Flat Hunting - The Last Surviving Mersey Flat Boats
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- Mersey Flats were the workhorse of the industrial age, numbering into the hundreds on the waterways of the River Mersey Basin. Small and versatile, yet bulky and strong, they were also living vessels that families called home. They were also the unsung heroes of the industrial revolution in this part of the world, filling the hole that the railways and roads simply couldn't.
In the 20th century most were grounded, broken up and lost. Only a handful remain, most of which are decaying wrecks. I wanted to go find the last surviving ones, including one preserved at the National Waterways Museum, the skeletal remains at Spike Island in Widnes, and the oldest one of them all, the last remnants of the Daresbury, built in 1772, at the great boat graveyard at Frodsham.
Thanks to the National Waterways Museum for letting me film and giving me free-reign to have a good nosy.
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I worked a boat on the Weaver in the 80's, Frodsham level lock was still clearly visible and all the sunken boats, I talked to an older boatman who had the job of sinking the northern fleet of narrow boats, he knew how many holes to drill in the bottom of the boat when they left Dutton locks. The Mersey flats and the Weaver belle where still clearly visible at that time. It amazed me when I returned 40 years later to se how the vegatation had reclaimed the boats and the lock. All the narrow boats were recovered and restored . One very foggy night I ended up in amongst them with my passenger boat , somehow I managed to find my way out eventually!
Wow I bet it was interesting to see them back then
Would that have been Carl Leckey? I know he played a part in sinking the boats, and he kept a plan of which one went where.
Amazing. So informative, and a great tribute to the flats. My wife thinks I'm weird for liking this kind of stuff, I think she is the weird one. Keep up the good work.
Thanks very much 👍👍
I've watched the boats deteriorating over the past 20 years or so. Ten years ago you could still stand on the back of one and jump across near the tiller. One of them is called the Gowenburn I think. The rate of decay has seemed to increase exponentially over the past few years.
The amount of research you put in is immense, I salute you sir! Fantastic.
Thanks very much!
I’ve seen those loads when I’m down that way but didn’t know what they were. Thank you. Really educational video.
Thanks
Such a fascinating video, love it!
Such a shame there are virtually no Mersey flats left, workhorses of our wonderful region, linking our two great cities together.
That boat graveyard on the Weaver is amazing.
Great video, your always welcome to come to the Wirral and see our WWII boat x
My dad made a model of one of the Mersey flats it was a bout 4 foot long . I have it in my man cave now along with six other boats he built amazing details in all is models ❤️
I recall seeing a wreck of barge that looked similar in the bushes behind Walton Lock near Stockton Heath when I was younger.
There was a hull hiding in overgrowth when I went to explore Walton Docks some years back! That may be the same one.
Here because while researching family history i saw that i had grt grandparents described as Flatmen. I instantly knew what they were and that they worked on these boats! It was strage. They worked out of runcorn/widnes. No bridge back then
Thanks for this brilliant video! It got me interested in investigating the lower end of the Weaver navigation, the River Weaver, and the Frodsham Cut. From what I can work out the Frodsham cut was dug first to connect the River Weaver directly to the Mersey, but as you say it resulted in long waits at low tide before boats could get out into the Mersey, so a second canal was cut to the north of the Frodsham Cut, this one going via Sutton Locks to a deep part of the Mersey, and is now part of the later Weaver navigation (the Weaver Navigation made the old River Weaver fully navigable by constructing wears bypassed by locks at points on the river).
Then at the end of the 19th century the Manchester Ship Canal was built and the Weaver Navigation was connected to that below Sutton locks at Weston Point. I take it that the 'boat graveyard' is on the now-disused Frodsham cut?
Hope I've got that right?
By the way, 'Daresbury' is pronounced 'Dars-bury' according to my late sister who lived close by.
The graveyard is at Sutton locks. It's easy to find off the river path.
Thanks for the pronunciation. I've only ever seen it written down 😬
Pickerings was originally the lowest lock on the river, supplanted by Frodsham lock and weir in 1781. The Weston canal was opened in 1810 and linked to a basin on the banks of the Mersey where boats would wait for the tide. This was developed into Weston Point docks. Sutton locks were level locks, normally open at both ends for boats to pass straight through. If the river level rose or fell the locks would be used. The largest lock was built in 1870. The building of the Ship Canal meant that very few high tides rolled up the river, and Sutton locks were bypassed in the mid 1950s, the approaches then being a handy place to lose unwanted boats.
