Historic Narrowboat Rally commentator who shot from the lip
Norman Mitchell 1944-2020 Tim Coghlan recalls his personal memories of Norman as commentator at many of the Braunston Boat Shows and also the Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rallies; and shares his thoughts on this great canal character’s life.
I THINK I first met Norman when he and his wife Pauline came by narrowboat to the very first Braunston Boat Show, which I had gingerly organised in May 1991 with Simon Ainley, the new giveit-a-go British Waterways manager for the Braunston area.
Such was the relatively small scale of that event, the Mitchells were able to moor right outside the marina, with only three other boats near them.
The event was a great success, particularly with the entertainment provided in the beer tent – the Wet Dock – by that great canal personality David Blagrove and his friends.
David had been an ‘amateur’ working boatman for a couple of years in the early 1960s and now held a great interest in preserving former working narrowboats. It was at his suggestion that as part of the boat show, we should hold a rally of them on the canal outside the marina and then have them parade through it as an additional spectacle.
He offered to organise one the following year, which attracted about 20 of them. A far greater success than we had anticipated, it was criticised for being too informal. In particular, there was no commentary on the parades to tell interested visitors what was going on. Somehow Norman emerged, volunteering for the role, which he did for the first time the following year.
He took to it like the proverbial duck to water. His rich baritone Gloucester accent, his knowledge of the working narrowboats, his gaffes, his irreverent and at times biting wit seemed to make for the perfect compère to add colour and interest to the parades.
Like the time he announced that the Friends of President, who had got something wrong with their pair of boats, had had their brains removed. He claimed they wore red scarves so as not to show the blood when their throats had been slit open to do so. The Friends took it well and the following year arrived wearing blue scarves. “Ah,” said Norman, “So you’re blue blooded after all!”
And even the former working boatmen weren’t spared. As Alice Lapworth steered her butty under the entrance bridge, he was heard to quip: “First time out, Mrs Lapworth?”
In the years that followed, Norman was keen to improve the professionalism of the parades, which had first begun with Pauline waving a Union Jack to control their movements. Soon there were volunteer stewards with walkietalkies at key points on the route. He was also keen that all narrowboats participating should be properly registered on arrival, with the owners completing a form to include the boats’ histories for his commentary.
The Braunston Boat Shows closed in 1999, and moved to Crick Marina. Where everything else successfully made the move, the parade of former working narrowboats just did not, and after an attempt in the second year, it was given up. The parades just didn’t click at Crick!
Parade revival
Later in 1999, the hull of the steamer narrowboat President failed its survey, and was in need of major works. This kept it out of the water at Ian Kemp’s yard at Stourbridge, until funds could be raised, and the repairs then carried out – for which we were major sponsors. It wasn’t until the end of 2002 that the boat was repaired and back on the water.
To celebrate this, I thought of holding a special rally for President and its butty Kildare to which all surviving former FMC working boats would be invited and any other former working boats that wanted to come. We soon had 29 booked in and we now needed a commentator: it was phone-a-friend time, and Norman was back on board.
The Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rallies, as they came to be known, took off with regular attendances of 80 or more boats, and in one year totalled 107. In 2013 there were 87 and Norman found he simply no longer had the energy to cope with standing on the marina entrance bridge for two days doing his commentary. He announced that the 2014 rally would be his last year: he would by then have commentated at 12 of them, and previously six Braunston Boat Shows.
We wanted to record our thanks and offered to give him a Buckby can for his boat, painted by the distinguished canal artist Becky Roberts. It would be presented to him in the beer tent at the end of the rally. Becky did a great job, but unfortunately put the wrong end date on the can – 2004 rather than 2014, as it should have been. Norman commented looking at the can, “Someone’s boobed here!” He happily kept the can as presented.
The other reason for his standing down was that Norman was particularly keen to attend the 2015 Russell Newbery Register (RNR) Rally – he had at best half attended their rallies for some years now, despite being a member of the RNR board, and a past chairman. The reason was that their dates tended to clash with ours. But after one absence, he couldn’t stay away, and was back to commentate on both our 2016 and 2017 rallies, the latter proving to be his last.
Norman left a very hard act to follow: our now retired servicing manager, Libby Hart, who also ran the rallies for several years, emailed: “Very sorry to hear about Norman. He was a great asset to the Historic Rally and a good bloke all round.”
Graham Scothern, our rally harbourmaster, who has managed our parades with his team of volunteers since 2006, said: “Norman was held in high regard by the members of the parade team, as well as the numerous visitors to the event who listened to his commentaries with interest.
“Not only was he knowledgeable about the boats and their crew taking part in the parades, but his sense of humour was legendary. Norman will be missed in many circles: Russell Newbery, Grand Junction Lodge and the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester, where he was a volunteer for 10 years.”
Holiday interest
Born in Gloucester during the Second World War, Norman was educated at Monmouth School as a boarder. He worked in the family refrigeration business, founded by his grandfather in 1904. He became MD in 1976, and finally chairman after his father died in 1977. Their son is now MD, making four generations in the business.
Norman’s interest in canals began in the late 1950s, after a holiday on a friend’s narrowboat. His father bought a kit-boat – a marine ply cruiser – which he built and on which the family holidayed together.
He married Pauline in 1977, who before meeting Norman knew nothing about the canals. They began hiring narrowboats for holidays. Then in 1990 they commissioned their first boat Anonymity, a 60ft narrowboat built by Peter Nicholls at its then Napton works. It was fitted with a Russell Newbery DM2 engine.
Twenty years later in 2010, they commissioned Arthur, an RW Davies 70ft Northwich Trader, which was fitted with the only Russell Newbery threecylinder engine specially built that year to commemorate the centenary of the company. It was painted in the original Manchester Red. (They also built a one-cylinder and a two-cylinder for that centenary, both also painted in Manchester Red.)
Life is full of cruel ironies. Much to my annoyance, the RNR had arranged its 2020 Rally to be held at Aylesbury on exactly the same weekend as ours. Both of course were cancelled. But before this I had lobbied the RNR to hold theirs on a different date in 2021. I even offered them the free use of Braunston Marina the weekend after our rally and also free use of the marquees from ours that they wanted, which we would keep up for them. There was one condition – Norman came back and commentated.
Those two great weekend events are hopefully still on for next year – but alas without Norman. Someone suggested a minute’s silence before the first parade on the Saturday as a tribute to him. To this suggestion I quipped: “But Norman didn’t do silence!”
I am sure he would have appreciated the joke.