Future of Banbury landmark unclear after hottest summer on record
Tooley’s Boatyard says it’s lost 80 percent of its trade after the stretch of water outside was closed.
The future of a Banbury landmark is under threat after one of the hottest summers on record.
Tooley’s Boatyard on the Oxford Canal - which has been running since the seventeen hundreds - says it’s lost 80 percent of its trade after the stretch of water outside was closed.
Starting at its junction with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury, the Oxford Canal reached Napton in 1774 and Banbury in 1778. After a significant delay, it was completed to it’s destination, Oxford, in 1790.
Tooley’s, one of the oldest working dry docks on the Inland Waterways, has been in continuous use since 1778. It was established to build and repair the wooden horse-drawn narrowboats which plied the newly constructed canal network, so vital to the development of the Industrial Revolution.
From completion for the next 15 years the Oxford Canal was one of the most important and profitable navigations being the main route between the Midlands and London.
Gradually, rail and then road transport eroded the importance of the canals (although during the Second World War they were once again used extensively), but Tooley’s, immortalised in Tom Rolt’s popular book ’Narrowboat’, kept on working up until 1995. Then its future was threatened by the Castle Quay development. But good fortune prevailed, and the site was saved and incorporated in the new Museum and Heritage centre.
Managing Director there Matthew Armitage is warning the country's oldest working dry dock may now have to shut for good:
"We do have other works we can get onto which are on the canal side, but these are only boats which are actually here."
"This isn't our main work, so although it's good to have this extra work - we may get into the position where we do run out of work, which is a concern."
"Tooley's being in potentially financial difficulty is a real shame, especially when the whole regeneration of the waterways came from here."
"There's also a concern that if the canals aren't actually looked after properly, then the canal could go into having problems."