The Beginning

Fellow's, Morton & Clayton Limited were the giant of pre-nationalisation carrying fleets.

Started in 1837 by James Fellows in West Bromwich the company expanded rapidly. The company concentrated mainly on the long-distance traffic. In around 1850 Fellow's moved his base to Toll End, Tipton. It is interesting to note that at this point he described himself as a 'Railway and Canal Carrier'. Some time around 1860 James Fellows died and his son, Joshua took over. The boatmans name for any boat built by or for FMC is a 'Josher'. This comes from Joshua Fellows who became one of the most respected and succesful leaders of the industry. In 1876 the Grand Junction Canal Company decided to stop carrying themselves and Joshua Fellows, along with Price & Son bought many of their assets and established the London & Staffordshire Carrying Company. They aimed to continue the long-distance trade and stop it from being won over by the railways. Also in 1876 Frederick Morton joined Fellows, bringing with him the extra capital needed for expansion. The company did expand and soon became known as Fellow's, Morton & Co., it later absorbed the London and Staffordshire concern.

Another company formed to fill the gap left by the demise of the Grand Junction company was the Midland & Counties Carrying Company. This was run by several former Grand Junction agents and it traded between London, Leiceter, Nottingham and Derby. It later became known as the London & Midland Counties Carrying Company. It was absorbed by F, M & Co in 1887.

The Limited In 1889 a limited company was formed. Fellow's, Morton & Clayton Limited took over all the boats of Fellow Morton & Co. along with some boats and assets previously held by William Clayton of Saltley, Birmingham. Clayton's also owned some special tank boats used in and around Birmingham, these were transferred to another new company, Thomas Clayton Limited of Oldbury. In an agreement dated 12 June 1889 the business of F, M & Co. was taken over from 1st January 1889 and Clayton's from 1 June 1889. Three managing directors were appointed, Joshua Fellows, Frederick Morton and Thomas Clayton, Alderman Reuben Farley was placed as chairman. The shareholders comprised mainly of the managing directors families'. During the first year times were sometimes hard. A dock strike in London and an epidemic of Russian influenza amongst the horses caused problems yet the company still made a Net Profit of £7,497 for 18 months trading ended 30 June 1890. During this period a new basin at their headquarters in Fazeley Street, Birmingham had been constructed and 'Fanshaw and Pinson' had been taken over. In 1898 the London & Birmingham Canal Carrying Company was acquired. FMC ended the centuary in a very promising position.

By 1906 Frederick Morton was the only original director still serving on the board. Major Alfred J. Ash of Warwickshire was chairman.

Most of the boats taken over from Fellow's, Morton & Co. were horse boats that worked long distance up and down the country. There were however a few steamers. FMC continued to build steamers at Saltley in Birmingham. In the mid 1890's a wooden steamer cost £500 to build. In 1896 though 'Princess' was launched. She was different from the other steamers as she was of Iron composite construction as opposed to the wood of her sisters. The first Josher to be built of Iron was the horse boat 'Australia' commissioned in 1894, now part of the fleet. 10 more Iron composite steamers were built at Saltley before the end of the centuary. These on average, taking into account different boilers and engines, cost £560. Most of the engines were built by FMC under license from Haines but bioler suppliers varied widely. By 1905 the cost of a composite steamer had risen to £600, nine were built between 1905 and 1911.

The Steamers were popular with the boatmen, to many it gave them a feeling of superiority over the horse boats, but they were always going to be replaced when technology became available. Due to the size of the engine and boiler and the extra weight used in Coke storage (around 2 ton was used on a round trip from London to Birmingham) they could only carry around 12 ton, compared to over 25 on a horse boat. They required a large crew as there needed to be someone looking after the boiler and someone in the engine room setting speed and direction of the engine. The latter being required as the steerer had no direct control over the engine, he communicated by means of a bell, instructing the driver what to do. Many experiments were tried (see SMWTLtd's coming of the motor boat page), a few were deemed successful but nothing more was heard. FMC tried a suction gas engine aboard 'Vulcan' in 1906 and other company's undertook their own experiments. With gas engines crew numbers and fuel consumption were reduced but the amount of cargo space taken up remained similar.

The breakthrough for FMC came in 1912. A year earlier the first Swedish Direct Reversing Single Cylinder Bolinder Engine had been placed in a narrowboat, 'Bournville' and FMC decided it was worth a try. On 17th April, 1912 Linda was commissioned with a 15hp Bolinder. She cost £789 with £189 being for the engine. Other than rebuilds of old wooden craft FMC built no more steamers, and by 1915 they had started to replace steam engines with Bolinders. In late 1927 'Viceroy' made the final FMC steamer run, from City Road Basin to Uxbridge where she too was converted. The removal of steamers from the inland waterways was one of the major events in canal history and the decision by FMC to fit Bolinders is one that makes the engines still popular today. If they had fitted for example Seffle's then these may be better known today. One thing that always puzzled me was why was FMC's first motor called 'Linda'. All the steamers had powerful names such as 'The King', 'Victory' etc. My first thought was that the Swedish sales woman that sold the engine was called Linda! However, the Swedish would pronounce Bolinder as Berlinder, hence I beleive the name 'Linda'.

