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Barnt Green Sailing Club - History Home Page Chapter Two. The Early Days of the Sailing Club. In writing this history of the club, thoughts turned to the older members to see if they could recall how it came into being, and the name of one of the old originals, Charles Chatwin, immediately came to mind as having previously written a paper on precisely that subject. Many of the present‑day members remembered this very interesting story but no one could find a copy although it had been circulated to everybody in the club. We therefore wrote to Charles asking if he had the original but, once again, this was also missing from his files. So very kindly, he promised to search his memory and to record on tape his recollections. This proved to be most extensive and useful, in fact this new recording was far more detailed than the original paper, a copy of which did, in fact, eventually turn up along with all the papers handed over by the retiring club secretary Tim Jobson to Dr Iain Sidford when Iain took over as the secretary after the AGM in November 1986. The original paper was dated May 1967, and here is the typescript of Charles Chatwin's recording "These notes are my recollections of the early days and the history of Barnt Green Sailing Club. They have been prepared entirely from memory. I'm sure there are many omissions and inaccuracies and I apologise for these.” Charles Chatwin To understand the early history of BGSC we must, I think, talk about the origins of BGFC. The clubhouse and the fishing and boating rights over Upper and Lower Bittell reservoirs, Cofton Water, the Arrow Pools and Mill Shrub, together with the keeper's cottage and the use of the closed and open boat sheds, was rented from the Earl of Plymouth back in the 19th century (in 1889 to be precise. Ed. Note.) When I first knew the club, during and immediately after the First World War, Col. C.F. Milward was the chairman and 'Old Broome’ lived at the cottage as the Earl of Plymouth's keeper. The club, I suspect, gave him an honorarium to look after the club property, and primarily he was the Plymouth's keeper, dressed in a heavy clothe coat and breeches, velveteens, that is to say leggings, and a brown bowler hat. He had mutton chop side-whiskers, which would have made him very fashionable today. The club was essentially a fishing club, the shooting rights were, of course, reserved for the Earl. There were at least two fishing punts on Upper Bittell, reserved solely for coarse fishermen. Trout fishing was limited to Cofton Water and the Arrow Pools, but there were two large double sculled riverboats at Upper Bittell known as ladies boats' for use by the members, wives and families for picnicking etc. The memorable names, albeit before my time, included the secretary, W.G. Ashford, known as 'the old 'un'. He was a great character. In spite of emphasis on fishing there was a growing pre World War I interest in sailing. The other name that comes to mind is Charles Ashford, the younger brother of the old un, who were Birmingham whip‑makers. There was W.A. (Billy) Baldwin, who to be on the safe side, used to mark the whisky level on the label each evening. He was a paper‑maker from Kings Norton. Others were J.R.Brougham, a charming Irishman who lived in Twatling Road, Barnt Green. V.Graham Milward, a Birmingham barrister, Gerald Beesley of the Pump House, Plymouth Road (of Hopes Windows), W.Tonks of Arden Cottage, Hyla Elkington of Tower Cottage, Bittell, and my father L.B.Chatwin. It was my mother who originally was the member, but they changed over when the committee wanted my father to join them. The pre (1914‑1918) war sailing was before my memory and the largest craft was W.A.Baldwin's LIL IV, a massive 21 foot varnished mahogany 2 ton yacht, with a cabin and centreboard. LIL IV was later sold to another member Musgrave Woodman and I last saw her in 1923/24 at Burlesdon.
