Jim Cooper coming in to wooden stage at Sandhard to avoid toll

I used to spend a lot of time with my grandad, Jim Cooper, and he used to have these old rowing boats he used to row about fishing and things.  He’d always done that.  You’ve got to remember he was born in 1883. This was in the sixties and he was nearly ninety when he died. He used to go out, never very far, only to Bouldnor or down to Fort Vic. and somewhere in between.  He went up the river a bit.  Sid Kelleway was always up the river and they used to have their little territories.  Grandad had two boats, one about eighteen foot long he used to stand up and row, and a small one he would stand up and row as well, pushing forward rather than pulling back on the oars, one foot slightly forward of the other one. If you stand with your feet parallel you go forward then you’ve had it, so he always had one foot slightly ahead of the other.  You don’t see anyone do it now, but you could do, if you had the right boat and the right oars.  Alec Cokes b 1945