The collection
The collection was gathered over the last 60 years by three museums at Stoke Bruerne, Ellesmere Port and Gloucester. It contains a wide range of objects, including tools, engines, horse equipment, models, textiles, ceramics, glass, painted ware, personal items and over 50 boats, some floating and others on land in covered displays or in store.
These boats range from large vessels such as Basuto, a Clyde Puffer built in 1902, through to smaller boats such as the Starvationer, a wooden-built narrow craft used in the 1800s in the Worsley coal mines just outside Manchester. We have narrow and wide-berth craft, service and maintenance vessels – dredgers, tugs and ice breakers – as well as leisure craft, reflecting the change in the use of the canals. We have both powered and unpowered craft constructed of wood, iron, steel and even concrete!
As well as this broader history, some of our objects tell the personal stories of people who lived and worked the canals, enabling our visitors to get up close to real experiences and providing a means by which history truly comes alive.
