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Concrete boats restored to former glory

24th Oct 2005

Two unique historic concrete boats are being restored to full working order thanks to a £6,000 grant from the Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Material (PRISM) and match funding from the Friends of the National Waterways Museum.

The grant will help with the restoration of concrete narrowboat BCN No. 2, the oldest concrete narrowboat in the world, and a concrete barge. Both are housed at The National Waterways Museum, Gloucester.

Kirsty Hartsiotis, Collections Development Officer with The Waterways Trust, said: "It is fantastic to be able to restore these boats to their former glory. While they aren’t the most attractive of vessels they do make people stop and think. Some people find it very difficult to grasp the idea that boats can and were made out of concrete."

Concrete boats were typically built during wars, when wood and steel were in very short supply.

Concrete narrowboat BCN No.2 is of great historical interest as the oldest surviving concrete narrowboat in the world. She was a prototype built in 1918, at the end of the First World War, as a day boat for the Birmingham Canal Navigations by A.H Guest of Amblecoate, Stourbridge.

An unusual and remarkable boat, it is a very early example of reinforced concrete construction. BCN No. 2 is the only survivor of the three boats made and is currently on display at the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester.

Kirsty said: "Due to the limited number of boats of this type which were made, BCN No. 2 provides an invaluable glimpse of this experimental design. It is great to have it restored to working condition."

The Concrete Barge also undergoing restoration is of particular importance to Gloucester. She was used during World War II to carry foodstuffs and cargo from Bristol and Cardiff up the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the city. The cargo would then be transferred onto narrowboats and taken up to inland towns such as Worcester and Stourport.

Kirsty said: "These barges were a familiar site at both Gloucester and Sharpness docks in the 1940s and 1950s.

"Concrete boats usually ended their days shoring up banks of canals and rivers and we are very lucky to have these two boats in our collection. Once the restoration work is complete they will provide a vital reminder for people of the industrial side of our canal boat history."

Last updated: 22/10/2008