It was October 1974 when I arrived in Chester on a pair of floating chicken hutches. My intention was to live aboard my humble craft for the next 3 years whilst attending the nearby Chester College with the aim  of becoming a teacher.

I soon discovered that I had innocently sailed into a conflict between posh boaters and ‘undesirables’. Because of my ramshackle boats, I found myself classed in the latter category. As one of the chief ‘undesirables’ decided to emigrate to Holland he had to dispose of his assets here. This gave me the opportunity to buy a full length boat for £100. A simple BCN joey.

The boat carried a metal plate in each end with the number 9 painted on it, her Stewarts & Lloyds fleet number. She had been part of the huge fleet that used to carry products from Coombeswood tubeworks. Her top bends were painted yellow, denoting that she had later belonged to Alfred Matty, canal contractors. I later discovered that one of the tricks of the seller was to tow away unattended boats, sell them to several people, then disappear, leaving his victims arguing about who was now the rightful owner. Happily. I was never challenged about the ownership of number 9.

At the time I was engaged to an R.E. teacher called Kathy. The romance of the canals had really got to me and I envisaged a future living in a back cabin. She saw herself enjoying life in a nice semi detached suburban house. We compromised on a full length conversion of our new old boat. When she visited to view our future home, I pointed out that the boat needed a name. “Call it ‘Lilith’” she said, explaining that it was Hebrew for a screech owl and that she’d solved someone’s final crossword clue that day by knowing that fact. I won’t go into the mythology around Lilith, but, suffice it to say that it’s rather more than her explanation and evokes strong reactions from people of particular religious affiliations. Anyone wishing to know more should search on t'internet.

I found a mooring for “Lilith” on a farmer’s field halfway along the Wirral line of the Shroppie. It cost 50p a week! It was clear that before beginning the conversion I would need to do some work on the hull. Opposite my Chester mooring was Taylors boatyard. Alan Parry was busy there rebuilding a classic Taylors cruiser, “Barbara Joan”, which had been burned out by vandals. I asked him where I could get some oak. He advised that I shouldn’t waste my money on oak but should just go to the local timber merchant and buy lengths of red deal. “It’s just as good” he claimed. I was puzzled by this but took his advice as he was a proper boatbuilder. Eventually it dawned on me that he was just being kind. He assumed that, like most wide eyed youngsters that start doing up an old wooden boat, I would soon give up. He wanted to protect me from wasting too much money.

Work really started in the Easter break in 1975. I bought the longest piece of 2” X 8” red deal that they had at the local builders merchant and somehow balanced it across the saddle and handlebars of my folding bike, then carefully pushed the contraption the mile to my boats. I loaded it on to the roof of one of my tatty craft, then set off to deliver it to “Lilith”. I chipped out a plank, cut rough scarph joints on the ends of the new plank and bolted it into place. As I removed one plank, those around it started to disintegrate, so I repeated the process on them.

Soon I got to planks that were curved and so the wood needed steaming. I had no equipment so I approached Alan Parry again. He lent me a gas fired industrial wallpaper stripper to generate steam. David Jones, who had taken over Taylors yard, let me use some space and the master boatbuilder, Arthur Howard, lent me some big G clamps. I put the plank into a long plastic bag, scrounged from a carpet shop, then led steam from the wallpaper stripper into it for a couple of hours.

Whilst the plank was cooking I set up a crude former. I put a stout wooden beam on to blocks so that it was off the ground, then put two more blocks on top of this at what looked like the right distance apart. When the plank was ready I removed it from its bag and laid it on top of the blocks, then used the clamps to bend the floppy plank down to touch the beam halfway between the blocks. I would then lash the plank down so that the clamps could be removed and returned to Arthur. Next morning I would release the plank, now hardened to its curve, load it upon to the boat roof and take it out to “Lilith” for fitting. This method would not work on most boats. Luckily, joeys are of a simple shape with no complex curves or twists.

In the 1970s ex Stewarts & Lloyds joeys were everywhere as they gradually dispersed their fleet. Of all the wooden joeys that  in every corner of the network, I’m only aware of 3 survivors. Birchills resides in the Black Country Living Museum. Daisy now belongs to Forces Veterans Afloat and has been somehow re-bottomed in steel. Someone kindly did some research and discovered that No9 was originally built in 1901, though how much original material survived is a moot point. As Lilith she is now celebrating her 125th year, though more than 50 years after her restoration began, she now needs lots of new planks again.

Lilith now belongs to the Wooden Canal Boat Society, a charity devoted to saving historic wooden canal boats, restoring them and putting them to work for the community. Website https://www.wcbs.org.uk/

One of the attractions of the waterways are the former working boats, often gaily painted, covered in shiny brass and lovingly maintained by their owners. Every year there are several gatherings of ex working boats. Some are converted, some still clothed up and ready to carry another load, but, there’s one thing that nearly all have in common- they’re made of metal.

