Name Skylark

SKYLARD is one of eight motor boats built for chemical carrying company WH Cowburn & Cowpar Ltd in the 1930s. 

Built by W J Yarwood & Sons on the River Weaver at Northwich, all eight of these motor boats were named after birds beginning with "S" and all 8 boats are still around today.  The others are SWAN, SWIFT, SWALLOW, STORK, SEAGULL, SNIPE AND STARLING

She was delivered on 31st August 1934, Yarwoods Yard number 447.  The Manchester registration number is 1128.  Skylark was built with a steel hull with rounded chines and a wooden cabin. Length 70' 6", beam 7', draught 2' 11"

SKYLARK carried chemical cargoes from Trafford Park, Manchester to Courtaulds Main Works site in Foleshill Road, Coventry, which backed on to the Coventry Canal, and occasionally to Courtaulds plants at Little Heath (near Coventry) and to Wolverhampton (on the Staffs & Worcs next to Horden Road Bridge).

The main cargo carried was carbon disulphide, but other products carried to the Courtaulds sites included acids, solvents, acetone and oils carried in drums or glass carboys.  Salts and lime were carried in hessian sacks and caustic soda was carried in drums. Return traffics tended to just be empty containers and carboys.

The hazardous nature of carbon disulphide led to the introduction of pairs of cylindrical steel tanks being fitted to some of the boats between 1935 and 1936. 

When the tanks were put in, all boats were equipped with a flood valve in the fore end port side to enable the boat to be sunk quickly in the event of fire. The tanks were kept full of liquid at all times and the carbon disulphide was displaced with water under pressure on delivery. After discharge the boats returned to Trafford Park with the tanks full of water.

All eight boats were fitted with a Gardner 4VT.  Rated at 12bhp at 450rpm, the 4VT is a single cylinder two stroke semi diesel engine. Only three of the eight boats still have their original Gardner engines.  These are SKYLARD, STORK AND SWAN

The engine is started by pre-heating a bulb on the cylinder head to almost red heat with a blowtorch.  The flywheel is equipped with a spring loaded peg, and is pulled over using a piece of rope placed over the peg, the engine then firing on the re-bound 

The bird cut outs on the engine room panel were a novelty not seen on any other carrying fleet.  Another unusual aspect of the C&C fleet is that some of the boats had a slightly pointed sterns, Skylark being one of them. 

All eight boats had electricity generated by a dynamo driven by the Gardner, a novelty on northern boats at the time. 

In 1951 the Courtaulds traffic to both Coventry and Wolverhampton came to an end and after that the only cargoes carried by the fleet was coal to Trafford Park and Broadheath. 

The fleet stopped trading in 1956, most of the boats having already been sold off by then.  SWAN, SKYLARK and the butty ETHEL were the last boats to come out of service and be sold in 1956.  SWAN was sold to Gordon Waddington and SKYLARK and ETHEL to J Horsefield Ltd of Runcorn.

SKYLARK did not spend long in the J Horsefield fleet before being sold again, in 1958 to the Powell-Heath family of Kegworth on the River Soar.  They rebuilt the Gardner engine which had been damaged in a fire, and a full length conversion was fitted by David Wyatt of Stone.  In 1978 Mr & Mrs Rice purchased her and kept the boat at Clayworth on the Chesterfield Canal. 

In 1983 SKYLARK was bought by Mr & Mrs Gent, based on the Grand Union Canal.  By 1988 it was owned jointly by the Gent and Williams families, moored at Banbury on the Oxford Canal.  From 1993 it was in the ownership of C Williams and in 1994 SKYLARK was de-converted and fully restored to working trim. 

In October 2008 Skylark was bought by her current owners and is now based on the Caldon Canal in Staffordshire.