March 2024 Industrial heritage repurposed
Relics of Britain’s industrial past are being adapted and preserved for alternative purposes, as Sally Clifford found out when she visited a Knottingley boatyard.
THEY are an important part of our industrial heritage; these hulking crafts that navigated the local canal network. Cloth and coal were among the tonnes of important cargo they carried between the mills and power stations once contributing to the country’s economy.
Today shipbuilding activity isn’t as buoyant due to the decline in industries requiring commercial workboats on such scale yet, thanks to ingenuity and skill, these relics are being repurposed into floating homes or for leisure and pleasure in the tourism industry.
Nathan Rumbold has lived on the water for 28 years – he bought his first boat in his 20s and, through hands-on experience and learning from those who have passed on their knowledge and skills, he is now carrying on the legacy at Knottingley’s historic boatyard.
“I didn’t know anything about boats. A friend of mine used to live on a bus and I liked the idea. I was living in Huddersfield at the time and I noticed a few people living on boats and the penny dropped. I liked the boat idea,” says Nathan, recalling his introduction to an alternative way of living.
His first boat, a 40ft Springer built in 1967, was moored in Kirkstall, Leeds. Other than woodworking at school, repairing and maintaining the craft was a learning experience for Nathan, whose ambitions grew with each boat he subsequently purchased.
From the Springer, he progressed to a 45ft Dutch barge and, eventually, an ex-Hargreaves coal barge. This led to his introduction to Maurice Hirst Boatbuilders, based on the Knottingley boatyard synonymous with John Harker’s boat and shipbuilding business, which Nathan now runs.
“They built around 200 ships in that time, some up to 200ft long. A few of those have been all around the world,” says Nathan, recalling John Harker’s history. He explains that he initially took the boat for Maurice to survey and offered to labour, to help reduce the repair bill.
Working alongside Maurice and Ty Crotty, Nathan expanded his knowledge and skillset which he is now using to maintain, repair and reconfigure customers’ boats. Dating back around 200 years, John Harker’s was one of the biggest boat-building yards in its heyday. The benefit of a sizeable slipway enables Nathan to work on substantially bigger boats.
Conversions have added a new dimension to the business. Extending boats for floating homes and reducing craft into pleasure cruisers to navigate the local canals accounts for a large part of his work. “The old working narrowboats started at 70ft long. They were built by individual canal companies to their specification. The locks around West Yorkshire are 57ft long. Down in Knottingley, they are 220ft long from Leeds to Goole,” says Nathan.
Recycling to reduce wastage is an important part of the conversion process. Nathan recalls a project involving a boat he purchased at auction.“It was full of holes and in a field in Nottingham.”
Nathan reduced the boat from 70ft to 57ft, a popular size for navigating the Calder and Hebble, but was able to create another boat out of the middle section. He recalls helping Maurice and Ty when they transformed a 90ft Nottingham Trader Barge. The middle section created a 40ft craft christened Ting (the middle letters of Nottingham). The bow and stern were welded back together creating a shorter boat.
Nathan’s current work in progress is a former Thames barge. “It has two bows and no motor stern. Having two bows encouraged me to cut it in half and make two boats with it.” He explained that the larger section is being designed as a replica working barge with accommodation under cloth for its new purpose as a floating hotel. Nathan believes demand has been driven by leisure and tourism. “I think pleasure craft started it.”
He says many consider 70ft narrowboats to be too big for a pleasure craft. “But you can cut one in half and make two boats out of it, obviously given the correct skills,” says Nathan.
Unusual relic
One of the more unusual nautical relics in his yard is a jebus, whose working life would have been spent leading a train of linked barges transferring and transporting coal. Nathan purchased the 150-year-old 18ft long by 15ft wide riveted craft from a museum for preservation.
“It’s all one space inside. It’s bigger than some narrowboats. It could be a self-contained floating flat, a studio apartment,” suggests Nathan, who is keen on preservation.
“I am all for the boats, historic working boats,” he says. Riveted boats in particular, he says, were an evolution of boat design. “They have got a lot of character to them.” Reconfiguring boats that have become surplus to requirements is keeping the legacy alive.
For more information visit Hirst Boatbuilders on Facebook.