Trucks and boats and trains
Mike Stone’s career journey comes full circle
THE sight of barges carrying freight along the River Trent near his childhood home triggered an interest which lives on today for Grantham Canal Society chairman Mike Stone.
After a career in the transport industry, he turned his attention to the waterways – the ‘motorways’ of yesteryear – and their restoration.
Mike takes up the story: “I was born and raised at Stoke Bardolph and although not right next to the river, I could see the barges going up and down during all the 20 years I lived there.
“I have always been interested in transport – the Trent was one side of a triangle with the Nottingham to Lincoln railway line and the Colwick Sidings were on the third side so we were surrounded.”
As a young boy, he would cycle to Stoke Lock and thumb a lift on a barge – usually to Gunthorpe – and cycle home again. He recalled: “One memorable day, I went down on an empty petrol tanker and there was a British Waterways boat towing three barges back up the river. I was lifted across by the crew, the bicycle followed me, and we headed back up to Stoke. It took 30 minutes going down but around three hours back and my mother was getting quite worried by the time I got home! I didn’t realise how slowly upriver traffic moved.”
Scholarship
In 1960, as an 18-year-old student at Nottingham High School, Mike won The Nottingham Chamber of Commerce Centenary Scholarship to study the Inland Waterways of Western Europe. “I started from Stoke Lock and went downriver on an empty Harker’s barge to Saltend, near Hull and got another barge from Hull to Goole. I then travelled on a freight sailing operated by Associated Humber Lines which ran a weekly service from Goole to Antwerp.”
His journey continued through Belgium and France to Nancy, travelling by barge, car, vintage tram and train. “It caused quite a stir because people could not understand why on earth anyone would want to thumb a lift on a barge!”
Along the Canal de Saint-Quentin Mike travelled on their barge with two brothers who had come from Amsterdam and on the next barge a third brother and his wife from Germany who were all going to Paris with grain. “It was great because I saw the main waterway structures and tunnels on the canal. They wanted to take me to Paris too but I knew there was not enough time; that was the one thing I regret.”
He went on to Nancy where the Canal de la Marne au Rhin canalised Moselle river with its 1000-ton barge locks were under construction. Each of these was built with a power station, even the old locks which seemed years ahead of the UK, yet local women could be seen doing their weekly wash in the river.
Mike travelled by train to Strasbourg – a big vibrant port a long way from the sea – and then on to Basle on the Swiss border before heading back down the River Rhine, most of which is canalised to Strasbourg. Using a variety of vessels including tankers and dumb barges – one skippered by an ex U-boat captain – he returned north towards Rotterdam.
“I poked my nose around the Dutch waterways but not for long as I had to get the weekly freight sailing back to Goole.” By this time he had completed around 1600 miles, along the way studying barge construction, motive power, civil engineering works, traffic and general observations for his report, which was typed up by a girlfriend.
Comparison
Mike continued: “I had not seen any of the UK system in a comparative sense so I spent the following summer (1961) on the British Waterways – miniature by comparison.”
He worked with Willow Wren on a pair of narrowboats – Redshank and Greenshank – going out to Brentford and Aylesbury, Braunston then across to Birmingham to Stewarts & Lloyds at Coombeswood – one of the biggest users by then of the Midland waterways. He also spent a bit of time on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal before writing the second half of his report, which was aimed as a comparison between the Continent and the UK.
“Commercially it was still quite busy then; it is quieter now, even with the growth of pleasure boating. At Birmingham you could see horses around but on some lengths there was absolutely nothing moving or stationary. Many of these have since been restored or kept in traffic by the IWA.”
Michael’s typewritten study extends to more than 50 pages complete with hand-drawn maps and diagrams. In those days he was unable to reproduce the many colour slides which he took depicting various aspects of the waterways and commerce in the report but they form a separate record.
In his conclusion he writes: “Besides understanding the difficulties of water transport I have also been able to appreciate the problems associated with road and rail transport. This will be of great benefit to me.”
This was to prove prophetic as his first job was in the transport department at J Lyons, of Corner House fame, where he worked for six years before applying for a head office position in Proctor & Gamble’s shipping department at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The movement of sea freight became part of his role because the UK company exported to Scandinavia and Switzerland. “Inland waterways came back into it because we loaded boats on the Thames which sailed all the way to Basle.”
He also saw the introduction of container transport, firstly to Ireland using former railway containers. “Looking back, one can now understand that the biggest change which affected waterways had started while I was at Lyons; business changed and the environment in which one was in. The motorways made a significant difference in a short period of time.”
Bedford move
After 18 years with increasing responsibility for Michael, he was headhunted by the National Freight Corporation (made up of the former British Road Services and other companies) and moved to Bedford. “That was an interesting world again, when I joined it was nationalised and it was the second of the big sell-offs – the only company of its size that has been sold to its employees.
“This was a very positive experience in human resources and management and the change in attitude was amazing. Every employee who wanted to could buy shares and some made themselves very comfortably off.”
Michael completed a further 18 years in that environment including a career move to become director of sales for Carlson Wagonlit Travel – a corporate travel agent which saw him travelling around the world. “But flying can be boring and repetitive after a while so when I left in 2000, I thought ‘I am now going to relax.’”
But not for long, as his daughter pointed him in the way of a job with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at its headquarters in Sandy, Bedfordshire, where he worked in trading and credit card management for seven years. “By then I had got roped into the Grantham Canal!”
When the Grantham on Water Festival was staged in 2007 by the Grantham Canal Society, supported by a number of other bodies to celebrate the reopening of five miles of canal, Mike’s brother asked him to help. “That translated into ‘would I take over as chairman’ and that is what I still am. We are a very effective society and I still love waterways but I am not as mobile as I used to be.”
Mike didn’t buy his own boat until 1995: “A 35-footer which took me round quite a few waterways places in the UK. I subsequently sold that and bought another – 54ft – and am just in the process of selling that. My wife finds some lock gates too heavy and paddles too stiff – there is not enough grease and the art of balancing lock gates, while not lost, is not always evident.”