National Waterways Museum

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National Waterways Museum
National Waterways Museum, Cheshire -2.jpg
National Waterways Museum
Cheshire UK location map.svg
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Location within Cheshire
Former name
National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port
The Boat Museum
North West Museum of Inland Navigation
Established1970s
Location Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England
Coordinates 53°17′17″N2°53′31″W / 53.288°N 2.892°W / 53.288; -2.892
OwnerThe Canal & River Trust
Website National Waterways Museum

The National Waterways Museum (NWM) is in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, at the northern end of the Shropshire Union Canal where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal (grid reference SJ406771 ). The museum's collections and archives focus on the Britain's navigable inland waterways, including its rivers and canals, and include canal boats, traditional clothing, painted canal decorative ware and tools. It is one of several museums and attractions operated by the Canal & River Trust, the successor to The Waterways Trust.

Contents

History

Industrial age

The museum site occupies the former Netherpool port that was designed by Thomas Telford, under the direction of William Jessop, for the ill-fated Ellesmere Canal. The proposed waterway in England and Wales was planned to carry commercial traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The museum's historic buildings are all that remain of the inland port that transferred goods and cargo from narrowboats onto rivercraft that would then sail to the docks at Liverpool. The northern section of the Ellesmere Canal, which was built as a 10 mi (16 km) contour canal, connected Netherpool port to Chester Canal in 1797. When it opened, its revenue was expected to help fund the rest of the Ellesmere Canal project. However by 1805 work had stalled because of rising costs and the failure to generate the expected income from commercial boat traffic. The plans to build the remaining southern section to the Shrewsbury Canal and the connection between Pontcysyllte and Chester were abandoned.

For the next forty years the 7 acres (3 ha) port served boats using the Chester Canal until it was taken over by the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company in 1845. It amalgamated the former stretches of Ellesmere Canal, along with Eastern and Western branches of the Montgomery Canal, the Shrewsbury Canal and the Shropshire Canal into the Shropshire Union Canal. The port at Netherpool remained in operation until it was finally closed in the 1950s.

Waterways museum

A museum, which was called the North West Museum of Inland Navigation, was founded at the disused port in the 1970s. It was later renamed The Boat Museum and then, until 2012, the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port. [1] [2] In the 1990s The Waterways Trust took on the management of the National Waterways Museum. Funding from Heritage Lottery Fund helped create new displays and improve visitor facilities. In 2012, the Waterways Trust was incorporated to the Canal & River Trust.

Crane at the National Waterways Museum EP Boat Museum.jpg
Crane at the National Waterways Museum

The name National Waterways Museum was formerly used to include the inland waterways collection at two other museum sites in England, which now are named the Gloucester Waterways Museum in Gloucester, and The Canal Museum in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire.

Funding

The museum is entrusted with a collection that has the status of a designated collection, as determined by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. However, the standard of collection management has been the subject of considerable concern and criticism in the waterways press because, essentially, the museum has insufficient money to fund the upkeep of the many historic boats in the collection. Unlike the National Railway Museum, which receives funding direct from HM Government, the NWM only receives public money through the Canal and River Trust, previously British Waterways. During the winter of 2008–2009, opening hours were cut at Gloucester and Ellesmere Port to just two days per week in an effort to manage a tough financial situation. Some boats were advertised in Museums Journal early in 2009 for disposal, there being insufficient money for their restoration. Visitors to the Ellesmere Port site can see boats, in the care of a National Museum, sunken into the water or kept afloat by automatic pumps. However, the initiative to create a Heritage Boatyard, with lottery and other funding, has spurred a revival in the museum's fortunes and work on addressing the areas of maintenance is now taking place. The Heritage Boatyard trains young people in skills that might otherwise be lost. Two boats, Ilkeston and Ferret, are sponsored by the London Canal Museum, which contributes annually to the cost of their maintenance.

