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Willow Wren Canal Carrying Company The company was formed in 1953 and was the brainchild of Leslie Morton former manager of GUCC Co Ltd during their rapid expansion in the mid 1930's. He was present at a talk given by Robert Aickman and excited by what he heard he approached British Waterways to talk about reviving canal carrying, the feedback he got from both BW and the Ministry of Transport was less than enthusiastic. He went to see Aickman who then introduced him to Captain Bulkeley-Johnson who agreed with his wife to make a generous investment in the formation of the company. The name of the company was inspired by the B-J's cabin cruiser WILLOW WREN and the decision was made to name the fleet after other water birds. Despite the excellent intentions and some achievements the company never made a profit, there were many reasons for this not least the age of the boats and cost of maintaining them and the loss of contracts to road transport. The end came in early 1963 when the B-J's having invested close to £100,000 felt they could not go on, this was influenced by indifference and sometimes downright hostility to any form of encouragement for canal carrying. It wasnt a coincidence that that winter was one of the worst in recent times and the boats were iced in for over 3 months with the boatmen still needing paying. Leslie Morton was instructed to sell both the fleet and the well equipped boatyard at Braunston, it seemed like the dream was over. Motor/Butty - Name - Date bought - Registration - Date entered fleet - Further Information
Willow Wren Canal Transport Services Ltd Faced with the collapse of the company and everything he had worked so hard for the previous decade it would have been understandable if Leslie Morton had given up and walked away from canals altogether. The fact he believed so passionately in canal carrying meant he wouldn't do this, especially as it would have meant making the boat families homeless. He got the idea to reform the crews into a co-operative of self employed workers all hiring the boats from the company and funding their own fuel and maintenance/repairs. The so called laying money (paid when the boats weren't working such as during the last freeze) was scrapped, this meant if the boats were waiting for either a load or equipment breakdown they got no money but it did allow them to claim 'dole' if held up for long periods, to compensate for this the tonnage rates were increased. Even so the company was only made possible due to the continuing generosity of Captain Bulkeley-Johnson, he allowed the fleet to be used for the scheme and transferred the leases of the Braunston boatyard to Leslie Morton both for nominal fees he gave them some working capital and all the stores and equipment were sold at cost. The company was incorporated in April 1963 and by early May for the first time in his long experience of canal carrying Leslie Morton could at last report that the boats were making a profit both for the management company and for the boatmen, many of whom had seen their earnings doubled. The end came following the deaths of both Captain Bulkeley-Johnson and Leslie Morton in 1968, a lot of the traffics for the fleet had been moving away from the canals and the loss of the Croxley paper mill coal contract ultimately proved a step too far. BW closed the head of the Ashby canal cutting off the loading points for boats and forcing the traffic to move to road haulage, this was due to mining subsidence ultimately the mining itself closing the means for the coal to be carried by canal. Small contracts from various coal mines to Croxley continued until 1970 but the switch to oil firing meant the end and in Sept 1970 on delivery of the last load Willow Wren ceased to exist as a carrying company with BW repossessing the boats. Of the original directors who got together to create Willow Wren only Robert Aickman lived to see the end. The name Willow Wren however lives on, a modern day owner of one of the fleet 'Baldock' has the rights to the name and will carry it proudly on his boat, a testament to one of the last great attempts at canal carrying. Boats hired from British Waterways by Willow Wren Canal Transport Services South Eastern Fleet 1963-1970 Motor/Butty - Name - Registration Details - Further Inofrmation
Boats hired from British Waterways by Willow Wren Canal Transport Services North Western Fleet 1964-1967
ALTON, HALSALL, HAWKESBURY and TARPORLEY served in the North West fleet for a while as did Willow Wrens own butty SNIPE. HYPERION also served on a sub contract basis. TAPLOW was rebuilt and motorised in the 50s and given a full-length cabin conversion, by WW, to be used as a floating conference/exhibition centre (early corporate entertainment). The company who commissioned the work subsequently sold the boat back to WW and she was renamed Willow Wren who sold her with the new name and only when an enthusiast bought her at a later date was she given her 'proper' name back. Several boats were transferred from the original company to Willow Wren Hire Cruisers when the company was reformed in 1963, among these were CRANE, SANDPIPER, TERN and WARBLER for use as camping boats with GREBE being converted to a 72ft cruiser. They also operated WATER OUZEL for roughly two years but George Walker, one of the directors, took over the operation of the boat in 1967 as a private venture. Most of the information on this page was gained from Alan Faulkner's book Willow Wren published by Waterways World in 1986, loaned to me by Mr Carl T, if you can get a copy I heartily recommend it for a full and fascinating history of the company.
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