Earl of Concordia was the name of the first narrowboat owned by the Earl of Concordia Narrowboat Association. Well, nothing too remarkable about that you may think - true, but why an association owning a narrowboat and why that particular name?
I suppose the story in some ways starts in the summer of 1939 when Tom Rolt started out from Banbury on a trip around the English Canals in a narrowboat called "Cressy". The trip is captured in Role's first book "Narrowboat". It is largely due to this trip and subsequent book that the Inland Waterways Association was formed to ensure that the beauty and unique nature of these inland waterways was not lost for ever (for some canals it was already too late).
Many people find a voyage on the canals an unparalleled experience which stays with them for the rest of their life. This was certainly the case for Tom Rolt, (he went on in 1952 to become the General Manager of the Talyllyn Railway during the formation of the world's first railway preservation society) canals, railways and engineering being the subjects of numerous books until he died in 1974.
So it was that in the summer of 1979 a group of (mainly) 'behind the scenes' volunteer workers at the Concordia Theatre, Hinckley decided that it would be fun to arrange a day trip on the local canal. Investigations proved fruitless, at the time one day narrowboat hire was not available. However, the seed was planted - what about a weeks holiday on the canals in place of the annual "Whitsun" camping holiday.
Shortly after Christmas 1979 a booking had been made with Hoseason's for two 8 berth boats to be hired from Shardlow on the Trent & Mersey Canal. The holiday was a great success! We traveled from Shardlow through Burton upon Trent to Fradley Junction, turning left onto the Coventry Canal we finally turned in the Hinckley Arm on Tuesday afternoon for the return trip. Progress of the trip was telephoned through to the Concordia Bar each evening which usually resulted in "day visitors" joining the boat the following morning (although I seem to recall some stayed over, as driving home would not have been a good idea!).
By the end of the week at least three quarters of the crews where already talking about the route for the following year. And so the boats where re-booked at the earliest opportunity. At the time I happened to be working with somebody who, together with 5 friends, had purchased a Thames pleasure barge, they all contributed to its upkeep and used it a weekends when the weather was kind. This seemed like a great scheme which I mentioned to Jim Starkey.
Instead of hiring a boat, we could club together and buy one! it would be available for weekends as well. Jim was sold on the idea immediately, anybody who knew Jim would know what I mean, he was one not for lengthy deliberations - like an excited child waiting for Santa - it was not a case of if - but when.
The idea was floated with members of the "Whitsunday" crews and "day visitors" and found general support. I must record that whilst most members of the crew agreed to take part, you could tell with some it was with the same enthusiasm that Compo and Clegg might agree to Floggy's latest scheme - you know "we're agreeing to take part - but we'll wish we hadn't".
With excitement to keep us warm (it was February 1981), we set off to visit Anglo-Welsh at Market Harborough who were planning to sell-off some of their fleet to be replaced with new boats in the summer. "Montrose" was the name of the boat we were due to see - a 56' 6/8 berth narrowboat built in 1973. We all agreed it fitted the bill perfectly, however, it was only the first or second boat we had seen and we felt we should visit more boats before settling on an offer. However, the weather was cold, really cold, and we didn't have the stomach for too many visits to boatyards, therefore we soon agreed to proceed with the purchase of Montrose.
We approached Anglo-Welsh to see if we could get a better price. As I recall the asking price was £10,500, they offered to reduce the price to £10,000 if we could pay for the boat before the end of March, although we would not take delivery of the boat until July.
So it was in March 1981 that a group met in the Concordia Theatre Bar to agree the purchase of the boat from Anglo-Welsh for £10,000. In order to raise the necessary money within a much shorter timescale then we have been planning, it was agreed we would create 42 - 50 shares and form an association of shareholders to manage the boat.
By now the Hire Boats were already booked for the May Holiday that year. When the holiday arrived we set out from Shardlow - this time heading for the Trent and onto the Soar. It was while we were on the Soar going South towards Leicester that we passed "Montrose" heading North on a weeks hire. It was a very strange sensation to see a boat we had all paid for being used by total strangers! It was to be another two months before we saw the boat again. We took delivery at Aynho on the South Oxford canal, 25th July 1981 - it was also an important time for a couple about to get married.
