Lottery boost for Gloucester Waterways Museum

[Laurence Hogg]

Lottery boost for Gloucester Waterways Museum

Gloucester Waterways Museum is celebrating today [16 April] after the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) announced it would be granting the museum funds to help improve its visitor experience.

As part of the initial support*, the museum, part of the Canal & River Trust, has been granted £60,700 to develop a project celebrating Gloucester docks’ contribution to the nation. If successful the project will bring in almost £1million of lottery money to the museum. The initiative has been led by staff at the Canal & River Trust, and is backed by the Friends of Gloucester Waterways Museum.

The project, called ‘From Birmingham to the Sea’, will see the museum change its displays to tell the story of the River Severn and the canals from Sharpness to Birmingham. Gloucester’s role in supporting the industrial revolution in Birmingham will be a major part of the new story, and will fit alongside the existing displays about life on the canals. The work will also totally upgrade the learning experience at the museum and, importantly, fully refit one of the museum’s heritage boats to make it a learning and exhibition venue.

Museum manager, Doreen Davies, said: “We’re delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has shown this confidence in Gloucester Waterways Museum. The docks themselves were a vital link between the industrial heartland of Britain and the world.

“Unlike most canals of the time, ours was a ship canal with links to exotic parts of the world. Telling this story will extend the reach of the museum and bring our local heritage alive.”

Debbie Lumb, Head of Museums and Attractions for the Canal & River Trust, said: “Gloucester Waterways Museum is a great museum in an atmospheric location. Today’s announcement by the HLF is a real vote of confidence and we’re hopeful that if we get our second phase funding confirmed that we’ll be able to make these important changes to the museum. These will be the first real changes to the story at the museum for many years and our staff and volunteers are over the moon!”

The Museum has been housed in the magnificent Llanthony Warehouse at Gloucester Docks since it was opened in 1988. It receives around 25,000 visitors a year who come to learn about the history of the canals and rivers of Gloucester and take a 45 minute boat trip on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal with commentary or book a longer trip on the River Severn.

ENDS

For further media requests please contact:

Oliver Briscoe, Marketing Manager, National Waterways Museum, Canal & River Trust

Oliver.briscoe@thewaterwaystrust.co.uk

0151 355 5017

Notes to editors:

The Canal & River Trust is the guardian of 2,000 miles of historic waterways across England and Wales. We are among the largest charities in the UK, maintaining the nation’s third largest collection of Listed structures, as well as museums, archives, navigations and hundreds of important wildlife sites.

We believe that our canals and rivers are a national treasure and a local haven for people and wildlife. It is our job to care for this wonderful legacy – holding it in trust for the nation in perpetuity and giving people a greater role in the running of their local waterways

[Ray T]

Good, let's hope it gets spent wisely

[FadeToScarlet]

I wonder if the heritage boat to be restored is Oak?

[Speedwheel]

Good, let's hope it gets spent wisely

 

The new cafe is being designed as we speak!

[Derek R.]

Why do I think the boats will see nothing of any such fund - management diktats?

 

A cafe - against some boats. Which is most likely to be used by visitors? Judging by the exhibited boats at Ellesmere over Easter, it is clear where the onus of heritage in boats lay. With museums and their boats, I'm reminded of 19thC mill masters living standards compared to their workers hovels.

[Mike C]

Judging by the exhibited boats at Ellesmere over Easter, it is clear where the onus of heritage in boats lay.

 

What are you meaning?

[ditchcrawler]

The new cafe is being designed as we speak!

Well the two cafe across the way seem to do OK. If the facilities had been there 4 of us would have had a meal, but someone else got the profit.

 

I took the grandkids," We don't want to go to a boring museum" was the cries from the back of the car. What happened, we had to go back after lunch until it was time to take them home.

[Derek R.]

What are you meaning?

That the vast majority of boats as seen in Andrew Watts flickr album are of those visiting, privately owned boats. This begs the question: in whose hands are the future of ex-working boats most likely to be secure; museums - or privately owned?

[RLWP]

That the vast majority of boats as seen in Andrew Watts flickr album are of those visiting, privately owned boats. This begs the question: in whose hands are the future of ex-working boats most likely to be secure; museums - or privately owned?

 

Privately owned. Owners are better funded, and do not have to be accountable in what they do with their boats. Cf Flying Scotsman vs Galatea

 

That sounds harsh. They also tend to be wildly enthusiastic and generous

 

Richard

[Speedwheel]

Owners are better funded,

 

Are they?!!! What am I doing wrong then?

Edited April 18, 2013 by Speedwheel

[stagedamager]

Owning........

