Boat rally 2017: Russell Newbery Register

In July 2017 our Rally returned to Stourbridge, at the Bonded Warehouse, at the end of the Stourbrdige Town Arm. Our hosts were the Stourbridge Navigation Trust.

Forty five boats (including one butty) and one camper van attended. Overall the crew total was nearly 100. The following is a summary of the varied programme over the four days.

Photo: Harbourmaster assisiting with mooring attending boats.

Harbourmaster assisiting with mooring attending boats. Note it was sunny then!

Over the weekend me made some new friends with the guys on "The Boat that Rocks". Take a look at their blog here.

Wednesday

Evening welcome buffet in the upstairs function room of the Duke William on Coventry Street. An excellent buffet provided by landlord Jason accompanied by the spendid Craddocks beers.

Duke William, Coventry Street, Stourbridge.

Following the meal, we had home grown entertainment from Paul, Meg and Kevin.

Thursday

Day trip to the Severn Valley Railway.

Photo: On the SVR train crossing the River Severn.

Whilst most attendees were on the railway day trip, the Bar team were setting up the bar. This involved unloading equipment from a boat under the useful warehouse canopy as it was raining. A pity the hoist in the lucum was not still present!

Friday

Shiny greetings cards craft session with Carole Eaton. The shiny bit comes from the use of old CDs.

Visit to Dadford's Wharf boat yard, hosted by Ian and Marian Kemp. Mariane explained the history of the site and how she and Ian setup their yard there in 1992. Ian demonstrated some of the techniques involved with restoration and maintenance of historic boats and some of the metalworking machines. Resident signwriter Meg, of Scribe Traditional Signwriting gave some signwriting demonstrations.

Photo: Entrance gate to the Dadford's Wharf boat yard.

Photo: Inside Dadford's Wharf boat yard.

Photo: Mariane Kemp explains the history of the yard.

Photo: Ian Kemp demonstrates a rivit hole punch.

Lubrication, theory and practice of oil. Presented by John Cliff, of Petro-Canada Lubricants. John donated 4 4litre containers of Duron 30 the most suitable oil for use in Russell Newbery D and DM series engines. John suggested that this modern oil should perform just as well as the old Shell Rotella 30 and should not require annual oil changes. Two of out members will be putting that to the test.

Black Country canals and railways from the Air. Keith Hodgkins, presented an extended collection of photos from the Aerofilms archive showing canals, railways and the occasional trolley bus.

Archeology of the Cinema. A very interesting presentation given by eminent Black Country historian Ned Williams. This covered the history of the moving picture shows in the period before the cinema was established and regulated in 1912. Absolutely fascinating, especially the sequence shot from a horse tram on the Promenade at Morecambe. This was as good a modern High Definition TV!

Saturday

Stourbridge is synonymous with glass, so appropriately we included a guided tour of the Red House glass cone and a demonstration of glass blowing.

Photo: Group tour outside the Red House Glass cone.

Photo: Group tour inside the Red House Glass cone.

Photo: Glass blowing demonstration at Red House Glass cone.

Also two groups enjoyed a craft session in the glass fusing studio, designing and decorating a glass tile with Bullseye glass segments. These were then fired overnight.

Photo: One batch of glass tiles ready for the kiln.

Photo: Some of the completed glass tiles.

Additionally some rally attendees found time to visit the Ruskin Glass Centre and Webb Corbett Visitor Centre on Wollaston Road, Amblecote. This formerly was the factory for Royal Doulton, the site now provides workshops for a thriving community of craftspeople in both traditional and contemporary glassmaking, together with other crafts. The visitor centre shows the history of glassmaking in Stourbridge and illustrates the whole glassmaking process from start to finish, including blowing, cutting, kiln work, stained glass and lamp work.

Scumbling workshop with Kevin McNiff. Scumbling is a traditional technique used to simulate wood grain by painting.

RN D series engine cylinder heads workshop with Neil Mason.

Assets and Interests - Ruminations and observations of a veteran Russell Newbery by Register president Ian McKim Thompson.

Photo: Ian McKim Thompson presnting his talk.

Saturday evening "chippy supper" supplied by Wollaston Fish Bar.