Collections

The museum incorporates all surviving parts of the original industrial port. Over the past 40 years, the historic site has been restored. This includes the locks, docks and warehouses and a pump and engine room. [3] A toll house built in 1805 [4] and the Island Warehouse was built in 1871 to store grain. [5]

The Island Warehouse has an exhibition on the history of boat-building and another describing the social history of canals. [5] The Pump House contains the steam-driven pumping engines which supplied power for the hydraulic cranes and the capstans which were used around the dock, [6] and the Power Hall contains a variety of other engines. [7] The blacksmith's forge was where the ironwork for the canal and its boats was made. A resident blacksmith works in the forge. [8] The stables which housed the horses and pigs are still present. [9] The former toll house hosts temporary and touring exhibitions. [4] The Waterways Archive contains a wide range of material relating to waterways in Britain and abroad. [10] A terrace of four houses known as Porter's Row contains dock workers' cottages which have been decorated and furnished to represent different periods from the 1840s to the 1950s. [11] The museum contains a collection of historic boats. [12] Short boat trips along the Shropshire Union Canal are arranged. [13] The museum is open at advertised times throughout the year. [14]

The locks within the museum site are designated by English Heritage as Grade II listed buildings. [15] Also listed at Grade II are the lighthouse at the entry of the canal into the Mersey, [16] and a lock keeper's hut. [17]

Television

In 2010, the museum was one of three featured on Richard Macer's BBC Four series Behind the Scenes at the Museum. [18]

In 2020 the museum featured as the start point of series two of Robbie Cumming's Canal Boat Diaries on BBC1. The episode travels along the Shropshire Union from the museum to Audlem. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Waterways</span> Canal and inland waterway authority

British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland and Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellesmere Port</span> Town in Cheshire, England

Ellesmere Port is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Chester, 12 miles (19 km) south of Birkenhead, 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Runcorn and 11 miles (18 km) south of Liverpool. The town had a population of 61,090 in the 2011 census. Ellesmere Port also forms part of the wider Birkenhead urban area, which had a population of 325,264 in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Weaver</span> River in Cheshire, England

The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732. An unusual clause in the enabling Act of Parliament stipulated that profits should be given to the County of Cheshire for the improvement of roads and bridges, but the navigation was not initially profitable, and it was 1775 before the first payments were made. Trade continued to rise, and by 1845, over £500,000 had been given to the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellesmere Canal</span>

The Ellesmere Canal was a waterway in England and Wales that was planned to carry boat traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The proposal would create a link between the Port of Liverpool and the mineral industries in north east Wales and the manufacturing centres in the West Midlands. However, the canal was never completed as intended because of its rising costs and failure to generate the expected commercial traffic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llangollen Canal</span> Canal in Wales and Shropshire, UK

The Llangollen Canal is a navigable canal crossing the border between England and Wales. The waterway links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere, Shropshire. The name, which was coined in the 1980s, is a modern designation for parts of the historic Ellesmere Canal and the Llangollen navigable feeder, both of which became part of the Shropshire Union Canals in 1846.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontcysyllte Aqueduct</span> Waterway in Wales

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in northeast Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shropshire Union Canal</span> Canal in North West England

The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Canal</span> English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester

The Chester Canal was an English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester. It was intended to link Chester to Middlewich, with a branch to Nantwich, but the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative about a junction at Middlewich, and so the route to Nantwich was opened in 1779. There were also difficulties negotiating with the River Dee Company, and with no possibility of through traffic, the canal was uneconomic. Part of it was closed in 1787, when Beeston staircase locks collapsed, and there was no money to fund repairs. When the Ellesmere Canal was proposed in 1790, the company saw it as a ray of hope, and somehow managed to keep the struggling canal open. The Ellesmere Canal provided a link to the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port from 1797, and the fortunes of the Chester Canal began to improve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canals of the United Kingdom</span>

The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's role of recreational boating. Despite a period of abandonment, today the canal system in the United Kingdom is again increasing in use, with abandoned and derelict canals being reopened, and the construction of some new routes. Canals in England and Wales are maintained by navigation authorities. The biggest navigation authorities are the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency, but other canals are managed by companies, local authorities or charitable trusts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montgomery Canal</span> Canal in Shropshire, England, and Powys, Wales

The Montgomery Canal, known colloquially as "The Monty", is a partially restored canal in eastern Powys and northwest Shropshire. The canal runs 33 miles (53 km) from the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to Newtown via Llanymynech and Welshpool and crosses the England–Wales border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salisbury Dock</span> Dock on the River Mersey in Liverpool, England

Salisbury Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Vauxhall and is connected to Nelson Dock to the north, Trafalgar Dock to the south and inland to Collingwood Dock.

