A brief interlude from this trip for a bit of Flamingo's History

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

After Flamingo ceased to be a carrying boat when Willow Wren Canal Transport Services was wound up in 1970, it was then sold off, and converted to a trip boat which operated for at least 15 years in the Stoke-on-Trent area.

Most likely general location for trip boat base?

We have just passed up the canal where this business would have operated, and we know specifically that this was near Trentham Lock.  This is probably the first time since it ceased to be a trip boat that it has returned to the area, and this got us thinking about where it must have had its base.  There is one seemingly obvious offside location just above Trentham Lock, and this conveniently has a winding hole right next to it.  There seem to be no other obvious candidate locations, and the housing that stands there now looks post 1986, so this could well have been its base.

Trading as Potteries Canal Cruising Co - Entering Trentham Lock

However studying this postcard image of Flamingo shows it has "Hem Heath Wharf"  painted on the side.  Hem Heath is still a place today, (there is a Hem Heath Cricket Club, for example), but the indications are this area might be slightly North of where this housing is.  However we did not spot a likely alternate location, and this would then make a wharf not next to the winding hole that still exists, so I'm still tempted to think the location is where these new houses now are.

This particular house has piling that is older than the others.

We have been told in the past there were two owners of this business, the first trading as Trent Valley Cruises until about 1978, when new owners changed the name to Potteries Cruising Company.  However someone Cath spoke to on the tow-path knew the boat, and recognised it as a former local trip boat, but neither name she gave for the ownership at the time match those we previously had, so the situation now seems more blurred than we believed it to be.



If anybody reading this can add to the story, is a former owner, or can tell us more about the operations and where exactly based we would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, here is a brochure for Trent Valley Cruises.

An Update!

I have been contacted by Teresa Fuller on this topic, and am now aware that our guess about the location that Flamingo would have operated from is wrong.

It was indeed to the North of the possible location we have identified.  I'm very grateful to Teresa for the additional information supplied, but am not apologetic about publishing speculation that was incorrect - had I not done that we would not have been told the right answer!  Thank you Teresa.

Unfortunately we are now through the area, so can't check out the real location in person.  However here is a great image that Teresa has alerted us to of the area where Flamingo operated from, but taken maybe 80 years earlier.  Hem Heath Wharf was apparently on that offside bank, where the living van is, and the kids are dangling their feet in the water.  So narrow boats used to ferry passengers from here, many decades before Flamingo did. I'm glad I asked, as this is fascinating.

Click on this link