OBITUARIES

FRIDAY, JULY 05, 2013

Legendary K&A boat surveyor dies

George Gibson who was well known on the Kennet & Avon Canal as a marine surveyor and owner of Gibson's Boat Services on Builder's Wharf at Honeystreet near Pewsey died today (Friday July 5th).

Details of the funeral, which will take place at St. Mary's Church, Alton Barnes, and a full appreciation of Georges contribution to the maritime world will follow shortly.


Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

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TUESDAY, JULY 09, 2013

George Gibson: Marine Surveyor — obituary

Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

George Gibson who died last week was a boating man to his very core.  He served as an engineer officer in the Royal Navy for 37 years. His last job with the admiralty as a Commander included the responsibility for several hundred small boats belonging to, or affiliated to, the services so when George retired from the Navy in 1985 he put this knowledge of small boats to good use when he became a marine surveyor specializing in canal and river craft.

George and his wife Shelagh in
his Royal Navy days

George was one of a band of entrepreneurs who put their faith, and money, into setting up businesses on the K&A Canal at a time when many thought it would never re-open. George and other riparian businesses, along with volunteers working on restoration projects, helped to drive the restoration forward. He was Chairman in the early days of the Association of Canal Enterprises (ACE), which later became the Kennet & Avon Canal Trade Association.

George ran an electric trip-boat, Patricia, from Hilperton and in 1986 he and his family moved to an old builders' yard and cottage alongside the Kennet & Avon Canal at  Honeystreet.

At that time the canal was closed. The weed clogged, shallow water of the 14 mile Long Pound was only just navigable largely thanks to the movements of the landlocked nearby Pewsey Wharf Boat Club.

Over the years proper wharf facilities and moorings at the 'bottom of the garden' site were installed and Builder’s Wharf run by George and his wife Shelagh was considered to be one of the best kept moorings on the canal system.

When British Waterways introduced the Certificate of Compliance (C of C) in 1990 (the forerunner of the Boat Safety Scheme) George was one of the first Surveyors in the scheme. His reputation for fairness in his examinations and his willingness to share knowledge is legendary — as are George’s surveys that he bashed out on his old typewriter with its distinctive italic type face.

As well as running a business on the canal George was involved with the K&A Canal Trust and he had been a volunteer engineer at its steam powered pumping station at Crofton. When, thanks to the efforts of the K&A Canal Trust and Bath City Council, the Widcombe Flight of locks in Bath was re-opened in June 1976 George and Shelagh were amongst the first to travel up  the flight in their boat  Border Gypsy

George finally retired at the age of 80, Builder’s Wharf was sold and he, his wife Shelagh and his son Chris moved to Devizes.

George is survived by his wife, Shelagh and two sons, Chis and Stephen and granddaughters Leila and Yasmin.

George Randle Gibson born 1931 died July 5, 2013

Bob Naylor

George's funeral is on Monday 15th July at 2.30pm in St. Mary's Church, Alton Barnes, Near Marlborough, SN8  4LR.  

Tea after the service in the nearby Coronation Hall.  Family Flowers only.

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Jo Parfitt — English champion of French waterways — Obituary

Former President of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais, Jo Parfitt died yesterday (10^th January 2013) after a battle with cancer.

A lock on the Sardy Flight on the Canal du Nivernais — and

Jo Parfitt: Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

Jo was the first English President of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais (ACN) and he had run businesses on the Burgundy canals for several decades. There can be few boaters who have explored the inland waterways of France who will not know of Jo Parfitt, even if they have not benefited from his engineering skills or learned more of the Burgundy canals from his encyclopaedic knowledge of those waterways.

Jo came from a farming background but caught the bug of canal enthusiasm as an apprentice toolmaker in Enfield in the late 1960s.

He formed a canal society at the East Herts College of Further Education and by the 1970s he was spending his weekends excavating the locks on the Widcome Flight on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath, enjoying the local ale and — as he put it: “doing our bit to stop the local ladies becoming bored on a Saturday night”.

By 1977 Jo was running a company in Worcester building boats — including 15 for a hire base in France.