Ellesmere Port Dock is a dock in Britain, situated on the Manchester Ship Canal, in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrewsbury Canal</span> English Canal

The Shrewsbury Canal was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 1835, when the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal built the Newport Branch from Norbury Junction to a new junction with the Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall. After ownership passed to a series of railway companies, the canal was officially abandoned in 1944; many sections have disappeared, though some bridges and other structures can still be found. There is an active campaign to preserve the remnants of the canal and to restore the Norbury to Shrewsbury line to navigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company</span>

The Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company was a Company in England, formed in 1846, which managed several canals and railways. It intended to convert a number of canals to railways, but was leased by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) from 1847, and although they built one railway in their own right, the LNWR were keen that they did not build any more. They continued to act as a semi-autonomous body, managing the canals under their control, and were critical of the LNWR for not using the powers which the Shropshire Union Company had obtained to achieve domination of the markets in Shropshire and Cheshire by building more railways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlewich Branch</span>

The Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal is located in Cheshire, in the north west of England, and runs between Middlewich, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal, and Barbridge Junction, where it joins the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal. It is 10 miles (16 km) long, and was planned as part of the Chester Canal, which was authorised in 1772, but the company ran out of money, and construction did not begin until 1827. The Trent and Mersey insisted that there should be no direct connection at Middlewich, and instead built the short Wardle Canal to join the two, charging large compensation tolls for traffic passing along it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runcorn and Weston Canal</span>

The Runcorn and Weston Canal was a short canal near Runcorn in Cheshire, England, constructed to link the Weston Canal, which is part of the River Weaver Navigation, to the Bridgewater Canal and Runcorn Docks. It was completed in 1859, but was little used. Around half of it became the Arnold Dock in 1876, when it was made wider and deeper, and linked to Fenton Dock by a ship lock. The dock section and some of the remaining canal were filled in during the 1960s, and the remainder is in a derelict state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horseboating Society</span> Society promoting horse-drawn boating.

The Horseboating Society is a national society, with the primary aim being the preservation and promotion of Horseboating on the canals of Great Britain. The Society was founded on 19 January 2001 at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, and it is the only organisation in the UK solely dedicated to horseboating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canal & River Trust</span> Charitable trust that looks after the waterways of England and Wales

The Canal & River Trust (CRT), branded as Glandŵr Cymru in Wales, holds the guardianship of 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, together with reservoirs and a wide range of heritage buildings and structures, in England and Wales. Launched on 12 July 2012, the Trust took over the responsibilities of the state-owned British Waterways in those two places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloucester Waterways Museum</span>

Gloucester Waterways Museum is housed in a Victorian warehouse at Gloucester Docks in the city of Gloucester, England. It is located along the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and River Severn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Basin</span> Tidal basin in Liverpool, England

Chester Basin was a tidal basin on the River Mersey, in Liverpool, England. The basin was situated between the Pier Head and Manchester Dock.

References

  1. ↑ "About the National Waterways Museum". Canal & River Trust. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "New charity The Canal and River Trust to makes National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port its focal point". The Chester Chronicle. 18 July 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Discover the museum". Canal & River Trust. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Toll House gallery". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  5. 1 2 "Island Warehouse". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  6. ↑ "The Pump House". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  7. ↑ "The Power Hall". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  8. ↑ "Blacksmith's Forge". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  9. ↑ "Stables". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  10. ↑ "Collections & Archives". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 7 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  11. ↑ "Porter's Row". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  12. ↑ "Historic Boat Collection". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 7 November 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  13. ↑ "Daily boat trips aboard Centaur". National Waterways Museum. Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  14. ↑ "National Waterways Museum". Canal & River Trust. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  15. ↑ Historic England. "Two wide and two narrow locks between the upper and lower canal dock basins, Ellesmere Port (1139013)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  16. ↑ Historic England. "Lighthouse (marking entrance from Mersey Estuary to Shropshire Union Canal before Ship Canal was built), Ellesmere Port (1130345)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  17. ↑ Historic England. "Lock keeper's hut between Lower Mersey Street and lower dock basin, Ellesmere Port (1130344)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  18. ↑ BBC Four: Behind the Scenes at the Museum: National Waterways Museum. Retrieved 28 May 2010
  19. ↑ BBC Four: Canal Boat Diaries: Ellesmere Port to Audlem. Retrieved 10 May 2022

Coordinates: 53°17′17″N2°53′31″W / 53.288°N 2.892°W / 53.288; -2.892

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