Last month I shared with you some of the archive images of the Boat Building taking place on the canal at Christleton. This month I feature some of the images I have of historic working narrow boats, as well as some of the dredging and repairs taking place recently at Christleton lock. Easter (except this year) is normally a good time to see the old working narrow boats as they progress through the village to the Easter Festival at Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. This has also occured in summer when a Narrow Boat Festival was held in the Chester basin. At home in Rowton we first hear these very distinctive narrow boats by their throaty “chug chug chug” as they power by along the canal, before I rush up with a camera to capture them on film. My favourite boat is “President” the last of the “Fly boats” which is now housed at the Black Country Museum, and because it was powered by steam, could tow a fully loaded “butty boat” behind it. These fly boats were once used to carry cocoa from London Docks to Cadbury’s in Birmingham. They didn’t need to stop each night to rest the horses, and could therefore “fly” through the countryside to get their cargoes to their destination. Another famous local boat is Saturn, pictured here carrying a cargo of “Spitting feathers beer” from Waverton to Ellesmere Port. It is one of the many “Fellows Morton Clayton Co. narrow boats” that were the major carriers on this canal. Several of the fleet were built at Taylor’s Yard in the Chester Basin. Saturn and Gifford also pictured were originally horse drawn by horses like "Snowy". The decorative art work on such boats is clearly seen by the Roses and Castles, and other beautiful features.

The working boats carried, cheese, wheat, barley coal and timber. There are still a few working the canal as can be seen by the floating “fuel boat” at Christleton lock. In the 1960’s/70s there were still many of these cargo carrying boats regularly using the canal. One I remember seeing was a narrowboat loaded with coal from the Wrexham coalfield heading for Gloucester Docks. These days it’s mainly the converted family or fleet hire narrow boats, sometimes floating hotels, that use the canal system. Butlers’ Mill was usually supplied with grain by large “Mersey flats”, with a gas powered gantry to hoist the grain to the threshing floor. The winding hole alongside Quarry Bridge was used to turn the barges around if necessary although many could get as far as Nantwich, before the width of the canal became too narrow.

I also feature some of the dredging and repairs to the lock gates which take place along the canal, which were once carried out by companies like Blue Boar Dredging, but now carried out by The Canal & Rivers Trust which maintain the canal system nationally. The pictures illustrate the work carried out recently to replace the Christleton Lock top gates, which took much longer than expected, due to a huge tyre being wedged inside the lower gates preventing them being opened. The lock had to be completely drained to remove the troublesome tyre. Recent heavy rain also filled the parallel section of the canal alongside the backs of houses along Toll Bar Road which was built to divert the flow of the canal when the railway tunnel was being built in the 1860’s. We are so fortunate in Christleton to have this superb water feature running through the village. It is so well used by local people, especially this year, and is always full of interest. No day is ever the same, due to the leisure activities of people, boat traffic and wildlife.