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The National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port has one of the world's largest floating collection of traditional canal craft.
They include narrowboats, canal barges, river barges, canal and river tugs, icebreakers and a coaster.
You can go aboard many of them and see what working and living conditions were like for the crews and often their families. Sit inside the narrowboat cabins, about the size of the restroom on an aircraft, in which whole families were brought up and which was their only home.
The museum is at the northern end of the Shropshire Union Canal, housed in what was once one of the busiest transhipment ports in Britain where goods were moved from canal craft to sea going ships and vice versa.
Many old Georgian and Victorian buildings and warehouses still survive and house fascinating exhibitions on the waterways, their industry and their people.
Steam, diesel and gas engines have been lovingly restored and can often be seen in operation, as can blacksmiths and others as they practice their traditional crafts. You can also tour a terrace of dock worker's cottages which have been restored to show working class domestic life at dates from 1840 to 1950.
The Museum has interactive displays, lecture rooms, shop and a comfortable and friendly cafe. There are canal boat trips and you can often see traditional craft being worked through the locks and sea-going ships passing close by on the Manchester Ship Canal.
The Heritage Boatyard is a partnership that has been set up to conserve the historic boat fleet at National Waterways Museum and to teach young people boat building skills. Volunteers and young trainees work alongside each other on a wide range of boats, all originally used on Britain's canals and inland waterways. The Heritage Boatyard team are on site most Mondays to Fridays and some Sundays and event days. They are happy to answer questions about their work. For visitors it's a chance to see conservation in action as these wooden and steel boats are returned to their former glory.
The museum hosts an traditional Easter Working Boat Gathering
the national waterways Museum
Open seven days a week April – October and open each weekend from
October to April.
Check
their website
for up to date information
How to find the museum
National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port South Pier Road Ellesmere Port
Cheshire, CH65 4FW.
Telephone enquiries: 0151 355 5017
By road - from junction 9 on the M53 follow brown signs for 'The Boat
Museum'.
By rail - 10 minutes walk from Ellesmere Port station. Merseyrail
half-hourly service from central Liverpool and stations on the Wirral.
By bike - the towpath alongside the Shropshire Union Canal runs right up
to the museum.
By bus - 20 minutes walk from Ellesmere Port bus station. Wide range of
services including from Caernarfon, Chester, Liverpool, Neston, Runcorn
and Wirral.
(Photographs and information courtesy of the National Waterways Museum)