About Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard is situated in the heart of Banbury on the South Oxford Canal and has one of the oldest, continually working dry dock on the Inland Waterways, working continuously since 1778. It may even be the oldest, we are investigating that one!
The site also includes a blacksmith's forge and carpenter's workshop, both still in regular use; plus a beltroom with some of the larger machinery used by the Tooley family. The yard originally built and maintained wooden boats but as iron then steel boats as well as engines came along, the Tooley's adapted with the times learning how to manage these new elements of boating.
The yard now provides routine and specialist services and sales for boaters including boat building and repairs, painting, blacking, chandlery, and training and certification in boat handling.
Tooley's Boatyard Trust promotes the history and heritage of Tooley's Boatyard through:
— a curated collection of photographs, maps, tools and books in a permanent exhibition;
— guided tours of the boatyard;
— boat trips on the Dancing Duck which was built and launched sideways in the traditional way at the yard in 2007;
— the historic narrowboat Hardy project working to restore and preserve the last wooden boat built for S E Barlow of Oldbury by the Nurser Brothers in Braunston in 1940.
Tooley's was also the birthplace of the movement to rescue Britain's canals from neglect and decay when in 1939 LTC Rolt converted ‘Cressy’ here to become a liveaboard boat on which he planned to tour the waterways and become a writer, as part of his ‘design for living’. He and his new wife Angela left Banbury on Cressy in 1940, the account he wrote of that journey, ‘Narrowboat', was published in 1944. It led to a meeting in 1945 with Robert and Ray Aickman, the formation of the Inland Waterways Association in 1946, and the beginning of the campaign to save the canals.
The Dry Dock
The Dry Dock is part of the original boatyard from 1778 and is listed as a Scheduled Monument by Historic England following threats to redevelop the site, filling in the dock and turning the forge into a refreshment kiosk. The dock is filled from the canal and emptied via a culvert which crosses beneath the canal then past The Mill Arts Centre to drain into the River Cherwell. Stop boards and waterproof sheeting are used to hold back water when the dock is empty.
The dry dock provides a service for the boating community and an opportunity for visitors to see work in progress, as well as the fully restored workshops dating from the 1930s, which include a carpenter's store, a belt-driven machine workshop and a paint store. There is also a 200 year-old forge where a blacksmith plies their trade. In addition to its day to day use for boat maintenance, the dock is used as a performance space for Theatre in the Dock during the annual two-day Banbury Canal Festival in October.
The Trust has proposed to the local authorities that they open up the towpath alongside the dry dock to provide a path for the general public to walk past (and maybe look in!), together with a long-term plan to replace the existing dry dock building with a two-storey building linked to the adjoining Museum bridge, enabling visitors to walk around at the upper level, and watch and learn about the skills and techniques involved in narrowboat maintenance.
The Forge
The forge was built at the same time as the dock in 1778 and provided blacksmithing services for many of the local businesses that relied on horse drawn transport as well as the boat horses. Our current resident blacksmith is the very talented Ems.
Hardy restoration
The team are also working on the conservation of historic narrowboat Hardy. Hardy was built in September 1940 by Nursers in Braunston for the Barlow Coal Company. In 1962, she was sold to Blue Line Carriers in Braunston, and some time before 1971 sold into private ownership and converted to a pleasure boat. In October 2022, Tooley's Boatyard were awarded a National Lottery grant to develop a restoration plan for the 1940 narrowboat. Following that we recruited a volunteer team mentored by Ian Staples, a local boater who worked with the Tooley Brothers in the 1970s and 1980s and who has lived on wooden boats for over 40 years.
Work to date (as of April 2025):
— A powerful automatic bilge pump installed to ensure she stays afloat (she is allowed to sink in dry weather to avoid the timbers overdrying);
— ‘A’ frames fitted over the hold and sheeted over;
— Materials sourced: oak planks, hemp and Stockholm tar;
— Additional wood for the hull and bow donated from other historic boat projects;
— Fundraising to buy a power saw and planer;
— Training workshops for the volunteer team in making chalico and caulking;
— A grant from National Historic Ships to dock Hardy for a survey and mapping of the planks, caulking, and blacking.
An important focus of the project is on the process and teaching/preserving the traditional skills as well as aiming for a fully restored boat to contribute to the heritage offering of the boatyard trust.
Courses at the Boatyard
These are the courses which are currently being offered at Tooley’s Boatyard:
— Boat Handling: including RYA Inland Waterways Helmsman Certificate and Canal experience/Boat handling.
— Blacksmithing: Novice or improver, you can learn from one of their experienced blacksmiths how to create useful items from steel using simple hand tools, the fire and Anvil. Courses from Beginners to Advanced available.
Find out more:
www.tooleysboatyardtrust.org.uk
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