see
> what diversity we've lost. Curved balance beams on the Regents
> anyone...?)
>
Bosley used to have substantial landing stages on the offside tail -
the mode of working was to have the lockie work the towpath side and
the steerer the offside - that's why there's no easy way to get from
one side to the other at the top.
> 2) (and less likely) An equivalent of the block - rope pegs found
> on
> Tardebigge locks, whereby the towline was taken from the horse through
> a
> pulley on the mast and forward onto a pin like an inverted "L" facing
> in the
> direction of travel, over which an eye was dropped. For the first
> 10-15 feet
> of movement out of the lock this gives a 2:1 advantage to the horse,
> then
> when inertia is overcome a toggle spliced into the line jams and the
> arrangement changes up into 2nd gear, As the end of the line reaches
> the pin
> it drops off (as the pin's facing the way the boat's travelling) until
> picked up at the next lock. You can see this in action on the Sight
> Seen
> "Towpath encounter" video.
>
This system was in fact used at Bosley going up hill - the pegs are
still there on the offside top bullnose.
> The arrangement in Mike's picture looks likely to catch an eye and stop
> progress, so the first option is more likely.
>
It seems likely that it was related to the landing stage at the bottom
- presumably they'd have used the same sort of peg as at the top if (2)
applied.
––
All the best
Bruce
"Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground you cannot think of
moving them" Arthur Ransome, 'Racundra's First Cruise'
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