The debate on the new name for the boat had been in progress since March. I can't remember the suggestions now, but I do remember that the "Canals 1980" cruising guide had a picture on the front cover of a hire boat from Ashby Narrowboats called "Earl of Bosworth".
One of the members of the group had been given the nickname "Earl" by friends at the Concordia Theatre and so the substitution to "Earl of Concordia" was quickly accepted by the Members.
A group of us spent that first weekend bringing the boat up the Oxford to Braunstone. A couple of us took the week off work and continued the journey to Hinckley. On Wednesday 29th July, Charles & Diana married in St Paul's Cathedral, little did we know at the time how the marriage would suffer. However, in 1981 it was a time of great celebration. I recall watching the wedding on television in the Concordia Bar, and in the afternoon we went for our first of many trips up the Ashby Canal to Stoke Golding.
The next few years brought countless trips on the boat. But for me nothing can surpass the enjoyment of those early trips when you "do" a canal for the first time. Around each bend is a new surprise. You really do feel that you are a pioneer, future trips hold other enjoyments - you know where the good Pubs are! But that first trip down the staircase at Chester, the vision of Hatton flight before you or steering over Pontcysyllte can't be reproduced.
I could sit and recount endless tales of our trips between 1981 and 1988, but I'm sure everybody has got their own experiences and tales to tell. I will therefore try to confine my story to the boat, although I cannot get far before a picture of Jim Starkey comes into my mind whether it be him innocently asking "do you think the sun is over the yard-arm?" or standing knee deep in the canal having just changed to go to pub, with a look on his face as much to say "Who did that".
Jim died in June 1988 a couple of days before his 60th birthday. He had been with us three weeks earlier on the usual Spring Bank Holiday boat trip. We had finished the week with a meal at Trent Lock - the same way we had finished our first holiday on the hire boats. We left the boat at Shardlow Marina the following morning for some minor work to be carried out but we also asked the Marina to give us a valuation of the boat. After 7 years the boat was beginning to show signs of wear & tear. Jim had been very keen on the idea of a new boat. His death shook all of us, in so many ways the boat trips would not be the same again.
There was one person more than anybody who convinced me to press on with the plan to replace the boat - Jim's Mum. Kerry and I would visit her occasionally on a Sunday, each time she would ask about the boat. She was very keen that we should have a new boat, because she knew it was what Jim wanted. She was also insistent that his share of the old boat should pass to the new one.
It was at the end of 1988 at the AGM that it was agreed that detailed investigation would be made towards commissioning a brand new boat. Following these investigations the "Earl of Concordia" was advertised for sale in 1989 and finally sold at the end of the season for £13,000.
The buyer had just become the toll keeper of a road bridge over the River Thames near Oxford. He was looking for a boat which could be moored on the Thames. I visited the bridge a few years ago and the "Earl" was moored under one of the arches of the bridge, in a new colour scheme of Red, White & Blue and renamed "Swinford Rose".
In the latter years the boat had been moored at Valley Cruises boatyard, Atherstone on the Coventry Canal. The boatyard had not long changed hands and the new owners has started fitting out narrowboats. The quality and high standards of the boat fitting ensured that it was quickly agreed that they would be commissioned to build the new boat.
Once again the name of the new boat was on the agenda. This time, however, the process took very little time indeed. It was agreed that the boat would be called "Captain Starkey".
The boat was to be the fifth boat built at Valley Cruises and we took delivery in May 1990. By the end of this season the "new" boat will have; completed its' 10th season, been used for 250 weeks and clocked almost 9000 hours running. Without doubt she will have paid for herself many times over and is still going strong.
If you wish to contact the Association please email our administrator Paul Williams hon-treasurer@foghorn.co.uk
The first boat Earl of Concordia moored in Chester 1982
The second boat, first Captain Starkey moored waiting to cross the pontcysyllte aqueduct in 1994
The third boat, also Captain Starkey moored at Fradley 2003