Money for National Waterways Museum

Published: Wednesday, 09 June 2010

THE National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, in partnership with National Historic Ships, has received £110,000 from Heritage Lottery Fund's ‘Skills for the Future' programme to help expand its successful Heritage Boatyard operation.

The funding means the museum will be able to employ more trainees, vastly increasing its ability to conserve its collection of historic canal boats.

Through the training programme, the trainees will be able to develop skills in traditional boat building whilst helping to conserve boats listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels (NRHV), a number of which are based at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port.

John Inch, Museum Manager, enthused:

"It is absolutely fantastic to get this funding. It is vital to our ambition of creating a sustainable working boatyard at the museum. As well as maintaining and restoring our historic boats, it will help us to keep these important heritage skills alive by allowing us to train more people."

Partnership

The Heritage Boatyard has been developed in partnership between The Waterways Trust, the Boat Museum Society, National Historic Ships and West Cheshire College.

John continued:

"There is a serious shortfall of heritage boat building skills, especially in the inland waterways sector. By the end of their placements, the trainees will have undertaken extensive work on the collection of historic canal boats at the National Waterways Museum and will be highly competent in practical boat building skills and will be able to work on any project within the maritime and inland waterways heritage sector."

The vacancies will be advertised through the Waterways Trust towards the end of 2010 and will be aimed at young people aged 18-25 but are likely to also appeal to people looking for a change of career.