Old canal boat mystery is solved

A restored stretch Montgomery Canal

Volunteers working on the latest stage of the restoration of the Montgomery Canal at Crickheath near Oswestry have made an extraordinary discovery.

They discovered the remains of a barge which had been deliberately sunk about 100 years ago.

The Usk was believed to be jinxed after the death of a crewman in a gruesome accident at Trench Lock.

Despite its poor condition the boat has been identified thanks to its design, which was peculiar to the Trench area.

Alan Jervis from the Waterway Recovery Group said the volunteers were working to clear a dry area of the canal where Crickheath Wharf had been when they found an area of earth that was a lot lighter than the rest.

He said they were starting on the reconstruction of the wall: "The first thing we had to do was to clear away about six feet of undergrowth and when we did we found a row of small nails sticking out of the silt."

On this occasion something went wrong with the mechanism and the guillotine did pretty much what it said on the tin and beheaded him, the boatman Alan Jervis

He asked canal expert Tony Lewery for help, who came out to look at the site.

Mr Jervis said the volunteers then adopted a more subtle approach to the excavation: "We stopped using excavators and shovels at that point and changed to trowels and brushes like real archaeologists do."

What they eventually found was the side and bottom of a canal boat of an unusual design: "To many people a canal boat is just a canal boat, but there are actually hundreds of local designs of them. This was one that had a particularly interesting pattern."

The boat was identified as The Usk which had been working at Trench. The locks there were called guillotine gates because they rose and fell rather than swinging open like normal local gates.

Trench Lock where the boatman died

Mr Jervis said there had been a dreadful accident at Trench Lock: "On this occasion something went wrong with the mechanism and the guillotine did pretty much what it said on the tin and beheaded him, the boatman."

After that the Usk disappeared because local people thought it was jinxed and refused to work on it.

"It was, I believe, sold to a private company who never had any luck with it, which was of course put down to the fact that it was jinxed and it was eventually sunk here."

The volunteers who come from all over the country will spend two weeks working at Crickheath are working on a section of the canal which has been dry for about 50 years. It will link up with the recently restored section at Redwith.

Michael Limbrey, who is the chairman of the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust, said there was just three miles of the canal in Shropshire to re-open.

Since work began on the canal restoration eight new bridges have been built and a new aqueduct has been constructed over the River Perry on the Welsh Frankton to Rednal stretch.

In October the trust will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first working group to arrive for work on the canal.

British Waterways

Montgomery Canal Restoration Trust

Waterway Recovery Group