Nick Wolfe’s boat, Aldgate, celebrates her 90th birthday this August. Like many old working boats, she is still carrying her history in the steel, timber, rivets, boards, layers of paint, nicks and dents… she wears the years well. Originally fitted with a water-cooled National engine, she was re-engined in the 1950s with a Petter PD2. Over the decades she has carried all manner of cargoes: lime juice to Boxmoor, general carrying, and in the 1970s phosphorus through the Black Country. Nick has owned Aldgate since September 2007 and, despite the continuous maintenance that comes with historic craft, she remains very much a working boat in spirit.
The open hold is full of character with ropes, planks, tools, plants, and evidence of projects in hand.
“It does carry loads occasionally,” Nick says with a grin. “Most of my carrying work these days is delivering bulk firewood from October to April. That also means sourcing and collecting it, so there’s plenty of manual work involved.”
At the moment, the hold is less devoted to firewood and more to hanging baskets, compost, and the ongoing maintenance that keeps the boat in working order.
The baskets began almost accidentally. For a couple of years passers-by kept asking if the baskets hanging from the stands were for sale. At first, they were there just because Nick enjoyed growing things onboard. “Stress relief,” he explains. “I like messing about with plants.”
Originally the baskets hung from chains around the cabin and hold. “I kept bashing into them,” he laughs. Brackets were fitted higher up on the stands where they could be seen properly and, before long, people genuinely wanted to buy them.
There is something rather charming about growing flowers in the hold. Each year the space becomes a floating floral display. “There can be plants everywhere, hanging baskets down on the rails, veg growing, all sorts” he says. Sitting in the hold with a cup of tea surrounded by flowers and trailing foliage sounds a far cry from the cargoes the boat once carried, yet it still feels entirely in keeping: making use of whatever space exists and creating a life aboard around practical creativity.
Nick talks about his flower baskets with the same care and attention he gives the boat itself. Feed regimes, compost quality and planting combinations are all discussed in detail. African geraniums, lobelia, tumbling tomatoes and fuchsias all feature in his displays. “You have to feed them properly,” he says firmly. “Otherwise they die, remember?”
Over a cup of tea, our conversation covered the intricacies of rope-work and knots, and a discussion around replacing handrails and shaping timber which becomes a lesson in how old boats move, bend and settle over time. Nick has a wealth of practical knowledge learned over years aboard working craft.
Historic boats are rarely static objects. They evolve with every owner, every repair and every passing season. On Nick’s boat, the echoes of commercial carrying live comfortably alongside hanging baskets swaying from the stands … a reminder that heritage survives not by standing still, but by continuing to be lived in and well loved.
Happy 90th birthday Aldgate!
