Working Narrowboats

The last few weeks has seen the regular movement of working narrowboats along the Shropshire Union Canal, on their way to and from the National Canal Museum Easter Festival at Ellesmere Port. I wrote about these working boats three years ago, but they continue to come regularly through the village, and are wonderful to see in their full regalia, and the decorations of Castles and Roses. They are so well maintained by their owners, proud of the great heritage of these boats. Many of them are traditionally horse drawn and usually come along the canal towed as ”butty boats” There is a picture in the accompanying slides of “Snowy” a white horse, pulling a narrowboat into the Chester Basin at one of the last Chester Canal Festivals. “Snowy” was also the title of a childrens book, and the author Berlie Doherty came to the Primary School in Christleton to tell the children about the book and the many adventures that Snowy had.

The beautifully crafted narrow boats we see today were the mainstay of the canal system. The best preserved belonging to the Fellows Morton & Clayton Company, the largest and best known canal transportation Company in England. They were building boats between 1889-1947, latterly at their new boatyard at Fazeley Street works in Birmingham. There they built five steel- plate steam boats including Monarch & President both seen passing through Christleton on their journey towards Chester or Ellesmere Port & The National Waterways Museum. There are 29 working boats still in existence, many of them coming through the village on historic journeys. The steamers were known as fly or fast boats and could carry cargoes on main routes continuously through day and night. They could do the journey from London to Birmingham in around 54 hours.

Many of the boats have been lovingly restored, and the 71 feet (22m) long President is a good example. Now kept at the Black Country Museum, it once operated out of Northwich, on the Trent & Mersey, Macclesfield and Shropshire Union Canals. Many later motor boats were built for the Company at W J Yarwoods & Sons at Northwich. President is often accompanied on journeys by the butty boat Kildare. Monarch seen regularly at Christleton, was built at the FMC yard in Birmingham in 1908, and built of riveted iron, one of the first boats to replace the former horse drawn fleet. It had a chequered career, being constantly sold and resold and in one of its last refit was shortened in length from 70 feet to 62 feet and its steam engine replace by a Lister JP2.

Another favourite on the Shropshire Union Canal is Gifford, built as a horse drawn tank boat to move liquids in bulk. It carried gas tar from gasworks at Oxford and Leamington, as well as fuel oil from Stanlow Refinery at Ellesmere Port to the midlands from the 1940’s to 1966. It has been in the boat collection at Ellesmere Port since 1976 and is always kept in beautiful livery. It was fully restored in 2018 and later loaned for a display of working narrowboats on the French Canal System. It has a wooden hull and was registered at Daventry in 1926.

Saturn, featured in many of the photographs along the Shropshire Union and Llangollen Canals, is a favourite boat of many enthusiasts, was built in Chester at Taylors Yard in 1906, and fully restored there in 2005. Saturn was built for the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company, and was built entirely of wood, oak sides and elm bottom. It was horse drawn and would usually carry between 12 and 16 tons, and worked on the Llangollen Canal, or in carrying cheese from Cheshire and North Shropshire to Manchester. She has been restored to her original working condition and is an outdoor classroom for schools. Having left Ellesmere Port after the recent Easter Festival she is heading for Trevor/Pontcystyllte and Ellesmere Boat Yard on the Llangollen branch. During its lifetime it had been converted to being a hotel boat, and after restoration, Saturn carried the runner bearing the 2012 Olympic Torch over the famous Pontcstyllte Aqueduct. It was bow hauled over the aqueduct by volunteers of the Shropshire Union Fly-boat Society, as they did for the 200th Anniversary celebration for this world heritage site. This amazing stone and cast iron aqueduct took ten years to design, build and test, the work of the famous civil engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop. It was a ground breaking task, and finally opened on 17th November 1795. It is now rightly a Unesco World Heritage site, known as “stream in the sky” and is one of the wonders of the Engineering World. It’s well worth taking a walk along the towpath at Christleton for a few days before and after Easter each year when these wonderful craft pass through the village. These images come from the Christleton Local History Group archives and includes a shot of the last village boatyard, Dean’s Marina at Rowton Bridge. There are also images of working boats passing through the locks at Christleton and Ring Road, and several from the Chester Basin and Ellesmere Port.

Reference:
Various archive documents on canals and working narrow boats from the Internet
The Chester Canal Heritage Trust