Name Wheldale

WHELDALE was built in 1959 for British Waterways as a Goole based Compartment Boat tug. She was used to pull Tom Puddings (interlocking modular barges) from Yorkshire coal mines to the Aire and Calder Navigation to Goole.

The tugs pulled the Tom Puddings to the Compartment Boat Hoists in Goole Docks, and then the hoist would lift them up and tip the coal into ships.

When the Tom Puddings stopped operating in 1987, WHELDALE was sold to Hargreaves and used as a push-pull tug. In 1997, WHELDALE was purchased by the Yorkshire Waterways Museum from Cawood - Hargreaves for its collection. She has been restored and runs trips into Goole Docks for Museum visitors, as well as travelling to be displayed at festivals in Yorkshire.

She is the last remaining Tom Pudding tug in complete, original working order. She operates with an original jebus (No. 3 circa 1890), and it was intended that she run exhibition trips with the Museum's three Tom Puddings once conservation of them was complete.

Following closure of the Yorkshire Waterways Museum, the Goole Civic Society supported a campaign for the vessel to be saved but in December 2019 it was reported that the vessel had been sold into private ownership, being kept on the Aire & Calder navigation for the time being. If you are the current owner, please get in touch.

We are lacking information on this particular vessel. If you have any information on this vessel past or present, please contact us.