@@colinlothlorian Thanks Colin. That explains why the boat graveyard is at Sutton (locks bypassed in the '50s), even though the earlier cut (Frodsham) was effectively replaced by the Weston Canal. I had wrongly assumed that the earlier cut (Frodsham) would be the disused one and therefore the boat graveyard.
"Surviving" might be an overstatement! Another interesting video. I know I write that a lot. Never knew about these boats before. The bits and pieces of the Canal Era are coming together, one by one.
And I agree, in many such cases it's both beautiful and sad. Sometimes the sadness about it is what makes it beautiful and sometimes it's the other way around, I guess.
Yes I totally agree with you there 👍
Magical film, bless you man for your effort and the historical content.
Cheers thank you
I'm no northerner but I still love this channel anyway.
Haha thanks very much
@Ian Concannon I can't say that I do Ian - mind you we are a pretty ignorant lot down here in darkest Dorset ...
One of them should be saved, preserved and put on display in the new everton football stadium.
The keel of one is in the mud on the runcorn side just as you cross old quay road bridge....by the first car park within 50yds of the road bridge.
Great video man, really enjoyed it. Best wishes from Canada.
There's a couple sunk just past woolston towards cadishead In Warrington.
Thank you Ollie! Another great video, another bit of history and artifacts you taught me about. These Ancient Scheduled Monuments are quite fascinating me, I'd like to visit them all.
WoW loving the boat graveyard but you need the grass burnt off and a drone to get the full picture x
When you go hiking in marshes and brambles wear safety spectacles, all that mass of branches will have your eye out.
Love the passion So sad the mossdale like it is but at least it survives they are like sailing canal boats (bow forward aft or stern back ) another great video 👍
Thanks!
Cracking piece. Thank you.
Wow,great vid,and nicely done.
These are very similar by the looks of things to the Severn trows. There unfortunately are not any of the Severn trows left in existence. Similarly they were used to reinforce the bank along the Severn estuary at Purton.
Fascinating stuff
Welcome to my neck of the woods. Spike Island is literally 50 yards from my front door. Great to see lots of local history.
Pretty sure there’s some decent displays in the Catalyst Museum, just next to Spike Island, when it reopens - they document the Mersey Flats too 👌🏻
Keep up the great videos!
Fantastic what a nice place to live! I might check that museum out when it opens
Top content mate👍
Nice work
Great video , thanks for sharing the stories with us . Stay well
Keep up the good work....very interesting.
I enjoy these history lessons on our Region👍
Great vid 👍
Nice one - I really enjoy your channel lad.Very interesting as usual!
I wish this Mersey river culture was still alive and well, it would be amazing. I would love it if they regenerated the whole Manchester Ship Canal, could you imagine how cool it would be! I know it's just a pipe dream though, although we all know that if it was in the South-East it would probably have already been done and been promoted as a major tourist attraction.....
It's just no longer needed, i think large container ships and faster trains just replaced the need for the canal. It's sad because it is the first of it's kind, I think of the Suez canal as it's sucessor.
The canals owned by peel holdings and they want real estate.
Interesting. I’ve never been up that way so thanks for showing.
I had no idea about the Merseyh Flats, nor that they were being used for that purpose to preserve the banks of the river. Like you say, a mixture of exciting and sad. I've recently caught up on all your videos. Thanks for the interesting and educational content. Andy, Wirral.
Cheers thank you much appreciated
another cracking video! would never have known there would be so many remains of those old boats left!
Interesting subjects excellently presented , sums up your channel
Cheers that's very nice, thank you 😊
I couldn’t believe there were boats in the silt. Fantastic stuff
Hoping to one day make some similar films over here in the States, although there isn't nearly as much content to show! Check out the Mallows Bay Ghost Fleet outside of DC, very impressive and eerie place to kayak through. Keep up the great work!
Super interesting! I love how you find these hidden gems so close to home!
