The National Waterways Museum

I’ve really gone to town on photo’s during our stay at the museum and so as not to tax your patience overly I’ve split them up (roughly) into categories - Click on any of the photographs if you want to see more detail.

Volunteers at Work - apart from the intense projects like Raising Mossdale (click here and here) the volunteers (all members of the BMS Boat Museum Society) work hard each day to conserve/renovate historic boats, keeping the grounds neat and tidy and assisting the public in any way they can. I forgot to mention that during day one of raising Mossdale I met Josheph Boughey the Transport Conservation Historian who starred in The Golden Age of Canals and is the young boy of seven who is on the helm with his Dad in the film.

Around the Museum - just what it says on the tin!  In no particular order either of importance or sequence.

Big Boats Ships - The Manchester Ship Canal is accessible from the Museum and if you look over the roof tops of the museum buildings if you’re lucky you will see the big ships passing - these are a few that we saw and had the opportunity to photograph during our stay.

Volunteers at Work

 

 

 

Around the Museum

There a couple of sunken narrowboats in the mooring/storage area at the bottom of the locks - you may just be able to see this one by the moveable bridge in the picture on the left

 Diversifying into the growing of beensprouts in old barge Scorpio?!!

 

 

 

The warehouse would have stood over these boats in the photo above

 

 

 

 

The Victorians knew how to build with style - the more modern building try to emulate, but it doesn’t really come off

March 1st just after 07:30 - a cold start to the day!

 Inside the exhibition hall

 

On the day we left the Museum was holding an open day for Model Boats - including an outdoor course for the owners to try out their skills

A wedding took place in the Holiday Inn on the centre island at Ellesmere Port and this bike was getting a lot of attention during the photos.  I am reliably informed that it is a Suzuki Hyabusa (GSX 1300R) with a longer swing arm on it presumably for drag racing.  How it got it’s name - Honda made the ‘Blackbird’, the fastest production bike in the world; Suzuki then made the bike above which beat the Honda - “hyabusa’ is a Japanese eagle whose main prey is - the blackbird!! If any of this info is not quite correct - please send your comments to my ‘bike-mad’ son!

Big Boats Ships

The Annelise Theresa

MSC Viceroy - probably returning from escorting the Annelise up the Manchester Ship Canal

We could see Arklow Rose  over the roof and lighthouse of the Fire Brigade Union building and walked round to get a better view of what was going on.

Arklow Rose unloading her cargo

Chemical Tanker Fetekoz ...

… passing the National Waterways Museum

Alina

… and if you’ve managed to plow through all these picture - well done you!