Back in the 1930s Abergavenny railwaymen decided to create a show-stopping carnival entry, travelling all over South Wales and the Midlands as Volga boatmen.

This picture story taken from the Abergavenny Chronicle was loaned by Mr T Morgan of Station House, Ross Road.

Chris Woodhouse, former mayor of Abergavenny and current chairman of Abergavenny and District Steam Society, has a personal link with the tale.

His father was a driver with London Midland and Scottish (previously London North Western Railway) and was a close colleague of the men involved.

“LMS employees assembled the boat in the Brecon Road workshops in Abergavenny. They used to sing the famous Song of the Volga Boatmen ‘Yo-ho heave-ho!’ as they pulled it along. They won every carnival prize from Cardiff to Worcester,” he explained.

“When the bosses at LMS realised how much money they were winning they said it had to go to the company. But the men told them where to go - and stopped doing it!

“We wondered if any Chronicle readers knew what had happened to the boat - or had stories to tell about any of the men.”

The slave driver in the picture was Jack Lynch. On the boat were Nelson Emery, Bill Potter and Jack Blackmore and pulling it along were Randolph Morgan, Eddie Wale, Frank Powell, Ivor Parker, Sam Baker, Roland Blennerhasset, Sidney James (who went on to be mayor of Abergavenny in the early 1950s), Ted Prosser, Bill Merriman, Arthur Rockell, Archie Evans, Walter Hall, Ivor Prosser, Jack Blanche, Sammy Sutton and Ted Jenkins.