FMC produced many more motors similar to Linda, 13 in the next 3 and a half years. By 1935 100 motor boats had been built by or for FMC.

In January 1913 'Lindola' was built at the companies Uxbridge yard. She was of wooden construction and was fitted with a 9Hp Bolinder as opposed to the 15Hp engines fitted previously. She was designed to work on her own without a butty and was first tried between Wolverhampton and Preston Brook. She was closely folled by another 7 similar motors starting with 'Quail' in 1916. They cost £450 excluding the engine.

In 1915 'Baron' was the first Steamer to be converted into a motor. Her new engine costing £157 with another £244 of conversion costs. The shortened engine space gave nearly double the cargo capacity. She was re-commisioned in March 1915. Two months later 'Baroness' had the same treatment though she was renamed 'Briton', feminine names being unpopular with the boatmen. In 1922 'Hecla's steam engine was re-installed in a new hull, due to a shortage of engines, the same shortage that saw 'Fazeley' completed as a butty, and old steam machinery was again re-used in 1923.

However, in 1924 the decision was taken to convert the remaining 18 steamers to Bolinder power. This was completed in 1927 when Viceroy made the final FMC steamer run, from City Road Basin to Uxbridge where she was converted being recommissioned in December of that year.

Many 'modern' concepts often stem from the last century, for example FMC were contracting boatbuilding out in the 1920's. In 1922 they placed an order with W.J.Yarwood & Sons Ltd of Northwich to build 12 iron composite motors. These were delivered between April 1923 and January 1925. These boats cost around £786 being £430 for the hull and engine installation, £284 for the engine itself and other associated materials and £12 for the final finishing works which were done at Saltley such as signwriting. This batch began with 'Adder' and ended with 'Dragon'.

The next order for Yarwoods was placed in 1925, this time for 12 hulls. These started with 'EAGLE' in April 1926 and ran as follows:- Eagle, Elk, Emu, Falcon, Ferret, Fox, GREYHOUND, Hawk, Hare, Ibex, JAGUAR, Jackal. Each cost £724, hull £350, engine £186, tanks and fitting £29, timber, stores, cloths and engine room details £77 with labour on the cabin and painting £82. Seven of these were cabined and registered at Saltley, including 'GREYHOUND', the others being finished at Uxbridge, including JAGUAR. This is why even though Greyhound and Jaguar are sisters they are registered in different places.

A third batch of six this time was ordered in October 1927 and delivered in 1928 at a cost of £710 each. This batch completed the run of animal names that began with Adder and included Camel, Dolphin, Dragon, Greyhound, Jaguar and now Kangaroo, Kestrel, Nautilus, Ostrich, Otter and Owl were added.

In 1930 Yarwoods built two coppered steel hulls for FMC, costing £366 each, 'Panther' being cabined at Saltley and 'Python' at Uxbridge.

New Colours

In the mid 1920's FMC changed their colour scheme from predominantly Black and White to Red and Green. I beleive this co-insided with the formation of the Grand Union Canal Company whose regulations may have been more laxed than those of its predecessor the Grand Junction Canal Company. Under Grand Junction rules the names of vessels and their owners had to be in Bold White writing on a Black background.

The FISH class

In 1933 the fish class came on the scene. The fish class were designed to work on their own as single motors. Bream (now shortened) was ordered from Yarwoods in July 1932. In December she was delivered to Saltley for cabining. Her hull was of coppered steel plates. Bream's smaller engine meant less space was required, such alterations on this class meant a hold over 2ft longer than on conventional motors. She could easily carry 25 tons, which must have been a sight to savour. Breams was fitted with a 9Hp Bolinder (reduced from 12Hp) which has easily enough power to propell a loaded motor. The boat cost £660, £340 of which was for the hull. A further 15 boats followed in this class having their hulls built by Yarwoods. The last was Trout which was commissioned in September 1936. Of these 15 though all but three had iron hulls and six of them had forecabins. These had been a feature of butties for a long time but as these motors were to work without a butty the extra sleeping accomodation was very helpful for disposing of older children.

Uxbridge

Throughout this whole period production of wooden boats continued at Uxbridge, Swallow and Swift in 1932 for around £600 each as opposed to around £725 for an iron composite motor from Yarwoods at that time. As well as 9 more boats before 1937 Uxbridge built two wooden motors for the fish class, Brill in 1933 costing just £500 and Carp in 1934 costing £515. Uxbridge started producing wooden butties as soon as the lease was taken over at the end of 1896. These were named after towns. Upto 1912 about 40 had been produced. In 1917 a small batch of eight wooden butties named after rivers appeared, starting with Aire and finishing with Evenlode in 1922. Uxbridge then went on to build its well known class of wooden butties named after girls. The first was Ada in August 1922. Uxbridge continued churning these out until 1933 when Joan, the 27th of the group was finished, this was the last butty to be built by FMC. FMC did not do all the building themselves so, boats were built for them by Nurser Brothers, Less and Atkins, 24 were delivered from Braithwaite and Kirk including 'Northwich'. A good reason for lettin gsmaller yard build their boats was that they often persuaded the yard to take some of their older boats in part exchange, thus keeping a good stock of boats.

