President

 

After 48 hours on our mooring at Brindley place we have to move as our time is up . We could take the you know what as several other boaters do and stay longer, but we tend to keep to the rules and give everyone a chance of a good mooring.

What we didn’t realise is that the moorings in Brindley Walk which are next to Farmers top lock are in fact 14 day moorings . The sign on the end of the arms say that it is for permanent moorers, but in fact apart from a couple of moorings it is only permanent for Winter moorers.So we moved and picked up a good mooring in Brindley walk outside of The Flapper Pub.

Taking Hamish out for a walk one evening and who should we bump into but NB President and it’s Butty Kildare. We spent sometime talking to the very friendly crew who were on their way back from the Braunston rally. Carolyn let it drop that we had a Bow thruster on Inca and tried to convince the crew that it would be a good idea to have one fitted to President. Although the guys seemed interested somehow I just cant see that happening.

President was built in 1909 at the Fellows, Morton and Clayton company dock at Saltley, Birmingham and cost £600.
The company built and operated 31 steam narrow boats between 1889 and 1931. President was bought by the Black Country Living Museum in January 1983, and Kildare was bought in September 1991.

She was fitted with a diesel engine in 1927 and continued  to haul cargo until the 1950s.

The boat was converted back to steam in the 1970s and is now owned and operated by The Black Country Living Museum.

We then walked up around the city with Hamish and enjoyed a much more peaceful Birmingham with fewer people about . I’ve been told by her Ladyship that we will be having several more days here as there’s so much more she needs to do and see in Brum….(I suspect she means shops)

                                                                                                        Happy Days