WCBS Heritage Boatyard

Why do we need it?

Back in the 1970s when our founding members started restoring Lilith they had to work on any bit of canalside land they could beg, borrow or, well, they never actually stole any.

Things were necessarily a bit primitive and it was hard to maintain any continuity. As the fleet of boats grew these pioneers started to dream of a place where they could set up a permanent boatyard, keep their tools safe, store materials and teach new people to restore boats.

In the 1990s Forget me Not was being restored by volunteers on Ashton Packet Boat’s yard in Guide Bridge. A spur of the moment decision to attend a meeting in the council offices led to a generous offer from the council of the use of some land beside the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in Stalybridge.

There was just one problem.

The land was 2 metres above the canal level. It needed excavating, and our little charity had few halfpennies to rub together.

A fund raiser came to help. He raised funds for some initial works, and a promise of big money to develop the site, but not until 2003. When the allotted time came round the funder had disappeared up it’s own income stream.

Volunteers started digging, initially by hand. It was going to take forever!

A small lottery grant and the temporary rent free use of a shop for charity sales solved the funding gap and the boatyard was excavated down to canal level in 2007. The first boat arrived for repairs in 2008.

The first big task was the rejuvenation of Hazel. Starting in 2011, she had to be completely dismantled, authentically reconstructed with new wood, then fitted out for her new role as a well being boat. She gained the 2012 Keay Award.

The Long Term Plan.

This is to replace the current primitive facilities with proper permanent buildings where young people can learn the skills of building and repairing real wooden boats. A visitor centre where the public can come to find out about the history and craft of wooden boats on the canals.

BUT!

Before we can construct that we have to secure the site for the future. It’s essential for keeping the fleet of 6 historic boats restored and maintained, but, before further developing it, we need to make sure that it’s not sold from under us.

We need £59,000!

Which sounds an awful lot, but, to secure this site, isn’t much, until you haven’t got it.

Please, help out, donate towards the Heritage boatyard so that our volunteers can carry on saving and restoring these lovely historic boats for community projects.

Here is the link and QR code to our friends at Goodhub who will make sure you are able to Donate securely - Thank You.