The Pen Makers Boat: #394

Now Sold

NB Dane and Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen

(25% of the profit will be gifted to the Narrowboat Heritage Foundation, the custodians of NB Dane)

EUROPEAN ELM - Ulmus procera

European Elm has is a light to medium brown, sometimes with a hint of red. With an oil finish, it can turn a beautiful golden brown colour. Unless, of course, it's been kept at the bottom of a canal for an awfully long time.

The rotten parts of these rebuilt boats are usually used to stoke the fires that steam the new planks for bending to the hull's shape.Luckily these pieces of elm were too important to burn and have been properly stored. I wasn't sure how deep the rot would have gone and how deep I would have to delve into this piece to find stable wood. The pens I make from historic boat materials have been thoroughly tested by me to make sure that they will give pleasurable daily use.

Narrowboat Dane was built by the Mersey Weaver and Ship Canal Carrying Company and used as part of their fleet. She was built in November 1946 and first registered on January the first 1947. Ade from A P Boatbuilding is currently restoring her on behalf of The Narrowboat Heritage Foundation, the work being done is re-bottomed with new chine planks, kelson, stem post and soon to receive two new bow planks, gunwales, decks, new back cabin and engine room. The pens that I will be making from Dane are all from a heavy lump of Elm bottom plate.

The journey from Norbury Junction through to the locks above Audlem is a beautiful stretch of the canal system and Autumn is a great time of year to cruise it. Once past the moored boats resident at Norbury the canal passes through Grub Street Cutting with two remarkable tall bridges, one with an arch on top of an arch with an old telegraph pole in the middle and a double decker bridge with a road across the cutting and under the road the bridge carries a stream from one side to the other!

An hour or so further and the engineering feat of the Great Shebdon Embankment takes you over the smoking chimney of the farmhouse below and on towards a large ex-chocolate factory still with it's covered canalside wharf. Sadly now only producing dried milk powder the factory used to chocolate goods to and from Bourneville on the south-eastern side of Birmingham.

The narrow and very steep cutting at Woodseves leads to the picturesque flight of five locks at Tyrley and soon onto the market town of Market Drayton where we stopped for a couple of nights to restock the cupboards and catch up on a few jobs before continuing down through another five locks at Adderley and a slightly more taxing fifteen locks through Audlem village and down to one of our favourite moorings overlooking farmland and a young meandering River Weaver.