ROGER'S WEB SITE | SUMMER 2023 | ELLESMERE CANAL MUSEUM

The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere is the largest of three branches  of the Museum. The others are at Bristol and Stoke Bruerne. It was formed in 1972 and has always suffered from underfunding. It is currently run by the Canal and River Trust and some improvements have been made with the help of National Lottery money. Many of the exhibits are outside and suffer from the ravages of the English climate. It could do with careful curating, we saw many artifacts just dumped on the museum floor and cordoned off. It is on the site of an old inland harbour which connects the River Dee and the Manchester Ship Canal with the Chester Canal, now the Shropshire Union, and thus the rest of the system. Many of the old buildings are Grade II listed and carefully restored and most of the exhibits are in an old warehouse. There are lock demonstrations, a working forge, workshops and boat rides. There is also a good cafe and gift shop. Here are some photos from our visit:
Ellesmere
Locks descend to the River Dee with the
Museum buildings clustered around.
 Ellesmere 2
Lock Demonstration in progress
CLICK on any IMAGE to ENLARGE
 Friendship 1
Joe Skinner's Wooden Narrowboat
"Friendship"
Friendship 2
Note the huge rudder
 Friendship 3
If you think modern Narrowboats are cramped,
try Joe and Rose's family cabin!
 Friendship 4
The other side of the cabin.
Joe Skinner was one of the last of the old 'Number 1's"; boatmen who owned their own boats as opposed to those who worked for canal carriers, like Fellows, Morton and Clayton. Friendship was pulled by a mule but as diesel motor boats gradually replaced horse-drawn boats they usually travelled in pairs with the motor boat towing a 'butty' like Friendship. Butties have a curved swim aft and a huge rudder to help steering behind a horse, mule or motor boat at low speeds. You can read more about Joe and Rose's life afloat here and elsewhere on the web. They died in 1975 and 1976 respectively and I can remember seeing Friendship on the Oxford canal after I started my love affair with the waterways in the mid sixties.

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