Boats.

so, why call a boat Catflap?

What else would you call a boat when you had five cats and three dogs?

Catflap....built by Warble in 1999.

Catflap

somewhere on the Thames

When the boat was first built she was moored in Braunston Marina, but in 2003 we apent the summer moored on a friend's mooring at Worsfold Gates on the River Wey. Having travelled down the Grand Union to get to the Wey, we travelled up the Thames on our return to Braunston. We happened on a little island which was totally uninhabited and found a landing place just big enough to accept Catflap.

From the front, the dogs are, Pandy, Gina, and Fly.

Bilster.

A friend who at the time we knew him,was section leader of the Diesel Heavy Haulage section of Great Dorset Steam Fair (where he exhibited his Thorneycroft Antar) worked this narrow boat with his brother for a living in the 1970s.

'Bilster' is a 'Town' class built by Harland & Wolff in 1936.

Raymond

Built by Nursers in Braunston in 1958.

Originally built for Samual Barlow Coal Carriers, RAYMOND became part of Blue Line Carriers of Braunston in 1962 and remained part of that fleet until 1970 when she was worked by Arthur and Rose Bray until 1981 when she passed into the ownership of Jim and Doris Collins until 1992 or 1993 when she was given to the Wooden Canal Craft Trust who had hoped to restore her. In 1996 a group of enthusiasts (discovering she had never been restored) set up a charitable fund under the name THE FRIENDS OF RAYMOND to raise the cash to restore her. The story can be followed HERE.