identifying Grand Union's

Whilst discussing the merits of Large Woolwich engine ‘ole tops I thought there may be some reading either Chertsey woman’s, Dove’s or my blog who may make use of a little boat identification as far as Grand Union’s are concerned and so I have come up with this. There are many variations amongst the boats built for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company and when one has mastered the various types identification is relatively easy. First of all the ‘classes’ of boats, while I strongly disagree with classes of boats, I will use them for ease of description.

Grand Union’s break down into three main classes, Town class, Star class and Royalty class these in turn, can be broken down into builders incorporating such yards as Wakers of Rickmansworth, Harland and Wolff of Woolwich, W J Yarwoods & Sons of Northwich, James Pollock & Sons of Faversham, The Steel Barrel Company, Uxbridge and Woods. Again these can be broken down even further into Large and Small and in some instances Middle. ( depending on the built depth of sides) Some were of wooden construction, some were of composite and some were all steel construction, majority were flat bottomed and a few were vee bottomed. All the Small and Middle boats are ‘Star’class and the large boats are ‘town’ class, although some of the ‘Stars’ are other heavenly bodies such as Moon, Comet, Planet, Meteor, Sun, Venus etc. and some of the ‘Towns’ are cities, .such as Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol etc.

Ok clear as mud now! It is no wonder that some people find it difficult to tell the difference so I thought I would add my two pennyworth just to confuse, forgetting for the moment all the wooden boats, as these are quite distinctive and readily identified. The all steel riveted large motor boats split into two groups. These can be identified by their alphabetical names A-H (Aber to Hawkesbury) are large Woolwich boats while H-Y Halsall to Yeoford are all large Northwiches. Another and easier way to identify them is by their construction/design differences.

From the counter. All Woolwich counters, both large and small, have only two equal tunnel bands around their counter

while Northwiches both large and small, have three tunnel bands, a large one at the top and two smaller ones below.

From the bows, (Northwich at the back, Woolwich nearest camera) on Woolwich boats the side plates are riveted through the flanges of the stem post on each side of it while on Northwich boats the side plates overlap each side of the central stempost and are riveted through from the side.

Also the top of the stem post on Woolwich boats finishes level with the top of the deck, while Northwich stem posts continue over the top of the top bend and then return to the deck. And so that’s it, at least I tried