Saturday evenings entertainment was an energetic performance by the Strumtroopers, a multi-instrumental ukulele based covers band, specialising in irreverent re-imaginings of rock and pop classics from ABBA to The Specials. And by request a special reggae sequence featuring Bob Marley and Dave & Ansell Collins numbers. But most memeorable and unusual was the Sound of Music theme.

Video clip 1 Video clip 2 Video clip 3 Video clip 4 Video clip 5 Video clip 6

Sunday

Bath bombe craft session with Caroline Laycock.

Technical forum covering various boating and engine related subjects.

Register AGM

Property Company AGM

Rally finale featuring our "home grown" music groups, the RN ensemble and shanty singers and the New RN Ukulele band.

Platters Café supplied hot breakfast rolls and delicious home made cakes for afternoon tea on Sunday.

Rally Bar

As usual the rally bar featured real ales from local brewers. This year these were Craddocks, Green Duck, Angel Ales and Sadler's Ales. Also featured was real cider from Tardebigge Cider.

Post rally Black Country convoy cruise

The plan was to get as many of the rally boats from the Stourbridge Town Arm to the Walsall Town Arm. On the way visiting Parkhead portal of Dudley Tunnel (on the Dudley No.1 Canal); Hawne Basin (on the Dudley No. 2 canal) and the stub of the Bentley Canal at Wednesfield on the Wyrley and Essington Canal. However, due to the sabotage incidents on the Walsall flight of locks, plans were changed.

Dudley Tunnel Trust's Portal Building.

On Monday over twenty boats departed up Stourbridge Sixteen Locks.

In some locks, foam gave the bows a free wash.

After overnight stop at Merry Hill, top of Delph locks, for reprovisioing the convoy continued to Parkhead, ascending all four locks. A slight delay as part of tree trunk cause a temporary problem with lower gate closing on Parkhead Lock No. 3.

Mooring in the Parhead basin, and the remains of the Pensnett Canal, and the stub of the Grazebrook Arm.

Most of the party then took a trip through the entire length of the original Dudley Tunnel and the new tunnels...

Photo: Entering Dudley Tunnel at Parkhead.

... to emerge at Tipton for a meal in the Gongoozler restaurant at Dudley Tunnel Trust's Portal Building.

Photo: Dudely Tunnel Portal building at Tipton.

Tuesday morning was wet, but only a short cruise to Windmill End...

... where Ian McKim Thompson lead a walk around the Bumblehole Arm...

... and the other sites of interest including Cobbs Engine House.

Photo: on the roving bridge over Netherton Tunnel branch.

In the afternoon, 15 boats made the trip down the Dudley No. 2 canal, through Gosty Hill tunnel...

... to Hawne Basin, home of Coombeswood Canal Trust.

Final mooring was alongside Chancel Way, much to the surprise of workers in the industrial sites.

Coombeswood Canal Trust supplied a fish and chip supper and a floating bar serving Ma Pardoe's Netherton Pale Ale. Fortunately it was dry and warm(ish) by then.

On Wednesday all headed back through Gosty Hill tunnel. (Top marks, Chrissy, for this picture!)

But with the news that two locks at Walsall had been rendered in operative, some boaters dediced to head home. Some boats cruised to Wolverhampton, where information from CRT was that Walsall locks would open again on Thursday. So on Wednesday night, there were six boats moored at Wednesfield in the remaining stub of the Bentley Canal.

So on Friday morning, we set off for Walsall, to show thanks for CRT for fixing the locks so quick and to demonstrate to the local population that some boaters want to visit their town. But, yet another sabotage had occurred on Thursday evening closing the flight again. (We believe during this attack the offenders were caught, but in the process a CRT employee was injured. We hope he is recovering now.) So, it was an about turn at Sneyd Juction for the four boats that had set off early.

Then a return to Wolverhampton, with for one a quick stop at Wednesfield to pick up big items of rubbish from the stop.

Photo: Wednesfield Stop rubbish collection.

So finally, there were six rally boats moored at Broad Street,Wolverhampton on a wet dull and chilly Friday night. A bit of an anti-climax, but with a very socialable shared meal on board and plenty of wine it was a fitting end to another Bostin Black Country Rally and Cruise.

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