Name Queen

Possibly the most important boat in the WCBS fleet, QUEEN dates from 1917 , making her almost certainly the oldest surviving wooden motor narrow boat. Her builders are unknown but she was built for Hildick & Hildick of Walsall, a malleable iron fittings manufacturer. Her original name was WALSALL QUEEN and her butty was called QUEEN OF THE OCEAN. They were gauged on 23rd June 1917. Curiously  WALSALL QUEEN was not registered until 1919 at Brentford .

WALSALL QUEEN was part of a small fleet of boats built for Hildick & Hildick that seem to have operated between Walsall and Brentford carrying coal. The purpose of this trade is still a mystery.

Her construction is of wood; transverse elm bottom, iron knees and carvel sides. Most of the planks are fastened with iron nails, roved inside the wrought iron knees. A few planks are fastened with bolts, probably indicating where replacements have been fitted. The original engine was a single cylinder British Kromhaut semi diesel.

Most if not all of the fleet was purchased by A. Harvey-Taylor of Aylesbury in 1924 and she was re-registered as QUEEN at Tring. Her original engine was replaced at this time with an E type (water drip) Bolinder. At Harvey Taylor she was the first motor boat to be skippered by Jack Monk and later passed to Arthur Bray. Cargoes for Harvey Taylor were largely coal, sand and timber along the Grand Union Canal.

QUEEN was abandoned in 1947 and left to sink. She was  sold for use as a pleasure boat in 1949 and spent the next 3 decades  in the ownership of Bernard Barker moored at Ashwood Basin on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.

Abandoned again in 1986, she was rescued and patched up to be used as a houseboat in Buckinghamshire. In 1993, she sank and was left at Denham.

The following year, British Waterways donated the boat to the Wooden Canal Craft Trust (now the Wooden Canal Boat Society Limited) who raised her and moved her 200 miles to Runcorn for preservation. A grant from The Waterways Trust enabled work to be carried out to protect her hull in 2001. She was sheathed in metal screwed through to keruing shearing on the inside, all sealed with chalico. 

She rests now at The Portland Basin Museum, Ashton-under-Lyne awaiting the garnering of resources to restore her. An E type Bolinder engine has been acquired to power her when restoration is complete.