The Flower of Gloster

Ann Robertson:
You wouldn't think you were in England, would you?

Dick Doherty:
That's the thing about the canals really: you're not in England, not the England of today... this is the England of the past.

Dick Doherty:
Look, why don't you come with us? We're going to London, it'll take us about ten days - in fact we've got to be there in ten days - why not come with us, there's plenty of room; you can have Liz's cabin and she can share the other cabin with Mike.

Ann Robertson:
Are you sure? - won't Liz mind giving up her cabin?

Dick Doherty:
Doesn't matter if she does; we ran you down so we've got to do something about it.

Ann Robertson:
OK.

Ann Robertson:
I'm going to miss it.

Dick Doherty:
Miss what?

Ann Robertson:
The "Flower Of Gloster" - I've got attached to it.

Dick Doherty:
You mean after dragging it all this way you don't want us to sell it?

Ann Robertson:
No - I like it.

Dick Doherty:
Well, if that isn't typical girls; fancy going soft over a boat - and after all we've gone through, too.

Ann Robertson:
He doesn't understand, does he, Baskerville, darling?

Chocolate Charlie Atkins:
I worked that long on the boats carrying cocoa up to the chocolate factories that that's how I got me name; either that or I carried so much of the stuff it got in the pores of me skin and I've been the same colour ever since.

Ann Robertson:
Haven't you ever seen any of those coloured pictures of Ancient Egypt? - the colours are just the same: a red, white and black boat sailing down the brown waters of the Nile, the banks all green and fertile and the red rocks of the desert beyond them.

Dick Doherty:
What an imagination - but you're right just the same; it is sort of foreign and ancient.

Ann Robertson:
It isn't really, it's still boring old England.

Dick Doherty:
What do you mean: "boring" - what's boring about it?

Ann Robertson:
Oh, I don't know - but there's so much else I'd like to see... I'd like to go anywhere, round the world, anywhere.

Dick Doherty:
Doing what?

Ann Robertson:
Just travelling.

Dick Doherty:
Well, you're travelling now.

Ann Robertson:
I know - but it's not the same is it?

Dick Doherty:
It is to me.

Jim Doherty:
We've got a buyer for the "The Flower Of Gloster".

Dick Doherty:
We haven't!

Jim Doherty:
We have and all - Fellow called Newell, he saw the advert in the paper and came and had a look at her two or three days back. I didn't let on to you in case the deal fell through but it hasn't - he looked old Glossie over and he like her... and he wants her. Two thousand pounds, cash on delivery, but that's the snag: she's got to be delivered on time or else the deal's off.

Liz Doherty:
It's about twenty miles a day - and all the locks as well.

Dick Doherty:
Correct - which means you and me are going to have to work hard, Lizzie, because if there's one thing I'm going to do, it's deliver this boat on time.

Liz Doherty:
Why does Birmingham have more canals than Lancashire does?

: To answer it you'd really need to look at a map of England

Ann Robertson:
We've got one - a map of the canals, in fact.

: Now look here: if you join Manchester to London and Yorkshire to Bristol, you get a sort of cross - and what's at the centre of the cross?

Themselves:
Birmingham

: Right... by Birmingham you can get from anywhere to anywhere else by canal; it's a bit like Crewe on the railways, it's a great big junction.

Dick Doherty:
See this: this is the boatman's best friend - it's a windlass and you won't get far without one of these - it's a handle for winding things up and down.

Dick Doherty:
We'll get the "Flower" there if it means working her day and night - and we'll do it if it kills us.

Dick Doherty:
Fifty miles and the lord knows how many locks and we've got to be there the day after tomorrow: six o'clock at Regent's Canal Lock. We'll never do it - yes we will, we've got to.

Dick Doherty:
He's going at a fair old lick, isn't he?

Jack Roberts:
Aye, he is that - four miles an hour, no more, no less - mind you, he wouldn't do that with a really heavy leaden boat. A twenty-five tonner would take him down to three and hour. Of course he's used to it, he's been towing boats for many a long year and if you and me was to drop dead right now, he'd pull that boat of yours to Drayton Wharf and there he'd stop.

Ann Robertson:
I didn't know they still had horse-drawn boats.

Jack Roberts:
Oh aye - mind you, there's nothing like what it was. Nowadays it's mainly towing pleasure boats, holiday cruises and such but when I was a lad first on the canals they were all over the place - they used mules too, sometimes.

Mike Doherty:
Please let me stay - I could help you with the locks... and I brought this, too.

Dick Doherty:
What's that then?

Mike Doherty:
It's the engine instruction book; you left it behind -I thought like you might need it.

Dick Doherty:
You'd better give him something to eat. Since he's here I suppose he'd better stay.

Dick Doherty:
Can I give you something for your help?

Ken Nixon:
You can't - canal folk help each other. You'd do the same for me, I hope.

Ann Robertson:
It's just like a lot of other nice country and yet it looks so much better when you're travelling through it at this speed instead of rushing across it in a car or a train.