Cadbury help restore chocolate boat

A DONATION from chocolate company Cadbury is helping to restore a traditional narrowboat that once carried chocolate.

The donation of £10,000 will help restore narrowboat Mendip, that spent much of its working life carrying chocolate crumb between the Cadbury factories at Knighton and Bournville, and is being restored at the National Waterway Museum's Heritage Boatyard.

Back to Bournville

When the restoration is complete in September, the boat will leave Ellesmere Port and make the trip through the canal network back to the Bournville, the headquarters of the chocolate maker, mirroring the trips the boat made by Charlie Atkins ‘Chocolate Charlie', the canal personality who was known to all the children who lived near the canal.

Much of the work in the Heritage Boatyard has been undertaken by young people learning basic boat building skills as part of a Future Jobs Fund scheme assisted by Heritage Boatyard staff and skilled volunteers from the Boat Museum Society.

Important part

Museum General Manager John Inch explained:

"Mendip is an important part of our collection and we're delighted that Cadbury are supporting its restoration with this generous grant. Mendip, Chocolate Charlie and his cargo of chocolate crumb was a real fixture of the canal scene in the Midlands in the 1950s and we're excited to be able to re-create the journey in September."

Mendip is a traditionally-built, wooden bottomed, motor narrowboat, and has been part of the National Waterways Museum collection since the early 1980s. From 1948, Mendip carried chocolate crumb between Cadbury at Knighton on the Shropshire Union Canal and Bournville in Birmingham.

50 locks in 14 hours

The journey, carrying a 25 tons load, involved 50 locks and took 14 hours. In a normal working week, Charlie would manage to do two round trips. Children playing alongside the canal could sometimes be treated to a ride on Mendip, and even a bit of chocolate if they were lucky. During this time Charlie became known as 'Chocolate Charlie'.

In the boatyard Mendip has had new wooden bottoms fitted and repairs made to the steel hull. Soon she will be craned back into the water, where the refurbished diesel engine will be refitted and painting and other work will be completed.