Name Louise

LOUISE was originally built as a beet barge in the 1920s, used on The Fens to carry sugar beet round the coast into the Thames Estuary for sale in London. She has an iron hull and concrete deck.

Around 1977, the barge was purchased by the National Trust and used as a workboat for maintaining Trust-managed waterways in Southern England. She had a cabin added as a workboat.  In the early 1990s, she was purchased from the Trust by River and Canal Services, Guildford, at which point she had a Hiab crane added and was named LOUISE.

In 2019, she was donated to her current owners, the Buckingham Canal Society, who maintain her and use her for their restoration works on the Buckingham arm of the Grand Union Canal.  She has a segregated hopper for materials as well as an equipment cabin, and propulsion is by an outboard motor.  A diesel powered engine runs the hydraulic circuits for the crane operation which is capable of lifting 8 tons. LOUISE has also been used for dredging and other activities supporting not-for-profit organisations along the canal in the vicinity of Cosgrove.