The beating heart of Banbury’s canal heritage

THE story of the UK’s oldest continuously working boatyard is the subject of a book which is sure to appeal not only to boaters but anyone interested in our industrial heritage.

Forging Ahead – A history of Tooley’s Boatyard has been written by Matthew Armitage, who has been director of the Banbury business since 2002.

Unsurprisingly, as well as his Thames ancestry featuring seven generations of watermen and lightermen, he is a skilled boat engineer and has a background in archaeology.

One of the most famous boats to emerge from the yard, which is nowadays dwarfed by the Castle Quay shopping centre, was Cressy, in which Tom Rolt completed his legendary cruise, chronicled in Narrow Boat.

A chapter is devoted to Rolt’s association with Tooley’s, which was commemorated on one of the plaques on the Tom Rolt Bridge named in his honour over the Oxford Canal and River Cherwell as well as on a blue plaque outside the boatyard – itself a scheduled ancient monument.

The Rolt connection is also referred to in the foreword to the book by acclaimed actor and waterways celebrity Timothy

West, whose own narrowboat was built at the yard in 1990.

But going back to the beginning, the boatyard was established in 1778 to build and repair the wooden horsedrawn narrowboats which plied the newly constructed canal network. But it wasn’t until 1900 that it became Tooley’s when it was taken over by George Tooley senior, the second of three generations of the family to play their part over nearly 90 years.

His father Emmanuel had been a Number 1, carrying cargoes between Banbury and the Midlands and was recorded in the 1881 census as master of two boats, Speedwell and Elizabeth. In his later years, Emmanuel joined his son to work at the dock.

By the 1920s George’s two sons, Herbert and George junior, were working at the boatyard and continued the family business following their father’s death in 1940. Herbert died in 1987 and George junior in 1993 but their legacy lives on in the name Tooley’s.

Another section is devoted to the buildings, including the forge, carpenter’s and paint shops, belt room and the dry dock, described as the beating heart of the boatyard.

The author’s narrative is interspersed with first-hand accounts, photographs, diagrams, advertisements and newspaper cuttings, bringing to life not only the history of Tooley’s but also many of the boats which have passed through the yard. In recent years it has also featured in such popular TV series as Great Canal Journeys, Barging Round Britain, Countryfile and Great Railway Journeys.

Matthew Armitage concludes by sharing his vision for the boatyard which he believes could become a centre of excellence for apprenticeships in traditional boat building as well as meeting the 21st century of challenge of the ‘eco-friendly battery and hybrid period’ ahead.

Forging Ahead – A History of Tooley’s Boatyard by Matthew Armitage is published by Windlass Publishing Ltd (Softback 138 pages, RRP £11.99).

ISBN: 978-0-9570151-8-0