When the people who were to run the hire boats in France backed out, Jo and a French-speaking colleague stepped in and he moved to France to help run the fleet.

In 1980 Jo bought a Dutch barge (complete with a 100-Hp crane on the deck) to live, work and travel the canals and he started repairing passing boats when the hire boats were out.

Jo spent 18 months in Corbigny and 10 years in Mailly La Ville before moving to Migennes. 

After selling his business at Migennes and ‘retiring’ in 2010, Jo continued to carry out boat surveys, was establishing his general engineering business based near Clamecy and he also moved into technical journalism, writing a monthly column for the French waterways magazine, Fluvial.

Jo was a founder member of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais (ACN) when it was set up in 1989 to promote the canal and to make it more accessible to as many people as possible without damaging its beauty and the tranquility of the countryside through which it passes.

Jo, prompted by the then ACN President Philippe Benard, looked for a canal in England to twin with. It was clear to him that the very canal that he had volunteered on as a young man, the K&A, was the most suitable.

The two canals have similar geographic and geological features — they both have 16-lock flights (at Sardy and Devizes), they both link two major rivers,  they both have tunnels and similar geological problems. Jo met with the K&A Canal Trust’s Hon Engineer Mike Lee and as a consequence of that meeting the first twinning trip took place in 1991 when Jo brought a party of 20 to the K&A.

Jo was passionate about the potential benefits of twinning. “it gives us a card to play that catches the eye of politicians and local authorities. We can show people here in France what’s being achieved abroad. In my opinion it will take European involvement to save the small central canals in France and for this we need our twinning links. There is also much more that can be achieved on the cultural front, with exchanges and projects between communities and schools.”  

Jo believed that ACN and KACT were the first canal associations to twin.  Since then others have followed. Jo’s influence prompted other French waterways to twin, including the canal D’Orleans, which is twinned with the Basingstoke (instigated by information on how to go about it from ACN), the Nantes à Brest is twinned with the Wilts & Berks and the Canal du Berry (ARICAB) has twinned with The Cotswolds Canals.

Since twinning with the K&A, Jo championed linking the Nivernais with other European waterways, including the Royal Canal in Ireland through their Amenity Group, and with the Dutch Barge Association.

Jo became President of ACN in 2008, four decades after he first caught the canal bug on the K&A Canal in England and he always remained passionate about the potential of inland waterways for recreation and employment.

Whilst he was President, ACN joined with six other French canals to form l’Entente des Canaux du Centre-France (Canal du Berry, Canal de Bourgogne, Canal de Briare, Canal lateral a la Loire, Canal d’Orleans, Canal du Centre et Canal du Nivernais) to encourage tourism and strengthen their voice in negotiations.

Jo said “United we stand, divided we fall!  It is good to have the support of the other groups and it is helpful that we can share the cost of exhibiting at the major waterways events such as Paque Boat in St Jean de Losne. And it gives us greater access to local & national politicians.”

 In 2009, his last year as President of Les Amis, Jo nominated K&A Canal Trust Hon Engineer Mike Lee to be invested as a Chevalier into the ancient French wine-makers’ society Le Confrérie des Chevaliers des Trois Ceps at the end of the two-day Fête Nautique in Vincelles to honour his involvement  in the twinning association, saying: “it needs to be now, you never know what the future may bring”. How prophetic those words were and how typical of Jo that he ensured that public recognition was given where deserved.

"No canal, no tourists — no tourists, no canal" 

Jo’s presidency of Les Amis ended in 2010, but his passion for promoting the Canal du Nivernais continued. He said: “The Nivernais, like any other canal, is an amenity for walkers, cyclists and anyone visiting the area interested in history, architecture, wildlife, botany and fishing. The canal makes a linear park that anyone passing can step into for a picnic if nothing else — and sit and watch boats go by.

“The canal supports employment in many forms, it is an artery bringing essential tourists to an area with only agriculture and forestry and a small amount of industry. Tourism is absolutely vital to the Nivernais. “No canal, no tourists!” says Jo, “but equally important, no tourists, no canal”.

