Mexborough and Swinton Times February 24, 1928

Boat Building Looking Up

The local industry of canal boat building, once a thriving contributor to the prosperity of the district, has during the last few years shown symptoms of decay, but lately it has tended to revive—at least at the Swinton yard of Mr. Ernest V. Waddington.

Mr. Waddington has taken up the trade of his fathers, in spite of the gloomy outlook for canal transport,: and is thus carrying on an old tradition,  for the name has been associated locally with the trade for a century.

Now the Swinton yard. is. the only one that remains; the old yards that used to be so busy, -at Bull Green., Mexboro’, at Parkgate, and at the spot where the glassworks at Swinton now stand, are no more. But at ‘Swinton 1927 brought increased trade, and the improvement is continuing.

Last Thursday Mr Waddington completed an order for a new flat boat for coal carrying for Redfearn Brothers, Barnsley, the glass bottle firm; and two more orders wait to be filled, one for an open boat and another for a keel

But that alone is not the true indication of the’ revival of the -trade. Mr. Waddington attaches a good deal more significant the considerable increase in repair work etc.  His little ‘dry’ dock is kept regularly engaged with such jobs, one of which is the subject of our photograph. The end of the open boat has been fitted with new oak timbers, and the finishing touches are being put to the work with the tar brushes

Mr. Waddington firmly believes that his trade has a future. He himself uses canal transport largely for his timber, not only because of the natural, bias that way engendered by his trade, but also because it is cheaper and but little slower than rail or road delivery. He mentions the suggestion that the Barnsley British Co-operative Society might use the canal a good deal for transport, and says that many boats weekly pass through Swinton from Hull and Keadby carrying tons of canned foods, corn. etc., to the wholesale provision houses in Sheffield. His father, who now carries on the same trade on the Manchester Ship Canal, finds the same indications of returning prosperity.

Before last Thursday Mr. Ernest Waddington last launched a new boat from- the yard in 1926; and before then no new boat had been built since 1914, when the ‘yard was under different management.

Six to eight months is a normal period for the building. Of such, and, except in the rare instances when they are wanted in a hurry, more urgent repair work takes the chief attention of the staff, and the new building is turned to when that fails.

In an emergency a new boat can be turned out in six weeks – it has even been done in a month. But rush orders for such boats are unusual, as will be easily understood when it is remembered that their life, with care, will be as much as 70 years. The one in the picture is about 40 years old.