Some L&L Barges

[CanalWalker]

Some photos of the boatyard at Tarleton found in the attic.

 

 

 

 

http://www.towpathtreks.co.uk/about/old_ca...hotographs.html

[Guest]

Excellent. Any idea of the year?

[CanalWalker]

The prints I have are newer reprints of the original negatives, I think, I have no idea about where they came from originally or when the photos were taken. Any info would be appreciated.

[Pluto]

Some photos of the boatyard at Tarleton found in the attic.

 

 

 

 

http://www.towpathtreks.co.uk/about/old_ca...hotographs.html

The boats in the first two photos probably belong to Suttons, who moored their boats by the swing bridge at Tarleton. Amongst other things, they were the contractors for building and maintaining the training walls on the Ribble in the early 1900s when the Port of Preston was being developed. They used old L&LC boats and old Mersey flats for the trade, bringing stone down from quarries near the canal in the Douglas Valley. On the tidal river, tthe boats were usually towed by a L&LC-type steamer after the canal company gave up carrying in 1921. The lowering mast was used principally for unloading in the estuary from that time, but they must have had sails earlier.

 

The boat on the right may not be one of Suttons, but could be a manure boat or a coal boat. Around 1900 IIRC about 80,000 tons of street sweepings and night soil were brought out of Liverpool annually, down from its maximum tonnage of c150,000 tons around 1880. This traffic survived until the 1950s, the manure being used to improve the agricultural land in West Lancashire. I certainly have one photo of manure being delivered by the swing bridge at Tarleton.

 

I have three or four other photos of Suttons boats which I copied 30 or more years ago. I can't remember where the originals were, and would love to find them as they all show good quality L&LC painting in the West Lancashire style. The ones I have certainly look to be from the same collections as yours.

 

The final photo is of the old Mayor's boatyard at Tarleton. This was on the tidal river about 200 yards below the current lock. It was on the site of the old Douglas Navigation half-tide lock, which was only in use for 20 or 30 years around 1760. There was also a wharf there where coal and other cargoes were transferred between river barges and coastal flats. The lock house and wharf house from Douglas Navigation times, c1750, are still there. The boatyard moved in the early 1930s after the branch railway down to the wharf above Tarleton Lock was closed, the boatyard incorporating a brick railway building and using railway line for the slips. The boat, 127, was originally the EAGLE in the L&LC fleet. Numbers were used from c1904 onwards. I have a similar photo of 260 on the slip at Tarleton, but viewed from the other end. I dated this to c1910 from the old boatyard account book which Harry Leyland had. I copied some of it and will try to did it out.

 

Please can I have good quality scans!

[CanalWalker]

 

I will re-scan them and see if I can a better image to email to you. Thanks for the info!

Edited January 11, 2010 by CanalWalker

[Pluto]

 

I will re-scan them and see if I can a better image to email to you. Thanks for the info!

I have a copy of this one which shows Suttons WARRIOR in front of the slips at Mayors new dockyard at Tarleton. It is probably late 1930s or later as the yard originally only had the lefthand slip, the righthand one being added some time after the yard was moved from the tidal Douglas c1930. Warrior was L&LC steamer No 43, and sold to Suttons around 1921 when the L&LC stopped carrying. She was sold back to the company in 1946 for use as a bank boat. The brick building extreme left was originally a railway office when the site was used for transhipping goods between rail and water. There was a third end-on slip on the right which used a steam powered deck winch which was worked by compressed air. I think it has only recently been removed.

[andyberg]

Old thread I know, saw these barge lists on a local page and thought they may be of some interest..

(apologies….do not know how to post images on here!)

 

https://i.ibb.co/fXMgW64/CC7-D68-DB-44-F2-4303-A3-F3-968-CF2-A463-D2.png

https://i.ibb.co/Gtp7qWf/93-F11384-E993-4-C2-D-A9-DC-9184-F7139529.png

https://i.ibb.co/rGrcxCg/62-D1-FB97-1746-4-EC3-B65-E-AABD02-B61859.png

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by andyberg