Jo has left a legacy on the canals in central France that is being continued by his friends and colleague at ACN.

Comments:
MERCI, très grand MERCI pour ce splendide article et surtout d'avoir fait le voyage à Auxerre... Di & Bob, nous sommes fiers d'avoir d'aussi bons amis...toute l'équipe de l'ACN vous embrasse et souhaite vous revoir bientôt. 
Philippe

The French inland waterways magazine, Fluvial, marks Jo's passing...

English Translation: 
Jo Parfitt embarked on the morning of 10 January 2013 for a very long trip and we, on the dock, are left sad and shivering. It seems that he took his toolbox in one hand and, with a turn, he gave us a wink. Noah's Ark was in need a serious check-up ... But, his family, Doret, and his friends are now alone.

As soon as Jo received his ten fingers, he dismantled anything that's operation he wanted to understand.  Later, as a qualified mechanic, he set his sights on the boats, as so often have the poets and free men. In France, he created the shipyard Migennes and designed, fitted out, repaired countless boats. He was also a co-founder and one of the presidents of Les Amis du Canal du Nivernais, with the goal of saving the canal he loved.

He loved to share his knowledge and his dreams and launched, two years ago and with the blessing of Fluvial magazine, a technical column, now an orphan.

Many today feel alongside his two sons Matthew and Sam.

Sad times ...

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 09, 2011

Grumpy's Wonderful Railway

In the obituary for Kennet & Avon Canal restoration legend, Bryan 'Grumpy' House' we mentioned one of his many engineering projects —the railway system which he built in the 1970s to remove the debris from the locks on the Caen Hill Flight during the restoration — but we couldn't find a picture of it anywhere.  One has now come to light in a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings from Kester and Jacky Shave of Trowbridge.

Members of the Wiltshire Association of Youth Clubs and Boys Clubs and the Avon Youth Association cleaning out a lock on the Caen Hill Flight of locks in Devizes using the railway built by Bryan House.

Bryan House. 

Picture by Bob Naylor©

Read Bryan's obituary at: Goodbye 'Grumpy'

Bryan House, known to all as Grumpy, died on January 8th at the Royal United Hospital in Bath aged 71 and his funeral took place at Semington Crematorium on Tuesday 21st of January.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2011

K&A Canal restoration legend dies

Bryan House, Kennet & Avon Canal restorer.
Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©
Goodbye 'Grumpy'

Bryan House, known to all as Grumpy, died on January 8th at the Royal United Hospital in Bath aged 71 and his funeral took place at Semington Crematorium on Tuesday 21st of January.

Bryan was active from the very early days of the restoration of the Kennet & Avon Canal and his ingenuity in finding novel solutions to practical problems as well as his ability to 'aquire' the means to implement them, along with his bloody minded doggedness, was legendary.

Bryan's day job for 30 years was as an engineer for the Cement Works at Westbury and unknowingly they contributed much to the canal restoration.  A mourner at Bryan's funeral who worked with him there said, "Bryan took me to visit the canal and when I arrived at the workshop at the wharf I thought I had walked into the Cement Works engineering workshop."

  The task they faced on Caen Hill

Caen Hill clearing
Speaking about how he got involved with clearing the Caen Hill Flight Bryan said, "In about 1970 we were in the pub in Rowde and I said to Commander Robinson, they managed to do all that work in the old days, so get your kids from Dauntsey's School and we'll have a go at clearing it out again."

And so they set to clearing the locks on the Caen Hill Flight. They used  slashers and hooks — and local people would come along and say "You're flogging a dead horse —  no way will you do that".  But the more they said that, the more determined Bryan and the others were that they were going to do it.

First Bryan brought an old tractor from Bradford on Avon, "We brought it very early one Sunday morning because it wasn't taxed or insured." he said, "And when we got it on site it was very handy — it made us realise that we needed to be more mechanised."

Bryan's Caen Hill railway

Caen Hill Railway

They found some old mini railway track along with some 3ft gauge mining trucks in the old BWB yard. One of the trucks was fitted with a brake so Bryan decided to turn it into a motorised rail truck.

