Name Monarch

Built in 1908 by Fellows Morton & Clayton at Saltney, Birmingham, MONARCH is a narrowboat with iron sides and a steel bottom – this replaced the original elm. Her current engine is an oil fired steam engine built by Michael Webber in 1992. She worked an express service in her prime from Birmingham and London, taking just 54 hours for this journey. Originally a steam powered vessel, she was converted to diesel in the 1920s but put back to steam as part of a major restoration in 1992. Sold in 1946 to F J Gospill, she was sold again in 1947 and used as a trip boat. In 1948 she became a dredger until 1961 when she was bought by Joan Hughes, a Birkenhead hotelier, and renamed HILDEGARD. Joan's son Peter Bagnall converted the boat from a 72ft timber framed day boat with side windows into a 7-berth pleasure vessel. She was a much-loved family holiday boat for many years, while moored on the Shropshire Union Canal at Waverton near Chester. Joan Hughes donated the vessel to the Runcorn Catholic Sea Cadets around 1974, after which HILDEGARD reverted to her original name in 1977. Around this time Peter Bagnall went to visit the vessel and found her partially burnt out and sitting on the bottom of the river in Runcorn. The Queen visited the vessel in 1979. While MONARCH was exhibited afloat at The Boat Museum in Ellesmere Port (now the National Waterways Museum). In 1991, she underwent a major restoration and was converted back to steam with a tarpaulin cover. After two more changes in ownership in 1992 and 1995 she was sold to her present owner in 2004.