Cheers thanks!
Excellant. good to see such care put into an informative documentary
Thank you!!
Fantastic video! Seen a couple of your works now and really enjoyed them. So pleased to have you volunteer to help us, the OAKDALE Mersey Flat Trust, and looking forward to the recordings you will make with us. All the best and thanks very much.
Wonderful, thanks for letting me. I'm looking forward to visiting it
You'll love the ones near Lymm! Great documentary!
Ah yes I've got to check them out one day
Fleetwood had two old Mersey flat used on sand and gravel trade ,in the sixties and seventies they were called Allendale ,Berthdale from Wyre Tom
Great video but sad in a way. Three man-made things I hate to see rot away is boats/ships, airplanes/jets and anything railroad. Thanks for your time and work in posting your videos.
Hi Ollie,
Great video. I had no idea about The mersey Flats. You are amazing with your knowledge. Love your videos. Really enjoyed this video also. Take care.
Cheers thank you very much
Always go fishing at the boat grave yard we fish from that lock gate around the submerged boats
Great video and has brought back some great memories of my Dad. He worked on boats like these as a young man and I am certain he worked on the Mossdale. A colleague that he worked with in later life painted a picture of the boat and I am sure that was the name. Sadly we lost all of Mum and Dads old memories in a house fire some years back but I am going to do some digging!
Fantastic video, I've you visit spike island you should take a peak at the factory remains on spike island which I am currently excavating and recording.
I love this sort of thing, reminds me of the Purton hulks.
Another brilliant video!
I've been to Spike Island and seen the decaying boats, but never knew what they were until now!
As for the Scheduled Ancient Monument section, that's in the hands of Historic England, who will just let it rot away and then hand the canal back to the Canals & Rivers Trust for them to ignore too.
You would think something of that importance would be either rescued or the whole area cleaned up and made in to a tourist attraction.
I nerver knew this or anything you have shown today, existed so thank you for enlightening me!
Thank you glad you liked it. It is sad to see them
@@BeeHereNowuk I used your video as a reference point when a political party in the run up to the local elections tried to score points.
They were highlighting how all the historic buildings in that town were being left to ruin by a certain political party, which prompted me to reply that all parties & councils were guilty of neglecting historical features or buildings. Like the hidden, and neglected treasure that is the oldest Mersey Flat Boat which you found.
Thank you!!
Good stuff I always wondered about were all of the boats came from!
Great video, waders or drone needed for revisit
Would love to see a recreated one
That was interesting thank you very much it’s a shame everything has been left to rot
Can't stay away from Sunny Widnes XD
Haha no it keeps calling me
Great videos. You should get a drone, it would help you film places where access is difficult
Thanks Ollie...you're like a one man 'Time Team'. I knew nothing about these boats so this was not only interesting but educational too. A listen monument...what disgrace. Stop pi**ing about with bloody apartment at Number 10 and there'd be enough dosh around to put the lock and the boat back into something worth looking at. Given that so much of England's history has been thrown away here. I'd have given a good home to that eye bolt you found. At least it would be appreciated and not left to decay.
As always, your efforts are very much appreciated.
Thanks again Mike.
😂🤣 this old abandoned boat is older than 🇺🇸 love it cause its true 👍
Perhaps you could do a Video about the Concrete Barges in the 50sthere was a lot working on the River,i understand they were a wartime idea.
Fantastic video. Very emotive and moving.
I wonder if that metal boat was an old ice breaker barge ?
Hi BHN
how's it going mate?have you got another vlog anytime soon? have been watching Daft monkey vlogs a fellow Salfordian,while waiting for one of your interesting historical vids.Greg.
Another great video. Seeing the boat graveyard did feel a bit haunting.
Sometimes I think you're the only one who cares about this stuff. They are fixing Battersea power station at a cost of billions to become a night club, but they cant spent money on the workhorses of Lancashire.
Gutting how they are just slowly rotting away. Lived in Widnes 27 years the erosion at Spike island is a huge concern, in places nearly 10 mtrs have gone.
Interesting video, I love ships. Thank you... and I just posted a video - a passenger ship masterfully avoids being hit with a berth. The captain is a professional! Happy viewing.