He put together an old diesel engine and part of a car back axle with a chain drive down to the trolley wheels. He then fitted a compressor and some brake cylinders off a lorry and made a 'dead man' breaking system.  Bryan said, "It was very Heath Robinson — but it worked." 

They then laid track from a lock chamber and out into a side pound and they were able to take the rubbish out of the lock into the middle of the pond to burn it.

Bradford on Avon — the Kenavon Queen

Eventually BWB put a stop to the volunteer work on the Caen Hill Flight so Bryan moved on to help out at Bradford on Avon — first putting an engine into a boat called Kenavon Queen that the group there had made.  

An old Lister engine out of a dumper truck was fitted into the 25 foot wooden boat and connected to an old Ford 10 drive shaft and back axle onto which they fixed paddle wheels.  By braking each side independently they were able to steer the boat in the same way as a tracked vehicle.

The tripboat Kennevon Queen

Bryan said proudly, "For years we actually managed to get people to pay for trips on it — and we gave a guarantee with every ticket that we would take people out — but we didn't guarantee to bring them back.  They might have to walk."

Scary weedcutter

Weed was a serious problem so they decided they needed a pair of weed clearing boats.  They 'aquired' two ex-army flat bottomed bridging pontoons, put a weed scraper at the front of one and a silage blower in the other and worked the boats side by side.

The weed was pulled up on a rope and someone stood by the side of it shovelling the weed across into the other boat where it fed into the silage blower that shot the weed onto the bank - it had a six cyclinder Lister engine and it threw the stuff out with great force — beer bottles and everything.  People who saw it in action described it as "pretty scary".

Bryan House on the front of Ladywood

Tripboat Ladywood

They were doing well with trips on the Kenavon Queen but then someone saw an advert in Waterways World for a 70 foot narrowboat at Ladywood in Birmingham.

A group of them set off by car to look at the boat which turned out to be in a terrible state. Completely bare inside with the engine in bits in three bread baskets in a shed — and the propellor shaft removed.

The asking price was £15,000 but after haggling they finally paid £5,000 for the boat and went back to Bradford on Avon with the engine in the back of the car.

The next problem was getting the boat back to the K&A. Bryan called in a favour from Sparrow Cranes, who did work for the Cement Works. They had a depot very near to Ladywood and they agreed to move the boat as a favour next time they were doing a job in Bristol.

Once the Ladywood was at Bradford on Avon they fitted her out and with a refurbished engine she was soon taking people on trips on the canal.

Bryan and his son-in-law, Tupper Abbott, helped to run the dry dock at Bradford on Avon and many boat owners in those early days of leisure boating on the K&A were glad of their skills and inventiveness.  Ray Rogers who kept his boat nearby said, "There seemed to be no problem that Bryan couldn't overcome and he was always willing to help other boaters."  Bryan and Tupp were involved with the maintenance of the trip boat, Ladywood, which had by then been taken over by the Canal Trust.  Through Bryan's wheeling and dealing with suppliers the boat was kept serviceable at almost no cost to the Trust.

Because of the politics of the K&A Canal Trust at that time Bryan stopped volunteering for the Trust and concentrated instead on his own boat, The Lady Peggy, a clinker built wooden converted ship's lifeboat that he kept at Lower Foxhangers. And Bryan could always be relied on to help other boaters with their maintenance problems.

Although Bryan stopped his voluntary work with the Trust he remained a member and he was one of the small number of Trust members who attended every AGM.

In his later years Bryan lived in Bradford on Avon with his partner Pauline Elcock who sadly died last September.

Bryan is survived by his two daughters, Kim and Simone, and five grand daughters and three grandsons.

Bob Naylor

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011

Wyn Gould dies on K&A Canal's 'Cruiseway Day'

Wyn Gould: Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

Wyn Gould, who stood shoulder to shoulder with her husband John in their tireless battle to restore the Kennet & Avon Canal to a fully navigable waterway, died on Monday 18th April at the age of 95 — on the very day that the elusive 'Cruiseway' status that they had spent most of their married life fighting for was finally granted to the canal.