Converting Butties

In 1937 work began on converting 12 iron composite butties for use as single motors in a process similar to that shown on painted boats when Sunny Valley is supposedly motorised. The hull conversion work was carried by Yarwoods and the fitting out at Saltley. The first for the chop was 'France'. Out of the 12, 8 had forecabins. Included in this batch was Stafford, which was recommissioned in June of 1938. On 1st July 1938 Fellow's, Morton and Clayton took over the Midland & Coast Canal Carrying Company Limited. Midland & Coast was formed in 1922 and were based in Wolverhampton. Their boats had often helped FMC on the Ellesmere Port Run during busy times. 4 Boats, fitted with 10Hp petter engines, Pole Star, Jubilee, Appollo and Ariel was absorbed into the fleet.

Butties

In the mid 1890's Saltley started producing batches of butties, both wooden and iron composite. Both types were mainly named after towns in England such as Northolt, built in 1899. Some were named after countries, such as the first Iron Composite boat ever to be built by FMC, Australia built in 1894. In all over 60 were produced up to 1912. Saltley also produced 20 Iron Composite butties in the early 1900's named after towns and countires abroad. Wooden butties at that time coat around £150 each, iron ones around £200. After 1912 no more butties were built at Saltley with the exception during 1921 when Fazeley and Forward were completed as butties due to a shortage of engines, the same shortage that saw old steam machinery refitted in a new hull.

After the Second War

Three Wooden motors built at Uxbridge named after hills were built after the war with a fourth, Cotswold, not being completed before the companies assets were sold off. Yarwoods built a further 6 steel hulls which were cabined at Saltley. They included Malvern and Mendip commissioned in 1946 in the single motor hill class, and then the last FMC motor, Gorse commissioned in 1951 2 years after the assets had been taken over by the Britsh Transport Commission.

The End

From 1st January 1948 most of the canals were nationalised. FMC was still a family controlled concern and it did not fit well into the new set-up. In the first half of 1948 the company incurred the first trading loss of its history. In November the decision was taken to place the company in voluntary liquidation. All assets including boats, lorries and properties were acquired by the Britsh Transport Commission from 1 January 1949. The name of Fellow's had been around on the canals for over 110 years, FMC had been around for 60 years in which time the horse had gone from most of the canals, followed by the steam engine. 2 world wars had been fought and the canals and companies involved, not least FMC, had played a major part in our war effort. FMC had always been forward thinking, early to capitalise on the invention of diesel power they also experimented with steel early on, built wide boats and they also saw that eventually the motor lorry would make them obselete. The company left with dignity still on their side instead of watching trade slowly disappear.

What happened next?

Up until 1962 the BTC controlled the waterways. On 31st December 1962 the Britsh Transport Commission was abolished and replaced from 1st January 1963 by a series of boards, one of which was the Britsh Waterways Board. In 1959 the M1 opened and over the winter of 1962/63 the boats had been unable to move for 13weeks due to frost. Added to this the countries fleets had operated at an ever increasing loss since 1948 and the decision was taken to discontinue all of its narrowboat carrying operations. Boats were sold off or scrapped, many being sent up derelict or disued arms or sunk in flashes such as Harefield and in the reservoir at Braunston (now marinas). Some carriers were operating and some boats carried on working. Some boats fell into private hands and were converted or preserved. Thankfully many of these boats have survived, and thanks to people who have more money than sense many have been returned to near original condition. Fellows, Morton & Clayton Ltd died as a going concern in 1949 (the current trip boat company using the name is a new recreation) but their legacy lives on.

The cut these days is filled with newcomers who have just sold their house and want a boat to live on. They might know nothing about the canal but within a short time perusing the magazines and talking to a few builders I'll bet you they'll of heard of a Josher fore-end! From where I am writing this I can look out of the window and look at the first Iron josher fore-end, the one they are all copying!

I, for my sins do own a woolwich motor and am told that the Dustbins, sorry I mean Admiralty & Royalty Class do swim and handle particularly well but they don't command the same place in history as the joshers. No one goes to a boat builder and says i'd like a royalty replica please! (And very wise too in my opinion!).

FMC was a corporate enterprise. They worked to make a profit. When the profit was looking to be in jeopardy they folded. I for one am pleased they did. Leaving at the top, not eaking out an existance. One thing I am not sure we will ever know is who was responsible for designing 'the josher bow'. Someone must have. Most probably a blacksmith in the black country. Whomever it was it is their legacy which keeps the name so predominent in todays boating world, an unsung hero? I doubt it was Fellows, Morton or Clayton but it was someone. I doubt they had a clue of the legacy they would leave for us.

Drew