It was, of course, the 18 foot IONA belonging to my father that I remember best. Built as an open, round‑stern Scotch fishing boat at Vaul on the island of Tiree, she was rigged with a dipping lug and jib and her cost was ten shillings a foot, i.e. £9. My father put on a deck with a lifting cabin top and a gunter mainsail. She used to travel on a horse drawn timber wagon to Barnt Green station and from there to somewhere on the South Coast such as Falmouth or the Solent and on one occasion to the East Coast. He and my mother would cruise in her for the main holiday. Charles Ashford had the RUBY, a half‑decked boat of about 16 foot with a centreboard and balanced rudder. I remember her sailing once or twice but most of the time she was on the bank by the open boat shed or by his caravan near the engine house being varnished. (Author's Note. This sounds exactly the same as Bill Fray, 30 years later looking after his immaculate BGOD Fairey Duckling!) But even before the war, from about 1908 to 1910 and onwards, there were races at Bittell for a shilling a boat, with the money being put into IONA's blue enamel teapot before the race. The shilling in the teapot' races continued after the first war for perhaps four or five years. I have a note from my father's log of a race held on 28th May 1911 in a fresh breeze. The boats taking part were LIL IV (Baldwin), RUBY (Charles Ashford), IONA (my father), PHIALA (Gerald Beesley), and STARLIGHT (Hyla Elkington). There is no record of which won! OTHER BOATS AT BITTELL: Shortly before the first war, several members bought some of the West Mersey HEBE class 12 foot one design centre board dinghies with a single gunter lugsail. They were very sharp in the bow, broad in the stern, and a five-foot beam. Sailed hard off the wind, if one were not careful, they sailed right under. My father had GREBE, V.G.Milward SABRINA, Johnny Brougham had another and there were two or three more, I think, but am not sure that Disney Milward's Blackwater Class dinghy, WIDGEON was also there, but if not, she appeared soon afterwards. She was 12'611 and being the largest dinghy, it was adopted as the maximum length of the dinghy class. In 1919, dinghy racing proper started on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with probably about six boats including Gerald Beesley's beautifully kept clinker built dinghy ZOE. Shortly afterwards Sam Cooke, his brother‑in‑law Kingsley Auster, and Clayton‑Cooper appeared on the scene. The latter's first boat was, I think, a West of England Conference dinghy. I remember my mother saying it was nice to have some young faces about! My father had always been keen on small boat building, and in the winter of 1922/23 he decided and built on the Ashford system, a 12'C dinghy ‑ HERON. It was a great innovation and we had a single sail Bermuda mast. My recollection was that the mast was about 191C, stepped through the thwart and it looked very tall. At the same time, Beesley and Clayton‑Cooper got Morgan Giles to design and build for each of them 12'C dinghies, the VIV and the ANN and racing proper started. Racing became very keen. The shilling did not always get put into the teapot and it was decided to race for a silver spoon. As the boats were all different, it would not have been fair to award the spoons to the first past the post, so we adopted the 1Seaview' dinghy rule and each boat was rated in feet. The rating was: length plus beam plus 1/10th of the sail area and the difference in rating gave a handicap of one minute in the mile. The course, once round Bittell, was approximately one mile. Then, to handicap the helmsmen a bit as well, for each race won by a dinghy, its rating at the beginning of the season went up by one point. It worked out pretty well and it was very rare that a dinghy did not get at least one spoon per season. I have some 1923 spoons now. The HERON did pretty well, particularly in a fresh breeze. My father would sail most of the time and one of the three of us would crew, just as ballast of course, but in a year or two he let us have our own share of the helming. The success of the HERON made her popular and mostly Feltham of Portsmouth built several to her design, in conventional clinker mahogany. They had a slightly taller mast. Those were the days when one went in for weight in the centreboard, and the Heron’s centreboard was cast iron and weighed 1 cwt!
Sam Cooke and Kingsley Auster were among those who had HERONS from Felthams and Dr Marston, an engineer before he became a doctor, did a beautiful job in building one in double diagonal mahogany which lasted at Bittell a good many years after World War II under the name of WITTIWAKE. To get the date for the next change at Bittell, I have turned to Uffa Fox' s "Sailing, Seamanship and Yacht Construction" for the origins of the International 14 Foot class. In 1927, the Prince of Wales gave a cup to be sailed for by the old 14 Foot National class. It was won by Cecil Atkey in IREX with Uffa Fox second in RADIANT. IREX is definitely shown with a gunter rig, as the Nationals were required so to be. RADIANT may have had a Bermuda mast, I think so, but Uffa's next boat AVENGER with which he won the 1928 race definitely did, so we can place the new International 14 Foot class rules as about 1927/28. About that time, Lionel Somers of Belbroughton joined the club from Oxford University Sailing Club (as it was then called) and I feel sure that it was he who organised the purchase of three Morgan Giles gunter rigged 14 foot boats with International 14 Foot class registrations. As the class had then become. But clearly they were designed before Uffa's 'breakthrough' planing dinghy AVENGER. Let us say we got them in about 1928 or 1929. The Morgan