Queen

On 23rd June 1917 a shiny new pair of boats were gauged on behalf of their owners, Hildick & Hildick of Walsall. The butty was Queen of The Ocean, an incongruous name for a boat based so far inland. The newfangled motor boat sporting a big funnel and powered by a heavy oil engine, was the Walsall Queen.

There is some mystery about the early days of Queen. Why did a manufacturer of malleable iron fittings suddenly start having state of the art powered narrow boats built? What were they used for? Why was Walsall Queen apparently not registered as a dwelling until 1919, and then in Brentford instead of Walsall?

In 1926 Walsall Queen was sold to Harvey Taylor of Aylesbury. This successful fleet had grown from a collection of craft serving the family flour mills at Aylesbury and Buckingham. The name was shortened to Queen, the engine replaced by a water drip Bolinder and the craft captained by the unstoppable Jack Monk. It is said that Queen was the last boat to drag herself through the mud to deliver a load to the Buckingham mill before the canal became unnavigable.

Carrying mainly coal, sand, grain, flour and timber, Queen worked the Southern waterways until, in 1947, she was cast aside and left to sink, her Bolinder engine stripped for spares.

Rescue came in 1949 when John Gould wanted a pair of boats for his campaign to keep the Kennett & Avon Canal open. He bought a job lot of old boats from Harvey Taylor and then resold those that he didn't want. Queen went to Bernard Barker who kept her at Ashwood Basin on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, using her as a pleasure boat with full-length conversion for 38 years.

After two more sinkings and having a tree blow down on to her, Queen was rescued by an epic working party in 1994. By then she had Fellows Morton & Clayton painted on her cabin sides. She never belonged to F.M.C. but one of her past owners had thought it worthwhile to kid everyone that she was the Josher steamer Queen, built 1887 and broken up in 1911.

Back to top of this page
Back to Archive Index
Back to BCS Home Page