Name Bodmin

BODMIN is a Large Woolwich butty, built by Harland & Wolff for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company in 1936.  She is of steel riveted construction, and her original intended pairing was BOGNOR.  As they were both gauged and registered over a similar time period, they may have worked as a pair to start with.  BODMIN worked for the GUCCCo for the following 12 years before being nationalised into the British Transport Commission fleet in 1948.

During this time BODMIN was paired with several different motors and would have been engaged carrying a range of cargos such as raw materials from London docks to Birmingham, coal from the Warwickshire coal fields back to London and imported wheat for inland mills.  By 1964 she was no longer carrying and was used as an accommodation boat at Sutton stop for retired boat people.  In 1968 she was sold to D Greaves who paired her with OTLEY.  During this time the pair carried several loads of coal to Croxley mills, one of the last long distances carrying jobs, arranged by enthusiasts after British Waterways lost the contract.  After BODMIN was sold in 1976 she travelled via the Severn estuary to Bath where she was used as a house boat. 

In 1984 BODMIN was sold to T Wilson and was rebottomed and refooted.  During this time she was converted into a study centre, with an undercloth conversion providing a class room for visiting groups of children.  In this guise BODMIN was sold to Devon County Council and moved to Tiverton in 1991.  After falling out of use, she was sold again in 2003 and went to Stockton dry dock for an extensive restoration and conversion, with a steel cabin being added in the shape of the original cloths.  Over the following years BODMIN passed through several owners, being based on the southern Grand Union before being sold to the current owner in 2019.  She is again due further restoration work in the spring of 2026 when she will be mostly deconverted back to as built condition.