The Wooden Canal Boat Society (WCBS) is a

waterway society A waterway society is a society, association, charitable trust, club, trust or "Friends" group involved in the restoration, preservation, use and enjoyment of waterways, e.g. a canal, river, navigation or other waterway, and their associated bu ...

and a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, UK, based at

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. The society started as the Wooden Canal Craft Trust in 1987, and by 1995 the trust owned six boats; it was wound up in 1997, and its assets were handed over to the WCBS.

History

The society aims to preserve wooden working boats, and its fleet of six wooden boats is moored at

Portland Basin Dukinfield Junction () is the name of the canal junction where the Peak Forest Canal, the Ashton Canal and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal meet near Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. The area has been designated by Tameside Metropol ...

at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the

Ashton Canal The Ashton Canal is a canal in Greater Manchester, England, linking Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne. Route The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, passing thro ...

, the

Peak Forest Canal The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network. Route and features General description The canal consists of two level ...

and the

Huddersfield Narrow Canal The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is an inland waterway in northern England. It runs just under from Lock 1E at the rear of the University of Huddersfield campus, near Aspley Basin in Huddersfield, to the junction with the Ashton Canal at White ...

, known to boaters as

Dukinfield Dukinfield is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, on the south bank of the River Tame opposite Ashton-under-Lyne, east of Manchester. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 19,306. Within the boundaries of the historic co ...

Junction. The society's oldest boat is ''Lilith'', a working boat which was 100 years old in December 2001. ''Lilith'' is a butty, i.e. a narrowboat without an

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, destined to be towed, or hauled, by another boat. ''Lilith'' was also a

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

"joey" boat, and No. 9 in Stewarts' and Lloyds' fleet. ''Forget-Me-Not'' was built in 1927 as a

horse-drawn boat A horse-drawn boat or tow-boat is a historic boat operating on a canal, pulled by a horse walking beside the canal on a towpath. United Kingdom The Romans are known to have used mules to haul boats on their waterways in the UK. Boat horses were t ...

for Henry Grantham who was a "Number One" (owner boatman). The boat was used to carry

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

from

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

to the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

, but from 1959 she became a houseboat. Working boats

''Hazel'' is the last surviving full length example of a

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

wooden header, built in 1914 to trade on the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...

. From 1929 she was owned by Number One Agnes Beech. Subsequently she served as a comfortable home to several families. ''Queen'', built in 1917, was originally named ''Walsall Queen'' and is the oldest surviving wooden motorised

narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways, commerc ...

. ''Elton'' and ''Southam'' were donated by

British Waterways British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland ...

as an alternative to being scrapped. ''Southam'' is one of a fleet of 62 wooden butties (known as "big rickies") built for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company in the 1930s at

Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and t ...

Present and future

To help with the unending task of repairing and maintaining the society's wooden boat fleet, Tameside Council made available a piece of land to serve as a boatyard. Heritage Lottery funding was obtained, and the boatyard frontage will be completed. Future plans include the erection of a visitor and education centre from which visitors and school students will be able to observe the restoration work on the narrowboats. In September 2015 ''Hazel'' completed some trial voyages as she neared restoration. She has been fitted with disable-friendly features such as a wheelchair ramp and lift to the living area. In the future she will be used as a "wellbeing boat", offering respite days and residential trips for people with mental health issues.

Gallery

Image:PortlandBasin AerialView.JPG, Portland basin, viewed from the flats Image:PortlandWoodenBoats.JPG, Wooden narrow boats, Portland Basin, Ashton-under-Lyne Image:PortlandBasin.jpg, Portland Basin, Ashton Canal, Ashton-under-Lyne Image:Wooden Boat Restoration.jpg, Maintaining ''Forget-Me-Not'' Image:RecycleDavidL.jpg, Wooden boat convoy picking up recyclables on Ashton Canal Image:PortlandCanalWarehouses.JPG, Former canal warehouse, Portland Basin, now museum and flats Image:WCBS frost.jpg, Winter at the basin Image:Boat convoy through tunnel.jpg, ''Forget-me-Not'' and ''Lilith'' through tunnel Image:Working canal boats.jpg, ''Forget-me-Not'' pulling ''Lilith'' on the Macclesfield Canal

References

External links

*
Tameside Council website/listing for WCBS

{{Commons category, Forget-Me-Not (wooden canal boat) Waterways organisations in England Boating associations Clubs and societies in Greater Manchester Organisations based in Tameside

History

Present and future

Gallery

See also

References

External links