[alan_fincher]

Are they?!!! What am I doing wrong then?

Don't try playing the sympathy card!

 

You said you were planning to get the boat painted.

 

It already looked a lot better painted than most museum managed boats to me

 

[Mike C]

That the vast majority of boats as seen in Andrew Watts flickr album are of those visiting, privately owned boats. This begs the question: in whose hands are the future of ex-working boats most likely to be secure; museums - or privately owned?

 

Several the timber boat every one bemoans at E'port are the only survivors - why? because the private owners burnt theirs.

AGAIN the poorly informed, but heavily opinionated moan and do little to assist, and AGAIN it says more about the posters than the museums. - Slow learners?

[Derek R.]

I think that is a little unfair. There are a great many wooden boats in private ownership in far better condition than those left to rot at Ellesmere. We all know funding is paramount to ongoing necessary maintenance, but what are Ellesmere's plans for their boats? The 'burning' of boats is not the usual activity of owners, more like vandals.

Those "surviving" look more like fallen Oaks. They may harbour a myriad of critters and fungi, but essentially they are dead. They resemble those left up the Wendover arm, picked clean and open to the elements, that many have survived is down to private ownership - and of those private owners, most will happily support contributing to museums, but when such vessels are left in that condition they may well consider that charity starts at home first. Quick learners?

[RLWP]

Several the timber boat every one bemoans at E'port are the only survivors - why? because the private owners burnt theirs.

AGAIN the poorly informed, but heavily opinionated moan and do little to assist, and AGAIN it says more about the posters than the museums. - Slow learners?

 

I also think that's unfair. Many of the boats in the museum were purchased privately and donated, often in good condition.

 

Richard

[alan_fincher]

Several the timber boat every one bemoans at E'port are the only survivors - why? because the private owners burnt theirs.

AGAIN the poorly informed, but heavily opinionated moan and do little to assist, and AGAIN it says more about the posters than the museums. - Slow learners?

 

I think this is more than a bit one sided to.

 

It depends how you categorise "survivor", because lets be honest, many cann't be considered to be this, other than as a name that one day may get carried by a virtually brand new boat.

 

OK, I accept to some extent that is the nature of the beast - many were built for an expected life of only 20 or 30 years, so you wouldn't expect them to contain heaps of original wood now, if there had been an ongoing program over their life to keep them in reasonable condition throughout.

 

But there are some very special historic wooden boats in private ownership that are well cared for, and can regularly be seen about the system enjoying a very active life.

 

How many wooden boats in a museums collection can actually be claimed to be in such good order, or to really ever have much chance of being put in such good order, or surviving that way for very long if they are?

 

To be honest many of the steel or iron boats that have been the subject of expensive past restorations by museums seem to be faring badly, without even considering the wooden ones.

[Pluto]

I also think that's unfair. Many of the boats in the museum were purchased privately and donated, often in good condition.

 

Richard

I don't. How many wooden wide canal boats have survived? I can only think of a couple outside of the museum. Are there any other box boats in anything like original condition? I don't think there are, despite their probably being the closest you will get to an 'original' narrow boat. Wooden boats may have been given to the museum, but no money was given for their maintenance. A wooden boat will last thirty years between major rebuilds, and those in the museum have mostly gone much longer than that.

 

And what about condition? If we look at many privately-owned boats, they all have glossy paintwork which would not be how such boats appeared in their working days. Few private owners properly record the work they do to their boats, so in the future we will have little idea as to what has changed. Pete Harrison goes to a lot of trouble just keeping up with the details he has, and those are not a comprehensive history of each boat. Private owners have old boats, in general, because they like them, not because they want to portray canals as they actually were. If they did, there would be a lot more battered tatty boats about, because that is how they operated, not in pristine condition as many so-called preserved boats are today. A properly preserved boat, or steam locomotive or vintage car, should show evidence of its former use, and not have been completely 'restored' as most in private hands have been.

 

What is needed is a well researched list of surviving historic craft, with the most important ones identified. Tony Conder was working on such a list when he was in charge at Gloucester, and a revised list has been produced more recently. The most important boats would then get the funding they need, and this is why L&LC square sterned boat George, and Mersey flat Mossdale have been put forward for conservation or restoration as part of an HLF scheme. With limited funding, the most important boats which are likely to disappear are the ones that should be funded first, and that is undoubtedly the wooden wide canal boats.

[ChimneyChain]

I think what they need to do with the wooden boats at Ellesmere is to lift them out of the water, tart then up and put them on display under cover, just like the fabulous looking Friendship is. Let's face it the money is just not there to fully restore these boats. It needs to be done know otherwise they along with all there history will be sadly lost.