Wyn had been living at the home of one of her daughters near Marlborough for the last 18 months and it was there that she died peacefully on Monday in the company of her two daughters Jenny and Jane.

The canal became Wyn and John's whole life and she blamed herself for fanning the flame of a passion that was clearly in him. "Tom Rolt's book Narrowboat had just been published",  she said, "and I bought it for him for Christmas and sent it to him in India where he was serving in the Army. That fired the enthusiasm that had been dormant in his mind to come back to England and see what could be done to restore the Kennet & Avon Canal."

When John returned from India and left the Army he needed to find work and he began working for the British Transport Commission on the canal. It wasn't long before John decided to buy a pair of working boats and after a search he finally bought the motorboat, Colin and the Butty,Iris.

John and Wyn Gould arrive at Newbury Lock with Colin and Iris. Wynne is at the tiller of Iris with her oldest daughter Jane sat on the hatch in front of her.

They carried topsoil from New Mill in Newbury to nurseries at Sunbury-on-Thames but that stopped when British Waterways Board closed the canal.  

They then got some dinghies and skiffs and hired them out at Victoria Park in Newbury.  Wyn said, "We had five children and we literally dragged them up at Victoria Park where we hired out the boats".

They started doing boat trips and by getting schools interested they were able to get very busy with that but with the canal closed the time came for the working boats Colin and Iris to go. Iris was hauled out onto Newbury Wharf and burned. Then, Wynne explained, "John took Colin near to Bulls Lock where he and Bill Fisher dug out a pit for her and that is where she sank and disappeared — it was all very sad".

They later began the John Gould hire-boat business at Newbury Lock where they had cruisers and houseboats and it became very busy and popular.  Wyn said, "This meant that I not only brought up the children, but I hired out the boats and turned the houseboats round every weekend — changing all the bedding and cleaning them out ready for the next day."

And while Wyn was doing all this John was busy campaigning to save the canal. There were countless meetings to increase support for the canal but, said Wynne, "In the early days we never thought it would come off, not at this end of the canal anyway so it was really special that we lived long enough to see the canal opened. But not getting Cruiseway Status was so irritating."

"It was really special that we lived long enough to see the canal re-opened but not getting Cruiseway status was so irritating"

Wyn related that when they met the Queen at the opening ceremony in Devizes the Queen said, "Well John Gould I have heard a lot about you and I'm really glad to meet you at last, perhaps we shan't see your picture in the papers so much now."

Wyn said that their lives were quite different to other people's, "We ate when we had time and the children spent half their time down at Victoria Park."

The hire boats and trip trips were completely dependent on the weather and as the children got older they needed more money, "But", said Wyn, "money was the last thing John thought about — he would just say — Oh! we will get by, we can always eat the furniture". To help make ends meet Wynne took a job in a launderette and each day when she finished there she went to Victoria Park to hire out the boats and later go home and get a meal and do the washing. As she said, "We had no washing machine then, it was a very intense time and we just lived life from day to day and week to week".

"People who come through this canal now have no idea what it was like when we started"

The canal in the Newbury area was not getting any attention so they organised work parties to  repair the lock chambers and lock gates.  She said,  "It was unbelievable what we had to do and people who come through this canal now have no idea what it was like when we started.

"Sometimes you could only go a few yards on a boat with a propeller so we had 'paddle unit' boats that went flopping through the water and that got us along more quickly and more safely".

"Every time we went out it wasn't a trip, it was an adventure."

"Because the canal was in such a bad state the people we took out had to realise that we might not get back at the scheduled time — and we often didn't."

Newbury Mayor, Councillor Gillian Darrant, and Wyn Gould 
opened the 2006 Newbury Waterways Festival.

Picture by Bob Naylor: WaterMarx©

Wynne always kept in touch with the local Canal Trust Branch in Newbury and she supported the working boat rallies and later the Newbury Waterways Festival. In 2006 she and Newbury Mayor, Councillor Gillian Darrant, opened the festival at Victoria Park where she had hired out rowing boats for so many years.

Bob Naylor©

Wyn's funeral takes place at St Nicolas Church in Newbury on Thursday 28th April at 2.30pm.