Streethay Wharf

 

As you may know we have been here since Monday getting a few jobs done. We were pulled out of the water about mid day and the first thing they did was check the stern gear for play, no problem, this was followed by a high pressure wash down to get all the crud and lose paint off.

One of the jobs was a new rudder cup, on out boat like most Narrowboats the bottom of the rudders shaft sits in a metal cup welded to the skeg. Over the last couple of years the play in this has increased and I had no idea how thin the sides of the cup were getting.

In reality I need not have been worried as the original cup had a bronze sleeve in it and this still had material left let alone the steel outer housing so it would probably lasted another 20 or 30 years before failing. Normally you can lift the rudder out of the cup but the rudder shaft had not mover it the top bearing for the last 17 years and it didn’t intend to start now, so the complete bearing housing was unbolted. This allowed the rudder to be lifted but not high enough to clear the cup as the upper edge of the rudder blade hit the under side of the hull. The only answer was to cut the cup off the skeg and then slide it sideways until it could be dropped off. A new steel cup was made up and welded to the skeg, hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this job. While working on the rudder I noticed that where the rudder strikes the base plate it had worn two notches, only in the wear edge but they were about to start on the weld, so a small sacrificial piece of metal was welded to each side.

The yard also suggested that I have an anode fitted in the Bowthruster tube, normally they put one each side but our tube is very short compared with most Narrowboats as the bow is finer. This anode is mounted on bolts as there is no danger of it getting hit, so two suitable bolts were welded into the bottom of the tube. Once the hull was dry it was give a coat of blacking around the water line and left overnight to dry. All the blacking has been applied by brush so far.This morning another coat of black was applied to the sides of the hull from base plate to gunwale not forgetting the bowthruster .tube. The new anode was removed for this operation and will be refitted when work is complete.
  

As you can see the boat is in a polytunnel and we have a stairway at each end for getting on and off with. As the hull is looking a lot smarter I thought i would splash our and fit a new bow fender as well. Lots of people fit these with chains but I tie mine on so that if it catches on the top of a gate it wont hang the boat up. It will be a few weeks before it beds in and sits nicely.

The down side of being in a polytunnel is that we cant run the stove so we have to keep going down The Plough at Huddlesford for diner each evening, Last night we went by car but this morning we walked down in the sun and had a coffee. The sun was nice but the breeze decidedly cool. The weather improved late this afternoon so this evening we walked down for a meal. We have found the food very good and they have a beer that I have not tried before called Golden Sheep, its brewed by the Black Sheep Brewery. I expect we will have to walk down again tomorrow evening as well.

Today is Wednesday and just after lunch the last coat of black went on, this one is from base plate to rubbing strake, so above the rubbing strake has one coat, this  is the area a lot of people gloss and spend the other 51 weeks worrying about. From the rubbing strake down to below the water line there are 3 coats, this is the area that suffers the most abuse and corrosion and below this band to the base plate is 2 coats. Most of it was put on by brush and only flat areas were rollered with the top coat so it was well worked in to all the nocks and crannies.

There are some interesting craft in the yard and I do wonder if some of them will ever see the water again, some with steel work like lace and so old wooden boats with rotten bottoms.  

Round the corner some one has built a tug using the back end of a BCN boat as a bow and putting a new bum on it. I guess the plate under the propeller is to stop it sucking the mud and rubbish up off the bottom. With no flow coming from below I wonder how it effects the handling.

One boat I thought interesting, the boat looks nothing special but it has this unusual rudder arrangement, I bet its a dream going backwards. Talking to a chap working on it, its a stock boat they are doing up to sell.

This afternoon I took our car back to King’s Bromley and the chap from the boat we use to moor next to kindly gave me a lift back, so now when we are back in the water Diana will not have to take it back and walk the tow path to meet me.

Another little job I took care of today was adjusting the tappets. I had attempted this some time ago, it has to be done with the engine cold, I knew they were all to wide but I had not come across this type of adjustment before. There is no locknut like ones I have done in the past, these just are just like a bold and I couldn’t move then with a ring spanner. I had to use a 7/16 socket and large T bar to move them, last time I tried I was worried about snapping them off, but today I just used more force and it worked. It will be interesting to see if I notice a difference in the way it runs, I just hope it starts tomorrow.

Thursday

About half eleven there was activity around the boat and the guiding poles were put back in the trolley. Then the anode was bolted in the bow thruster tube and the guard replaced. Check the weed hatch cover was replaced and we were ready for the off, just as soon as they could get the tractor driver and his machine. I refitted the tiller, the towing machine connected,  stair ways removed and we were off. As soon as we clear of the poly tunnel I started the engine, thankfully it started first shot. They had to take the towing machine, Its like a very heavy big JCB forklift truck well into the water before we floated free. We are unusually deep at the bows drawing two foot as we are ballasted almost level. Most boats run light at the front, some only drawing a few inches. I needed to go back almost against the far towpath before driving the stern round, the chaps at the boat yard have a metal loop arrangement they put over the bow stud to control the bow as you leave the trailer. You can see the guide poles on the trailer ahead of us. Then round to the service quay to pump out the toilet tank, a check under the back deck to make sure the weed hatch was sealed and we were almost ready for the off, just a trip to the office to pay the bill. By now there was already another boat up on the slip awaiting their attention.

Middleport pottery

Today we visited Middleport pottery to do the factory tour and found it a very worthwhile visit.The pottery was without doubt saved by The Prince’s Trust and is the only one in the UK and probably Europe still making and decorating pottery in this way. If you visit by boat there is room to moor with rings by their car park.

Our tour started in the visitors centre where there is a fabulous china model of the work as it would have been in its heyday with its 7 bottle kilns and boiler chimney.

