And possibly a narrowboat anorak!

I now have a blog dedicated to waterways - please visit http://canalsthenandnow.blogspot.fr/

I've loved canals for years, ever since my first holiday on the Llangollen in 1968. Numerous holidays later, including helping people move boats from A to B and many happy trips on Aber in the 80s, I now live in France, a good 2 hours from the nearest canal. So, to help with the withdrawal symptoms, I've been going through my old trannies and copying a few lucky find postcards. Large Woolwich Aber (GUCCC no. 101) and Heidi, the bearded collie

Many thanks to the various people with FMC resources who have made my research much easier! The first one is I believe a pair of Fellows, Morton and Clayton narrowboats moored up in the entrance to a lock presumably at Berkhamsted on the Grand Union. The butty could possibly be Grange No. 261 though the boats are slightly out of focus for artistic reasons, I can just make out NGE on the left side and it could easily be GRA on the right. The wording on the cabin of the motor can only be Fellows Morton etc. The photograph was taken by J T Newman of Berkhamsted and was posted to France in February 1917 with this wording on the back.

This shows the frozen canal. The ice has been broken by a special "ice-boat".

The icicles on the lock gates are just fantastic. the original has a slight sepia tinge but I've given this a pale blue tint as it looks coooold! Here shown on a Christmas card but prints and other items are available (sorry for the plug, but one does try to earn a living!).

Narrowboat and butty in ice Berkhamsted Greeting Card by puddled_clay

The next boat took some research, as the low resolution image on the sale site gave me the impression it was another boat, however, it turned out to be FMC Bison No 289. Here seen running through the ice on the Grand Union next to the now rebuilt Wolverton station, Milton Keynes. I don't know the age of the photo but it must be fairly late. I still remember working boats at Croxley Mill in the 60s - what a pity I didn't take any photos!, but this is quite a bit earlier than that.

FMC Bison in winter Greeting Card by puddled_clay