Surviving L&L boat to be restored

BOTH Canal & River Trust staff and volunteers at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port are to restore George, a rare surviving Leeds & Liverpool Canal horse-drawn boat.

George is one of the original Leeds & Liverpool 'short' boats that worked the canal in its heyday, and will be fully restored to its original condition as a working boat. She will be repainted and her 'back cabin' decorated in period style to recreate the scene of a working boatman's cabin in the early 20th century.

Education project

But rather than carrying such as coal, George will become a feature on the canal network spending the summer on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal as part of a community outreach and education project, and returning to the museum in the winter.

The Canal & River Trust's Head of Museums Graham Boxer, explained:

"This is a very exciting time for the museum as the project gets underway. The vision is to tell the story of Ellesmere Port, as the ‘Window on the World'—a once thriving port which was an important facility between canal craft and seagoing ships.

"We're looking forward to interpreting the story of wide boats to visitors to the museum and offering a more complete history of the site with the restoration of the Slipway and the historic buildings in this area."

The project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), will also fund the preservation of Mossdale—the last remaining all-wooden ‘Mersey Flat'.