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At Victoria Park Model Boat Club

July 26, 2016
by the gentle author

January 3rd 1937

Keith Reynolds, a sympathetic man with an appealingly straggly moustache who is Secretary of the Victoria Model Steam Boat Club, agreed to let me take a look at his photographic collection. So, as the members got steam up on the lakeside, I sat inside the club house and sifted through the archive, listening to all the variously enigmatic whistling and chugging sounds coming from the shore.

Keith told me that the model boat club existed even before the founding of the Model Steam Boat Club in 1904, preceded by a Model Sailing Boat Club that he believes was founded in 1875. The old club house in Victoria Park dates from this period and Keith showed me where the lockers once were, custom-built to store huge model sail boats, before the age of steam took over.

There are just a handful of early black and white pictures, donated years ago by member Olive Cotman. Although the photograph at the top is from January 3rd 1937, the other one is undated. As well as the impressive display of boats in both photographs, the members display a fine selection of hats, and in the top picture, if you look closely, you can see the pennant-shaped club badge pinned onto many of the caps.

The dignity of these men, seemingly so serious in their moustaches and caps, yet so proud to be photographed with their fleet of model steam boats, is undeniably touching. These boats were miniature versions of the vessels that you might see a mile away on the Thames at that time.

By contrast, the 1937 picture shows the crowd who braved the chill wind of Victoria Park in January to admire the model boats and the anonymous schoolboy in his cap on the far right is more interested in the camera than the boats, as he gazes towards us and into eternity.

As I looked through the thousands of colour photographs taken by Janet Reynolds, Keith’s wife, over the forty summers since their marriage, I became fascinated by these idyllic pictures which evoke so many long happy Sunday afternoons. I was looking at images of the younger selves of those members of the club who I had been introduced to that morning. Keith has been sailing steam boats for fifty years, since he was ten, although he had to wait until he was fourteen to become  a full-fledged member in his own right in 1964.

One day Keith’s father stopped by the lake to speak with the father of the current chairman Norman Lara, and that was how it began for the Reynolds family, which has now been involved for four generations. ‘She married into the Boating Club,’ admitted Keith affectionately, referring to the induction of his wife Jan, ‘She took photographs because she didn’t want to boat, but then she decided it was more fun to get involved, and now my daughter and my grandson of fourteen are also members.’ These lyrical images were taken by a photographer who became seduced by this diminutive nautical sport, embracing it as a family endeavour to entertain successive generations.

Out on the shore, Keith introduced me to the engineer Phil Abbott who showed me the oldest vessel still in use, a steam-powered straight-racing boat with the name of ‘All alone’ from 1920, beside it sat ‘Yvonne’ a high-speed steam-powered straight-racing boat from 1947. These boats speak of the different eras of their manufacture. ‘All alone,’ with its brass funnels and tones of brown with an eau-de-nil interior, possesses a quiet twenties elegance in direct contrast to the snazzy red and beige forties colour scheme of the speed boat which raises its prow arrogantly in the water as it roars along.

‘All alone’ was made by Arthur Perkins, who offered it to the club, as many members do, before his demise and ‘Yvonne’ has a similar provenance. When Keith revealed that he had acquired half of the thirty-seven boats he possessed, making the others himself, I realised that the club was the boats rather than the members, who are – in effect – mere custodians, providing maintenance for these vessels, enabling them to sail on, across Victoria Park Boating Lake, over decades and through generations.

Keith pinned a blue and white pennant-shaped enamel club badge on my shirt, just like those in the photo, and confessed that the club is eager for new members. It does not matter if you do not have a boat, anyone is welcome to join the conversation at the lakeside, and guidance is offered if you want to buy or make your own vessel, he explained courteously. All you need to do is go along to see Keith one Sunday in Victoria Park.

It would be the perfect excuse to spend every Sunday boating for the rest of your life and you would be joining the honoured ranks of men and women who have pursued this noble passtime since 1904 on the lake in Victoria Park. These treasured photographs speak for themselves.

You may also like to read about

Norman Phelps, Boat Club President

Lucinda Douglas Menzies at Victoria Park Steam Model Boat Club

6 Responses leave one →
  1. July 26, 2016

    I used to love watching the model boats there as a kid, my brother often took me there. Valerie

  2. Rod permalink
    July 26, 2016

    I’m amazed by the variety of subject matter that you post every day , long may it continue

  3. Marilyn Robinson permalink
    July 26, 2016

    When i was a child i loved to watch the boats , and paddle in the pool that was in the middle for children . I remember too the adult pool at the far end.

    i was only six years old, lived in Parnell Rd, my mum would make me and my brother 18 months younger than me a sandwich and send us to the park for the day alone, it was a place to meet other kids and use our imagination.

    Victoria Park has such happy memories for me, my child hood was not easy , but the park brought me peace and freedom, fun and laughter throughout my childhood ,and the years beyond with my own children.

    I took my granddaughter there a few weeks ago and told her of my memories !
    Thank you for bringing those memories back, the history too makes it even more special .

  4. armier permalink
    July 26, 2016

    A very great many underestimate the influence in all fields of design by enthusiastic miniaturists. Whether tiny trains, boats, planes or automobile, the good things taught, usually from an early age are far reaching.

    Only yesterday I discovered the story of the Wade-Dahl-Till Valve of 1962, created by model engineer Stanley Wade, author Roald Dahl, and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till.

    Dahl’s son Theo had developed hydrocephalus, and a standard Holter shunt valve was installed to drain excess fluid from his brain; however it jammed too often, causing pain and blindness and worse.

    Till, a neurosurgeon at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, determined that debris accumulated in Theo’s ventricles could clog the Holter valves and cause very bad bleeding in the brain.

    From their shared hobby of flying model aircraft, Dahl knew hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade to be an expert in precision hydraulic engineering.

    With Dahl coordinating the efforts of the neurosurgeon and the model engineer, the team developed a new mechanism…. as Till reported in The Lancet, the invention was characterised by “low resistance, ease of sterilisation, no reflux, robust construction, and negligible risk of blockage”.

    Several thousand children from around the world have benefited from the WDT valve.

    The co-inventors agreed never to accept any profit from the invention.

  5. July 26, 2016

    Nothing but big Boys … 😉

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  6. Michael Bliss permalink
    July 13, 2021

    High my name is Michael, I made myself a 1 meter model sailboat in 2020. I had to have somethin
    to do during the pandemic, unable to go to my woodworking club I decided to build a model boat. I live in a ground floor apartment so I had a to a small patio to work on , with workmate as bench & simple hand tools I embarked on the task in hand. The building was a very pleasurable experience. On November 10 2020, my boat ” The Sydney Jean ” took to the water on her maiden voyage, it was a beautiful sunny day at Victory Park Kitchener, she sailed beautifully, that was my reward. I have made several more visits to Victory Park to sail my boat, it’s a wonderful relaxing pastime & I enjoy every minute of it. Turn the computer off, build a boat & join me at Victoria Park, that’s an order ” land lubbers”
    Michael.

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