Thank you, i will check it out 👍
Luckily here in Essex our most famous vessel was the Thames Barge and a number are still around in fact if you go to Maldon in Essex a drying barge port town in Essex (And great town to visit) and there is still a fleet to be seen and are sailed down River Blackwater you can go on trips HIGHLY RECOMMENDED I’m lucky as sail my sailing cruiser and often see the barges under full sail with Topsail and also they have barge racing and fishing smack racing visit if you can...Recomemded
The other boat we have are the Thames Lighters many have been placed around the coast to slow erosion since the decline of the London Docks and the Thames
Very interesting thanks for sharing. I'll have to look into that one day 👍
just looked up oakdale as i live locally, she is in a poor state and was recently swamped. the owner was rescued, though it doesn't look good for the boat...
Oh no I hadn't heard about that.
If you are interested in the flats equivalent in the east on the Humber
Humber Keel and Humber Super Sloop which is a fast sailing trading craft one is still in use look on UA-cam for
Spider T I met the owner and restorer and went on board when it visited Essex Coast
Thanks good tip, I'll have a look 👍
Have you seen the ww2 concrete boats on the ship canal in Lymm?
As always super interesting..but a little sad..wasted history. When I first moved to runcorn late 70,s I'm sure the was the skeleton of a boat by the old Quay swing bridge..wonder if that was a flat .
Very sad so few are left, the one at museum of course is nice but history has proven when only one of something is preserved in one place it can still be lost. Things happen to museums like accidents or fires, or they get closed and exhibits damaged, lost or vanishing into private collections but I'm not sure what could be done about this now.
a drone would have been perfect for you there
I'm 99% sure that there's one of these in a half-submerged state at Fiddler's Ferry Marina in Penketh, on the St. Helens canal.
Oh I will check it out 👍
@@BeeHereNowuk It's not far from the Ferry Tavern, Oli...the best pub in Warrington 👍 .just had a look at a photo I took of it a couple of years ago and it's definitely a flat, in a bad state of repair, but intact. It's visible on Google maps using the satellite view, as the last vessel moored on the canal to the west of the pub, before the canal becomes impassible. Good hunting our kid 😎😁👍
Isn't there one at the Black Country Museum??
Just looked at Google earth and found that one on the beach at Askham in Furness
Watch this space... That's my next video 🙂
Love your vids very informative 👍 you and @martinzero should get together
You also watch Martin........
whoever decided to fill in sankey canal should be flogged
It'll be the same people with no hindsight about anything.
it's only decades later that something like this becomes important. However, the Canals & Rivers trust own this canal so should be duty bound to preserve it. Unfortnately, as a registered charity they carry out only the minimal work required on the canals.
It's safe to say this will never be looked at by them
However, as this site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument it is now in the hands of Historic England, so basically it's going to be left to rot until there is nothing left, so they can then wash their hands of it and give it back to the Canals & Rivers Trust.
Flog the lot of em!!! The DIRTY bastards 😆
///evaporate.chainsaw.litigate you should check out the wreck at this location. Its in the weaver navigation near Dutton Locks. 👍
Great thanks I will do
Very interesting looking at Britain and the infrastructure that existed when Britain was a nation of manufacturers like Japan Germany and China and Korea now , all the old photos show the rivers and towns full of of boats people and goods, now nothing , how does Britain pay its way in the world now ???
Credit. Lets hope it doesnt run out
Things change. Most international trade is still on the water - the sea! Giant container ports at Felixstowe, Liverpool etc transfer the containers to lorries and trains for onward transport, and that has replaced the inland waterways system which didn't have either the speed or capacity to keep pace with modern life. Those boats you speak of are now HGVs jamming the motorways or container trains streaking along at 70mph with the equivalent of 100 HGVs in each train! We still make lots of stuff but more efficiently now in modern automated factories, though we import a lot of food and goods and export a lot of services.
Thats the sad thing about this country, alot of the heritage is just allowed ot be forgotton and rot away. The locks in Manchester are an example, what was once an important part of the cities infastructure is now just rotting, full of shit and trash from people who dont evne know what it is. We are slowly losing our identity really.
Bad luck to change a boats name.