 

Darren

[Pluto]

I think what they need to do with the wooden boats at Ellesmere is to lift them out of the water, tart then up and put them on display under cover, just like the fabulous looking Friendship is. Let's face it the money is just not there to fully restore these boats. It needs to be done know otherwise they along with all there history will be sadly lost.

 

Darren

That is certainly what is being considered for Mossdale, but what sort of cover? The museum is a conservation area, so new buildings would be difficult in terms of planning and would need to be justified in architectural terms as well as for the conservation of what it being covered.

[Derek R.]

Blists Hill Victorian Village seem to have managed it with the Severn Trow. The open sided shed adequately covers the Trow and the Ice Boat alongside with a raised walkway to view the deck space. Space is always an issue though, and Ellesmere may not have enough.

 

It's true that company boats were often found to be in work worn condition, but it was the individual crew and live-aboard families that put the shine on all that they could. Likewise the Number Ones - owner boaters.

 

Perhaps some reasons why so many wide wooden canal boats were not saved is that they made; traversing a wider network impossible; increased the maintenance costs; needed more expert handling; and few - unlike Thames sailing barges, fishing vessels and other coastal carriers - would take, or be equipped for coastal voyaging. The narrow boat could work almost all of the system, take up less of a canal in width. Maybe it all came down to costs alone, as it seems to with our museum craft.

[matty40s]

The museum at Ellesmere Port is taking on 3 Trainee Historical Boat Restorers. These lucky 3 will spend the next 18 months learning traditional skills at boatyards and from specialists and hone their skills at the museum whilst explaning to the public what they are doing. I have no doubt this has been done so the display boats can be slowly rescued and restored.

I was very disappointed not to be one of the three.

[Timleech]

An awful lot of wooden Narrow Boats have met their demise in private hands. An 'historic' metal Narrow Boat is something that someone with a bit of ability, dedication and money can just about keep on top of, a wooden boat is in another league and requires more frequent maintenance and very substantial expense from time to time (unless the owner has specialist skills and lots of free time, when they can save on some of the expense). Wooden wide boats are in another league altogether. People like Chris Collins (Wide boat PROGRESS) are rare indeed.

 

There's a bit too much Narrow Boat-centric thinking from the critics, I suspect.

 

Tim

[Mike C]

I think that is a little unfair. There are a great many wooden boats in private ownership in far better condition than those left to rot at Ellesmere. We all know funding is paramount to ongoing necessary maintenance, but what are Ellesmere's plans for their boats? The 'burning' of boats is not the usual activity of owners, more like vandals.

Those "surviving" look more like fallen Oaks. They may harbour a myriad of critters and fungi, but essentially they are dead. They resemble those left up the Wendover arm, picked clean and open to the elements, that many have survived is down to private ownership - and of those private owners, most will happily support contributing to museums, but when such vessels are left in that condition they may well consider that charity starts at home first. Quick learners?

I am grateful to be in the privileged position to have professionally examined more historic inland waterways craft than most. Shiny and smart does not mean in museum/original/historically relevant condition. There are VERY, VERY FEW historic craft in private hands or out on the system that are suitable to be offered up as historically accurate or ‘in museum condition’.

 

Some timber boats were burnt by vandals but the very greater number were intentionally burnt by their owners when their enthusiasm and/or money ran out. – no records kept, measurements made or historical assessments made. Those at the museum have been better kept by them than by anyone else simply by the fact that they still exist in some form ! Their longevity and future is more certain and with them history has been retained. The museum is doing its job. With SUPPORT and funding then more can be achieved and its job can be done better.

 

I repeat my offer made in earlier threads some time ago. If any of you want to know what is actually going on and would like to meet with folk that are ‘doing’ and are not pontificating keyboard critics then please PM me and I will make the arrangements for you, I don’t think that you will be disappointed.

 

For the rest – don’t let real facts or truth ruin your opportunity to promote your own misguided or inaccurate opinions to the more gullible if it makes you feel important or relevant. It may make you feel good about yourselves but to those that have bothered to find out you just look a little silly.

 

For those that want to know more and are not impervious to facts you could start here, although a site visit wlil reveal more - http://www.boatmuseumsociety.org.uk/tlc-project.html

 

Link eddited

Edited April 21, 2013 by Mike C

[Derek R.]

Remind me to stop pontificating.

 

The link fails with error 404, but this might be the intended: Boat Museum Society tlc project.

Click on the 'work done' links to see each craft.