When the factory was built it was know as a model factory as it was specifically designed for efficiency. The materials entered entered at the extreme right of the building and worked their way round in a sort on U being made to slurry then back along the right hand side as they were made into green items, biscuit fired in the first three kilns, then further round to the left being decorated and glazed before being refired in the row of four kilns and finally being packed on the left hand side before being shipped out. The canal side location was essential to all this as that is where the raw materials came on to the site, coal for the boiler and the kilns, clay for the pots. The finished articles also left by the same means form the left hand end by the canal all by Narrowboat.

Today there is just the one bottle kiln, the furthest one behind the boiler chimney. The boiler is still in situé but has not been used since they ran out of coal during the miners strike, so the condition of the boiler is unknown. There is another square tower just to the left of the three kilns. This contained a continuous chain lift running over a wheel at the top and one at the bottom. Shelves of green pots were hung on this at the bottom and they would go to the top and then down the other side. The tower was heated with steam pipes and by the time the pots had done a cycle up and down they would be dry. It is thought that this is the only one in existence.

Once we were into the factory we started right at the beginning with the original motive power for the factory, a single cylinder steam engine with a 15 ton fly wheel, This had a direct drive through the wall to gears in the next room as well as driving two overhead belt systems. The engine looks in poor shape but its been well greased and they have the money to restore it in the next 12 months when they will install a small gas boiler to fire it. The original Slip pumps today are powered buy an electric motor driving the overhead lay shaft  where the slip(liquid clay) is mixed and

pumped up to the area where they fill the moulds for things like tea pots and mugs.

The slip was also reduced to solid clay for making things like plates and items turned on the wheel. To do this they filled muslin bags and then pressed it between cast iron plates to remove the excess water, before knocking the clay to remove all air bubbles and make it pliable to work. This press was manually powered by the screw handles on the end, today the cay is bought in ready for throwing.

The moulds are made from Plaster of Paris and are only good for about 60 pots so have to be constantly renewed. This is done from a positive model of the finished item that is about 20% bigger than full size as the clay shrinks whist it dries in the mould. Some of the positive date back to the first days of the pottery.

The moulds which are in two or more parts depending on the complexity of the design are filed with the liquid slip clay and left to stand for between 20 minutes and an hour depending on the thickness of clay required. The water is drawn out of the liquid clay by the plaster mould so that a skin of clay forms inside the mould, after the required thickness has been obtained the moulds are inverted and the surplus slip pored out. This returns downstairs to the mixing pit to go round the system another time.

The moulds are left to stand for a while before being opened to remove the very soft damp clay item, The are still very malleable at this stage and have to be treated with care. These are teapots being made in one piece, some items are made in several pieces and put together afterwards like handles and spouts. Once taken from the mould they are allowed to dry further before someone removes all the joint marks left where the mould parts join together. This is done with a very sharp knife and a selection of wet sponges. Some of the items they make are pierced, again this is all done by hand using small hand held cutters and the patterns are cut out by eye so no two will be absolutely identical, they may look it but there will be minor differences . The pieces are now dried further to reduce the moister content before being fired in a gas Kiln. These were introduced with the clean air act when the old coal fired bottle kilns were pulled down. The only reason one was left standing was because it was built into the other buildings and demolishing it would have resulted it those buildings being demolished at the same time. The bottle kilns had metal bands round them to stop them falling apart with the constant hot cold cycles. These bands are flat iron and they are not continuous but in sections joined by an iron ring to allow them to stretch as the brick work expanded. The gas kilns were much more efficient allowing a batch to be fired every day where as the old kilns took a couple of days to pack, 3 days to fire and then another couple to unload. Where as men use to climb inside the kilns to load and empty now its put on trolleys and pushed into the tunnel kiln through the end door. After the pots are fired they are then decorated. This is done using transfers. The transfers are printed on tissue paper and have to be printed just before they are attached to the pots. The printing is done by an engraved copper roller and as the paper comes off the printer it is hung on long endless linen lines and slowly works its way down the line of decorators. Each decorator takes a sheet of transfers and then cuts them up and wraps the item in them without a crease or overlap. They only get one shot at it because once its on the the biscuit fired clay there is no going back. The work it on using a selection of brushes before it goes to an industrial “dish washer” which dissolves and removes all the tissue paper.

From here the pots go on to be dipped in glaze, again a very skilled job, just like all of them in the factory. To dip the plates and saucers the glazer wears a wire hook on his thumb so that he can hold the edge of the plate wit two fingers and the hook and rotate the plate in and out of the glaze before racking them up to pass through a dryer. .

At the other end of the dryer they are stacked in special racks with porcelain pegs ready to go into the kiln for their second and final firing. Some items actually have three firings, these are items that have the pattern put on top of the glaze. This method used lithograph printed designs which can be multi coloured. The pots have been glazed but are all white, The pattern is then slid off transfer on top of the glaze, again it has to be done with no wrinkles, tears or overlaps. One dry this is fired for the third time. The light green/yellow colour is only the backing and this disappears with the firing.

In addition to this the plates and saucers are mage from the knocked up solid clay, for round items this is done on a wheel on top of a former, bringing a second former down on top to spread the clay to just the right thickness. You can see the green plates behind him in the dryer.

The clay for making these comes in a big role like a sausage and roundels are cut off with a cheese wire. After firing every item is checked to ensure it is perfect and those that are not are sold as seconds. There are very few total rejects as each item is checked at each stage of production and removed then if need be very small flaws can sometimes be repaired like minor blemishes to the glaze The visit lasted an hour and a half and afterwards you can see why the pieces cost so much, I would guess there is probably over two man hours in each piece from start to finish. They have just had a new copper roller engraved to print the transfers, there was over a years work just engraving it.