100 years ago metal boats were the exception. Most were made of wood, oak for the sides, 3 inch elm for the bottom. Sadly, though many gained a new lease of life as pleasure boats after they finished carrying, the enormous cost of maintenance meant that most ended up being destroyed or simply abandoned.

Based in Greater Manchester, the Wooden Canal Boat Society is busy not only saving a small fleet of wooden narrow boats, but also putting them to good use. Museums are all well and good, but boats were made to be used.

It all started back in the 1980s as a project to restore the wooden motor boat “Forget me Not” and make use of the former joey boat “Lilith”. Whilst “Forget me Not” was being stripped down and put back together again at Guide Bridge, on the Ashton Canal, “Lilith” was bow hauled and hitch hiked around the network carrying buskers to raise funds for tree planting in Africa.

Before “Forget me Not” was finished a third boat was offered, “Hazel”. Built (probably) in 1913, she turned out to be the last Runcorn wooden header narrow boat afloat. She made an epic journey from London to Ashton in 1988. She was slipped for inspection at the Ashton Packet Boat Co. Almost every part of the boat was on its way out. The only possibility was to save up the pennies for an eventual complete rejuvenation.

In 1992 the ‘big ricky’ “Southam” was purchased from BWB for £525, sunk at Hillmorton. This was followed by “Elton”, donated by BW sunk in Southall in 1993 and “Queen”, the oldest surviving wooden motor narrow boat, sunk at Denham, in 1994. These boats were hitch hiked to the Boat & Butty yard in Runcorn.

After “Forget me Not” was launched a recycling project was begun in 1996 using “Forget me Not” and “Lilith” to collect unwanted goods from canalside homes for resale and recycling. Initially these goods were sold on a flea market stall. Now the society runs the biggest charity shop in Ashton, though recycling trips have been suspended during the covid crisis.

Tameside council has given the charity huge amounts of help. The boats were moved to the local history museum, Portland Basin, in the late 1990s and work on a Heritage Boatyard in Stalybridge started in 2000. The ground here had to be lowered by 2 metres to canal level.

A “Hazel” sponsorship scheme encouraged supporters to make annual contributions to a fund for her renovation and maintenance. In 2011 this reached £23000. A further donation of £75000 from Tameside council enabled work to begin on her. Boatbuilder Stuart Hughes flew in from America to take charge of the work. She was launched in 2013 and entered service in 2016.

Every boat has to have a purpose. “Hazel” is a well being boat, enabling people suffering mental stress to spend time on the canals (an idea later pinched by CRT!) She has been restored to her original unpowered condition, so guests can enjoy the peace of a canal journey being towed by a distant motor boat or, possibly in the future, a horse. Currently she is funded by the National Lottery to provide time afloat for NHS and care workers who have worked hard through the covid pandemic.

“Lilith” has been the recycling boat since 1996, though she’s currently idle until this project resumes. As it is nearly 40 years since her restoration was completed she is in need of some serious work as soon as the resources are available. She’s recently celebrated her 120^th birthday.

“Forget me Not” , built at Polesworth in 1927, does the towing on wellbeing trips and, when they resume, on recycling trips.

“Southam”, 1936, was originally a butty. Motorised and converted in 1965 she has also been used for towing. She had new planks fitted in 2019 but the reconstruction of her cabins has been delayed by the pandemic. Her 1965 fitted BMC 3.8 engine is to be replaced with a similar unit donated by Tameside College. Her future will be as a spare tug, volunteer accommodation, representing the WCBS at events and possibly as a mobile craft shop.

At present a priority is clearing “Elton”, 1937, of recyclable metals that have built up on board so that she can be tidied up and used as workshop space. In the longer term plans will be made for her restoration and a project for her to work on. Ideas are being bandied about at present.

Similarly “Queen”, 1917, is awaiting restoration. After some recent submarine adventures work is underway to make her float more reliably. Short term she will be used as a craft workshop. Like “Elton”, ideas for her post restoration use are under discussion. A water drip Bolinder, similar to the one that powered her between 1924 and 1947, is being restored for her at the Anson Engine Museum.

This collection of boats is of national importance but they've been maintained on a shoestring budget. In order to ensure their survival and future usefulness the WCBS needs to grow into a well funded national organisation.

The society would like to hear from people interested in helping with this, whether it's project planning, fundraising, business development, publicity, administration or just helping out at ground level. You don't necessarily have to live near Tameside to help.

For more information, or to volunteer, please visit our website

Chris Leah, 2022