Giles boats had Uffas fine entrance but not the flat run aft. Charles Douglas had one of these boats and when he bought another he lent the 14‑footer to me to sail. They were not too bad to windward, but you had to keep the weight forward and the transom out of the water; they would just not plane! Clayton-Cooper and Harold E. Clarke bought the two other boats, both of them senior members. Soon both went to Morgan Giles for new 14 foot dinghies. C.C. had his for certain in 1931 as I crewed for him in The Prince of Wales Cup at Ryde that year. Uffa had by then given up sailing for the Prince of Wales Cup saying, "I can't go on beating all my customers if I am to go on selling them new boats". In 1931 it blew hard from the NW and the race was postponed for 2 to 3 hours for the tide to change. We cannot say we finished very high up the list but we were really satisfied that we did complete the course when so many capsized or retired. This was C.C.'s first Prince of Wales Cup race, later he changed to an Uffa's boat BOGEY, and I'm pretty sure that he did at least one more Prince of Wales race in her. When the two new International 14 Footers had arrived, and I think that Sam Cooke had one also, they ran away from all the rest of us but they were beyond the purse of the majority. A young pathologist, Keith Thompson, came to Selly Oak Hospital, bringing with him a German‑built 12 square metre International Sharpie and sailed it at Bittell for a season or two. They were heavy boats, about 17 foot long, but narrow and gunter rigged. Well handled, in the right conditions, they could give the 14 Foot Internationals a good race. So Charles Douglas and John Hunt imported two from Germany and registered them as the first British boats in the International Class, K1 and K2. (Here 1 interrupt Charles Chatwin's narrative to provide a few more details of K1 and K2 provided by Peter Vaine of South Staffs SC, a frequent visitor to BGSC at Open and Invitation meetings). These two boats were imported at a total cost of £45 each and that included the delivery charges and crating in two very expensive cases. Today, in 1990, K1 has been totally dismantled, all the timber has been cleaned up and the hull made like new, it is lying in Norfolk and is being completely restored. K2 is down in the West Country with its side planking in a poor condition. P.Waine Charles Chatwin's story continues... Later these Sharpies were adopted as a Class by The United Hospitals SC and at The Royal Corinthian SC at Burnham‑on‑Crouch. It was about this time, probably when Lionel Somers joined us from oxford, that we entered into an era of team racing. We started with oxford University SC. I think they came to us first and we all enjoyed it very much. With our varied collection of boats, we chose, I think 3 or 4 a side, matching them off in pairs and always sailed them double handed (with a crew). We got a very welcome return invitation to Oxford where they already had six heavily built 14 footers single sailboats. For my father it was returning to old haunts, but to the rest of us, racing on a river was something new. When the OUSC boys learnt that my father was a member of theirs in the early 1890's they asked him to be their Commodore, which he very much appreciated. (Another interruption the Charles' recording this is a cutting from a local paper ‑The Redditch Indicator ‑ dated 21st June 1930: BARNT GREEN SAILING CLUB " Oxford University Match at Oxford Barnt Green visited the Abingdon reach at Oxford on Saturday for their return match against Oxford University SC. Unused to river sailing, they did not expect to obtain a victory, but yet got so close that but for an unfortunate occurrence it would have been theirs. The day was ideal, with a light breeze. Three separate races were organised over a course of approximately two miles for each race. Oxford had the advantage in knowing the river, its shoals, currents and advantageous points, with the result that in the first race they led by seven points to four: 1st John Russell (Oxford), 2nd S.N. Cooke (Barnt Green) 3rd L. Armstrong (Oxford) 4th K. Auster (Barnt Green) In the second race, both the Oxford helmsmen were disqualified, Barnt Green winning all the points, and taking the lead by twelve points to seven: 1st C. Chatwin (Barnt Green) 2nd L.B. Chatwin (Barnt Green) H. Trefusis and R. Shumway both Oxford disqualified. In the last race C. Douglas (Barnt Green) was disqualified early in the race, but Clayton‑Cooper (Commodore Barnt Green) had established a nice lead, which would have given Barnt Green victory. Unfortunately, in rounding the last buoy, sufficient allowance was not made for the river current and the buoy was touched, thus disqualifying him and reversing a victory of 15 to 14 for Barnt Green into a loss of 12 to 15: 1st P. Brett (Oxford). 2nd B. Davidson (Oxford) C. Douglas and R. Clayton‑Cooper (Barnt Green) disqualified. Nevertheless the racing was good, interesting in its difference to the Bittell waters. It was thoroughly enjoyed by the whole team." End to the Indicator Report. 