History of Sickle...
Sickle was built in 1936 by W. J. Yarwood and Sons for the star class fleet of
the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company and was known as a 'Middle Northwich'.
These 'E' type boats were built as a prototype design for estuary use, hence
they were built with rounded chines and a vee bottom to improve their
performance. However, due to this design they were unpopular with the boatmen as
they were unstable. This meant that the middle northwich boats were underused so
in 1942 it was decided by the Ministry Of War Transport to shorten and convert
four of the eight motors into icebreakers as the shapes were ideal.
Sickle was converted along with the other motors at Bulls Bridge depot, her work
was completed on the 24th December 1942, the work included
- Chopping her in two and rejoining the two ends
- Overplating the bow
- Adding a 5ft ice ram
- Fitting roll bars and decking
Sickle then worked on the lower Grand Union Canal as an icebreaker for the
Ministry Of War Transport, followed by the Docks and Inland Waterways Executives
which later became British Waterways. In the mid 1950s, British Waterways had a
new purpose built icebreaker built for use on the Apsley Section of the Grand
Union. It was therefore decided that there was no need for two icebreakers in the one
area, so British Waterways came to the decision to remove the ice ram from
Sickle and instead use her as a maintenance tug. This adaption was completed in
1957, again at Bulls Bridge, the work was simply using a gas axe to remove the
ram, at the same time it was decided to fit Sickle with a more powerful engine
to allow her to tow mud hoppers easier, therefore the original Russell Newbery
DM2 was removed and an Armstrong Siddeley AS3 was installed.
Sickle continued to work for British Waterways as a maintenance tug , based
around Marsworth depot being skippered by Alf Best, Tom Sibley and lastly Ian
Tyler. In 2000, Sickle was removed from the water at Bulbourne for a hull survey
to be undertaken. The surveyors came to the conclusion that Sickle was in poor
condition and was not to be returned to the water. British Waterways therefore
came to the conclusion that Sickle would need to be cut up, the staff were
brought in to do the job, but luckily refused and instead Sickle was sold to
British Waterways Marinas Limited for use as a car park attraction at Sawley
Marina.
The aim of BWML was to dig Sickle into the ground and fill the hold with flowers,
however, work was delayed so she just sat in the corner rusting away. As soon as
Sickle arrived in the car park we recognised what she was as we had previously
owned Tycho, another middle northwich icebreaker. Immediately we started
protesting about what they intended to do with this rare vessel, although BW
were adamant that they wouldn't sell her. A year and a half on, they gave in, so
we placed an offer and took her away.
Five years later we finished the restoration and returned her back to the water
in as near to her maintenance appearance as possible. Since then we have loaded
her twice with timber and simply enjoyed boating around on her.
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