We are delighted to feature this new and completely unique location Tooley’s Boatyard. Tooley’s Boatyard is situated in the heart of Banbury on the South Oxford Canal and has one of the oldest, continually working dry docks on the Inland Waterways, working continuously since 1778.
Suitable for many types of productions who need period locations Tooley’s has an authentic blacksmith’s forge and carpenter’s workshop, both still in regular use; plus a beltroom with some of the larger machinery used by the Tooley family. The yard originally built and maintained wooden boats but as iron then steel boats as well as engines came along, the Tooley’s adapted with the times learning how to manage these new elements of boating.
Tooley’s Boatyard Trust promotes the history and heritage of Tooley’s Boatyard through:
- a curated collection of photographs, maps, tools and books in a permanent exhibition
- guided tours of the boatyard
- boat trips on the Dancing Duck which was built and launched sideways in the traditional way at the yard in 2007
- the historic narrowboat Hardy project working to restore and preserve the last wooden boat built for S E Barlow of Oldbury by the Nurser Brothers in Braunston in 1940
Tooley’s was also the birthplace of the movement to rescue Britain’s canals from neglect and decay when in 1939 LTC Rolt converted ‘Cressy’ here to become a liveaboard boat on which he planned to tour the waterways and become a writer, as part of his ‘design for living’.
The Dry Dock
The Dry Dock is part of the original boatyard from 1778 and is listed as a Scheduled Monument by Historic England following threats to redevelop the site. The dry dock provides a service for the boating community and an opportunity for visitors to see work in progress, as well as the fully restored workshops dating from the 1920s, which include a carpenter’s store, a belt-driven machine workshop and a paint store. There is also a 245 year-old forge where a blacksmith plies his or her trade. In addition to its day to day use for boat maintenance, the dock is used as a performance space for Theatre in the Dock during the annual two-day Banbury Canal Festival in October.
The Forge
The forge was built at the same time as the dock in 1778 and provided black smithing services for many of the local businesses that relied on horse drawn transport as well as the boat horses. Our current resident blacksmith is the very talented Ems.
Hardy Under Restoration
The team are also working on the conservation of historic narrowboat Hardy. Hardy was built in September 1940 by Nursers in Braunston for the Barlow Coal Company. In 1962. An important focus of the project is on the process and teaching/preserving the traditional skills as well as aiming for a fully restored boat to contribute to the heritage offering of the boatyard.
Tooley’s Boatyard provides completely authentic historic locations, can provide advice on the building of the canal system in the UK and help with the replication of the period boats used at the time and also provide terrific advice on filming in the local canal network and with their in depth local knowledge can help find terrific locations locally and help with filming safely on the local waterways.
For all filming enquiries and to organise a ‘recce’ please contact: Matt | Tel: 01295 272917 | email: info@tooleysboatyard.co.uk
Tooley’s Boatyard Limited, c/o Banbury Museum, Spiceball Park Road, Banbury OX16 2PQ | tooleysboatyard.co.uk