1 like the bit which says 'sufficient allowance was not made for the river current. Author. Racing at Oxford led us to the matches with the Midland Sailing Club at Edgbaston, founded in 1893, who had a rather mixed lot of boats like ourselves and also with the Trent SC at Nottingham which we found fascinating as they were still sailing the original Half Raters of the 1890's. Big boats which would turn on a sixpence! The mid‑30's was a great time for dinghy sailing and the team racing opened us up to the world. We had visits or temporary membership for a number of first class helmsmen including Stewart Morris, John Winter of Stafford SC with his 14 footer LIGHTNING with which he had so many successes and, of course, Uffa to see how his boats were going. But let us look again at the Sailing Club itself. The Fishing Club was a very small affair until 1919-1920 when the Earl of Plymouth offered a very large part of his estate for sale. The Club decided to bid and bought the sporting rights of the three reservoirs, the Arrow Pools, Mill Shrub and the freehold of the Clubhouse etc. etc. The price was, I think, £5,000. A small sum today but a lot of money for the members to find then. Barnt Green Waters Ltd was formed and it became a condition of membership that each member should hold 100 £1 shares. This would entitle him and him only, The result was the introduction of the £10 member, a higher sub than the full member was, and to these members, access was limited to himself and one other (his wife). From this, there grew up a body of members who specifically joined for dinghy racing. The growth of sailing was in due course recognised by the club committee and the name became Barnt Green Fishing and sailing Club. As the sailing interest grew and we became involved with the outside sailing world. We wanted to be recognised by the Yacht Racing Association (as it was then known) and the word 'Fishing, was an obstacle so the 'club within a club' was accepted, with Sailing Club officials and committee, but still financed by the main club to which all members paid their subscription. This was the position as the 1935 season drew to a close but there was a growing feeling that the handicap racing with a mixture of boats was not much fun. Nice as it would have been to settle for a restricted class of modern design, i.e. National 14 Foot class, the expense would have ruled out many members so we leaned towards a one‑design class. Uffa had recently designed a new class of 12 foot dinghy with Bermuda mast and jib for the OUSC. Peter Brett, then working for ICI in Shropshire, modified this design to make it a little more sturdy and suitable for reservoir sailing and he started the MARBURY class on Marbury reservoir. I was Commodore at the time and my comment was If or heaven, s sake do not let us start yet another one‑design class, let us use the MARBURY design so that there will be two reasonably local clubs with the same boats'. So, that autumn we gave an order to Chapman of Nottingham for about a dozen, or perhaps one or two more boats. I remember the contract price was £27.10.0 for a clinker built dinghy with a Bermudan mainsail and jib and nature's hollow spars, a bamboo for cheapness for mast and boom. Although we did not know it, the idea of a 12 foot restricted class was very much in the mind of the dinghy committee of the RYA. One of the main instigators was Leslie Lewis, a very able senior dinghy man. During the winter of 1935136, after we had given our order, but before building had started, the rules for a clinker built 12 foot National class were published. Although the boats, which we had ordered were not designed to these rules, we found that by increasing the depth of the transom by 21' or 3" we could come within the rules and our builder, Chapman agreed to do this. We were first in the field, to be followed quickly, that is to say, in March 1936, by Uffa’s design sponsored by The Yachting World who distributed the design country‑wide at 12/6d a time! Leslie Lewis had the prototype UFFAKIN for his daughter who was registered NI and we followed with the next dozen or so numbers. Garth Billington, of which more anon, had N2 GOLDCREST and when he took it down to Poole that same September for the first open meeting, held in pretty breezy weather, he finished almost halfway up the list in the points for the Yachting World Cup for the five races which were held. A very creditable performance in a boat not designed exactly to the rules and indeed, as it turned out, not really able to compete on level terms with the UFFAKINS which formed the majority of the National class before the last war. I only remember one of the true class of National 12's at Bittell, it was Peter Hordern's UFFAKIN, Peter was at that time a master at Bromsgrove School. During the next three or four years, until the war put a stopper on things, the club went from strength to strength. Class races for the 12 foot Nationals on a 'first past the post' basis, were at the same time and as part of, the handicap races which included the older boats in the club, so we called it a menagerie class. The culmination of the pre‑war races was the club's 21st birthday regatta of which the photograph is reproduced elsewhere in this history. After the war, it was clearly apparent that our Barnt Green Nationals BGOD would not be able to compete with the modern design and we were again on the look out f or a small one-design class. Fairey Marine at Hamble had, through their parent company and the Mosquito aircraft plant, a head start in hot moulded plywood construction and launched the 12 foot FIREFLY, again designed by Uffa Fox. I am not quite sure of the exact date but I think it was in 1946/47 when it was my turn to be Commodore again that we introduced this class. These boats attracted a number of younger helmsmen and we soon had a good class going. The size of this class and the ease of transport meant that our members were soon sailing in many parts of the country. It is a fact that whilst we are a long way from the sea (nearly equidistant from the south, east and west coasts) and as such, a determined sailor can see a lot of different sailing grounds. In addition to team racing, the open Meeting had become a popular feature, both for other clubs and us. Another innovation was the CADET class, the idea of Haylock, editor of 'Yachting World' who was very keen on sailing