Manchester bury and Bolton canal boats.

[sparrowcycles]

Hey everyone, a friend on mine is working on a project involving the Manchester, bury and Bolton canal, she is trying to work out the dimensions of boats that commonly used it. 

I have a photo from archives that show wide beam wooden boats by a lock and I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on them, dimensions, builder etc.

 

I had assumed that L and L short boats and run or headers would have used it but this photo is certainly of another type.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Pluto]

Government Returns for the 1888 Rly & Canal Act give MB&BC locks as suitable for boats of 68 feet in length, 14ft 2in in width, and 3ft 6in draft. The boats shown were sometimes called Statters, after the company who owned them, or bastard boats. Rathbone's, who worked the dock at Stretford on the Bridgewater, also operated boats of this type, and may well have built them. The box boat was the main type of boat in use on the canal, designed for carrying the standard coal boxes found on both the MB&BC and the Bridgewater. Narrowboats, they were also 68 feet in length, and were probably the closest recent boat to the original narrowboats as proposed by Brindley. The 68 feet length allowed for an additional rudder such that these boats would fit into the 70 feet by 7 feet locks first proposed for the Grand Trunk Canal. It would be very unlikely for L&LC boats to work onto the MB&BC. Six-plank narrowboats would also have been unusual as they would have been too deep for the canal when fully loaded.

 

The photo shows box boats on the canal.

[Derek R.]

Great images, both. Thanks for posting.

[sparrowcycles]

5 hours ago, Pluto said:

Government Returns for the 1888 Rly & Canal Act give MB&BC locks as suitable for boats of 68 feet in length, 14ft 2in in width, and 3ft 6in draft. The boats shown were sometimes called Statters, after the company who owned them, or bastard boats. Rathbone's, who worked the dock at Stretford on the Bridgewater, also operated boats of this type, and may well have built them. The box boat was the main type of boat in use on the canal, designed for carrying the standard coal boxes found on both the MB&BC and the Bridgewater. Narrowboats, they were also 68 feet in length, and were probably the closest recent boat to the original narrowboats as proposed by Brindley. The 68 feet length allowed for an additional rudder such that these boats would fit into the 70 feet by 7 feet locks first proposed for the Grand Trunk Canal. It would be very unlikely for L&LC boats to work onto the MB&BC. Six-plank narrowboats would also have been unusual as they would have been too deep for the canal when fully loaded.

 

The photo shows box boats on the canal.

Thank you, that is of great help and much appreciated, I shall pass it on straight away!

 

S