Triangle History: David Vause
Canal Enthusiast and Boat Builder
David Vause moved his family to Lancaster in the mid 1960s and took up the cause of restoring the neglected canal, towpath and associated buildings more or less single-handedly, at a time when canals were no longer used commercially but had not yet been recognised for their potential by the leisure industry. His first project was the restoration of an old houseboat called the ‘Spahi’ which was moored by the old Packet Boat Stables (now the Water Witch Pub). Three years of hard work resulted in the conversion of a wreck into a family home.
We are grateful to Graham Hibbert for allowing reproduction of photos from his Flickr photostream with many photos of Lancaster. The first two photos are believed to date from the 1960s or 70s. The colour photo of the punt-shaped signs hanging over the doors of the Old Stables is from 1975. (Clicking on any of the images opens large versions in a gallery)
As a musician himself, he liked to work to the accompaniment of classical music, naming the punts that he built in the Old Stables after favourite pieces, e.g. ‘Fennimore’ and ‘Tristan and Isolde’, and hired them out on the canal, either propelled by a pole in the traditional manner or powered by a small motor.
David’s son Louis remembers helping his dad fish rubbish out of the canal and retrieve punts that had been abandoned along the canal. Louis grew up on the canal with his siblings and witnessed its transformation from an overgrown rubbish-strewn backwater to a revitalised waterway.
The Triangle workshop
The two photos below show David Vause at work at the Triangle after the conversion of the Old Stables to the Water Witch.
Written by David Vause on the back of the first photo was: “Sept/October 1986 Mark (Townson) and myself near completion of ‘The Lark Ascending’. Photo by David Crowther of Lancaster City Architects for a demonstration to Nicolas Ridley MP, Department of Environment Secretary.”
Simon Vause had written “David had a lovely wood-burning stove just where he is sitting”, on the reverse of the other photograph.
Achievements to celebrate
Tragically, David contracted MS but continued to work on his punts from a wheelchair. He died in 1996, and the Lancaster Guardian for 31 May that year celebrated his achievements as follows:
The canal network was largely ignored in the 1960s and the council rejected Mr Vause’s plans so he decided to fund the work himself. He paid the council to take lorry loads of rubbish which he and his family fished out of the canal.
He unblocked the drains, cleared the towpath of water, cut back the undergrowth, laid gravel from Penny Street bridge to Aldcliffe Road, cleared the cobbles, restored the buildings and built 17 punts, an off licence and shop.
(With grateful acknowledgments to Simone Vause)