for the young. A number of members of BGSC and their wives took a great interest in getting the class going for their children. The names that readily come to mind are the Padmores, Cookes, Douglas's, King‑Farlowes, Terrys, Worsleys, Andersons, Hamilton‑ Adams, le Couteurs and ourselves. The result was an exodus of families, children and boats to Burnham‑on‑Crouch for Cadet Week, an excellent training ground for responsibilities for the young. We were also able to arrange for Bromsgrove School to use our Cadets during the weekdays. I remember the Headmaster, Mr Carey, telling me that it was a great relief to find something for those boys who were no good at cricket! It was about this time that it was decided to divide the club into two separate sections. After paying for the general club maintenance, there were separate financial provisions for the fishermen and sailors. This led up to the drawing up of a proper constitution for the Sailing Club with democratically elected officers. I remember that Bob James was the Commodore at that time. The general idea was that the Commodore and Vice Commodore would probably be elected for two years and that usually the latter would step up to the Commodorship. This would give some continuity and would mean truly working Flag officers rather than figureheads leaving all the hard work to the secretary. There was a suggestion that the tenure of the Flag Officers should be three years, but I remember Bob saying "no, if they do their job properly as Vice Commodore for two years and as Commodore for another two, they deserve a rest, if not its high time they went!" It was at this time that we first had our own clubhouse along the bank, beyond where the boats were hauled up and shortly afterwards we laid down our first concrete slipway. Here I think I should stop as the club now passes into modern history but perhaps I may mention some names. There were many others who contributed greatly to the club but I would specifically like to mention Sam Cooke, he always took a great interest as Chairman of the combined club ‑ Barnt Green Waters Ltd. He was a great help to us in the sailing section. Another stalwart and energetic helmsman was Reg Clayton‑Cooper, one of the first of our members to take part in International racing at sea and who helped to bring the name of Barnt Green Sailing Club to the forefront of the racing fraternity. In the very old days, F.F. le Simpson, an elderly Barnt Green resident, would sit in the stern of his HEBE class dinghy, trailing well behind the rest of the fleet and give us children 6d if we could beat him in a rowing boat. There was Peter Hordern, first of Bromsgrove School and later at Chancellor's Hall, Birmingham University, one of the earliest members to have sailing experience with the Royal Ocean Racing Club (ROSC). He had played international rugby and when questioned on the rules with 'hi Peter, you can't do that! He would respond ‘I know, but I'm a rugby player and if I see an opening I must go for it!'
Freda Harrison, a girl but a deal older than I. She had the largest and most engaging smile in the club. I remember her in the early 20's playing 'Yum Yum' in Sam Cooke's production of 'The Mikado' at Barnt Green singing 'I wonder why I am so beautiful'. She bought Dr. Marsden's KITTIWAKE and raced it for many years and ultimately sold it to Bob James. Garth Billington, a nephew of Sam Cooke, a nice boy who became an apprentice at the Austin Motor Works but found it hard to settle down. He too had a charming smile and a stammer and was everyone's friend. He would spend hours on end sailing a 12 foot National, often on his own, and he became a first class helmsman, very light in weight and very difficult to catch. When the war came, he told us that he felt sure he could not bring himself to join the armed forces to be trained to kill people. So being Garth he volunteered for the Merchant Marine ‑ in probably the most dangerous non‑combative job there was, that is to say, an engineer on an oil tanker. His ship was torpedoed and he was lost. Bob James had his early sailing experience a year or two before the war in KITTIWAKE and he was one of the first to buy a Firefly for himself and another for this children in the following year. As mentioned earlier in this narrative, he did a lot for the club as Commodore and as a committee member. His dinghy sailing soon led him into a larger cruising boat, firstly a 20 foot schooner NYMPH ERRANT in which after a year or two, he made a circumnavigation of Iceland. My comment at the time was 'why Iceland, if you want a long sail, why not a nice warm one to the Azores and back?' The reply was 'It would not be much good, if all the way to the Azores, and all the way back I was wishing it was to Iceland.' He became a member of the Royal Cruising Club and later on was made a member of the Committee. He changed to the schooner FEDOA, a beautiful 50 foot FIFE designed ketch in which he had several years of good sailing, but in the winter of 1955/56 he decided that the problems of crewing a boat had become too great, so Laurence Giles designed a carefully thought out 24 foot aluminium cruiser for him and his wife Margaret called MOUSETRAP. On her first cross channel trip in September 1956, in about Force 6 weather, she was washed up on Cherbourg breakwater without them. And so ends Charles Chatwin's narrative of the early days at Bittell. A most useful contribution to the history of Barnt Green Sailing Club as without his excellent memory all the foregoing data would be missing but for second‑hand hazy recollections.
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Chapter Three will follow soon, (RB.July.2009)
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