Old postcard shows Roger and Raymond at Braunston

Idly browsing through an antiques fair in Norwich during my lunch hour the other day I came across this postcard. Now, for all I know, there may be tens of thousands of these in existence - the Friends of Raymond might have sackloads of them to sell in aid of their boat - but I thought you might like to see it.


The photo shows motor Roger paired with butty Raymond, both in Blue Line Canal Carriers Ltd. colours tied up between the Braunston Stop House and what is now the marina entrance, probably some time between 1962 and 1968.

I knew nothing about Roger before I looked it up on the A. M. Models website. Here I found it in the Samuel Barlow section, which gives its gauging date as March 1936. The Rickmansworth Waterways Trust site gives a lot of useful information.

Briefly: built by Bushell Brothers of Tring in 1936 for Arthur Harvey-Taylor of Aylesbury; the last wooden motor boat trading; restored by Rickmansworth Waterways Trust 1997 - 2000; used as a floating classroom.

The section which dates the postcard is this:

Roger and Raymond passed in 1962 to Blue Line, and continued under the captaincy of the Brays until 1968, when Roger was replaced by the steel motor boat Nutfield and paid off.

Unfortunately the postcard hasn't been sent; the description on the back is "Pair of narrow boats at Braunston, Grand Union Canal".

******************

Ooh! - Canal Boat magazine has dropped through the letter box. Time for a coffee and a read in the sun! (Day off today - working at the weekend...)