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Tooley's Boat Yard


Ray T

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I visited Tooley's Boat yard for the first time today.

 

A lovely chandlery but sad to see what has become of the rest of it.

Try it when it's also doubling as a Santa's Grotto, (with very few punters when we saw it).

 

One of the most bizarre experiences I remember in a very long while.

 

A very odd place, it seemed to us.

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Try it when it's also doubling as a Santa's Grotto, (with very few punters when we saw it).

 

One of the most bizarre experiences I remember in a very long while.

 

A very odd place, it seemed to us.

 

Funny you should say that Alan, I wondered why they had an advert in the window

asking for elves to apply for a Christmas job.

 

Being 5' 4" I wanted to apply but Mrs T wouldn't let me.

Edited by Ray T
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I visited Tooley's Boat yard for the first time today.

 

A lovely chandlery but sad to see what has become of the rest of it.

 

:D

Ill tell you whats become of the rest of it. A first class proffesional operation that does what it says on the tin. ( No I have no involvement with them ) Last month I took my boat to their dry dock and they checked her over cleaned the hull fitted new anodes and blacked her all within the specified time scale and all very well done with a very infomative report without trying to sell me anything I did not need. All in all First class staff and job.

It is not possible in 2010 to keep things looking as they may have done 200 years ago and still remain in business, if they need to do Father christmas then so be it if it keeps them afloat as it where. I for one ( and many more of us on the Oxford ) will continue to use their services.

  • Greenie 1
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The bit of it I dont like is the crap shopping centre that hides the place....

 

(yes, I work there and having a'good' job, its the first time I have looked forward to going to work in the mornings)

Edited by Jim Jam
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I'm glad that Tooley's is still there, even in its present form. It is to the credit of the Banbury town planners that they retained the boatyard at all. Also being open to public display makes it more than just a boatyard, and coupled with the museum opposite, it makes the area quite a waterway tourist attraction, despite the modern shopping precinct.

 

I wish other towns were as waterway conscious. Take Worksop for example. With their straddle warehouse and old BW yard they could really make a feature out of the canal in their midst, but they ignore it.

 

Tone

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The bit of it I dont like is the crap shopping centre that hides the place....

 

 

 

I've no problem with the shopping centre. Just can't figure out why they coccooned it in aluminium and glass. Did nobody think for a minute that it would never be cleaned again, once installed? the class is covered with weld/grinding spatter and cobwebs and general dirt of a working dock. The annodising on the aluminium is deteriorating etc. It makes the dock look more of an eyesore than if they had left it alone. If it had to be covered in then what was wrong with using traditional materials? What's wrong with bitumin coated corrugated iron?

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I started work at Tooley's very soon after it opened and worked there up until 2006.

 

One of the first boaters I met was a short american guy with a grey pony tail. He came in the shop seemingly only to have pop at me because of how the architects had re-designed the place. He didn't like it and gave me a load of shit. He didn't spend a single penny in the shop or look around, what an arsehole.

 

After that we'd get one in every month or so. A common line was 'it's just a museum now...'. Although work had been going on in the dock everyday since it re-opened in late 2002.

 

I remember Tim Matthews who is one of the directors going ape and frog marching a guy to the windows of the dock, pointing at a boat and saying: 'LOOK, whats that?!?!'. (The guy had said "it's not a working dock anymore" or some thing to that effect). Quite funny.

 

Basically I think some people are never happy and love to drag things down for one reason or another. But why? In reality that area of town looks a whole lot better than it did and has increased the number of people who visit Banbury. The boatyard is still being used and as to the comment as to it being really dirty, we used to get people complain that it was too clean and 'New'! Hairy Neil your comment made me laugh!

 

Oh and btw the re-construction did make use of old materials to face the carpenters shed (old wood) and to face the machine shop (old corigated iron).

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I visited Tooley's Boat yard for the first time today.

 

A lovely chandlery but sad to see what has become of the rest of it.

 

Ray T. Just to put your comment into perspective. 8 years ago people used to complain about the chandlery not being worthy enough. Low and behold things have changed! AND mainly due to alot of hard work by Owners and staff.

 

Edit: spelling

Edited by kitman
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[/size][/font][/color]

 

 

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You remind me of my old English teacher, almost 60 years ago. If we had missed out a prefix like 're-', he would write it in, all over the page, in red ink, with a big arrow pointing to the offending word(s). We would then have to rewrite the entire essay, neatly and correctly, to his satisfaction. But we did learn spelling and grammar very quickly.

 

Juicy Bateman was his name, for two reasons. No-one sat in the front row in his class because he taught through a haze of spittle. The other was his habit of repeating, whilst whacking somebody over the head with a text book, "D'you see boy?"

 

Tone

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Basically I think some people are never happy and love to drag things down for one reason or another. But why? In reality that area of town looks a whole lot better than it did and has increased the number of people who visit Banbury. The boatyard is still being used and as to the comment as to it being really dirty, we used to get people complain that it was too clean and 'New'! Hairy Neil your comment made me laugh!

 

 

Not sure why....

 

Having worked in and restored an old corrugated iron shed of my own in recent years, I'm delighted the working dock still survives in the middle of town, surrounded by the paraphernalia of modern life. I'm just dismayed that, in order to continue doing what it had happily done for 200 years, it had to be encased in some sort of jolly gazebo.:rolleyes:

 

clicky

Edited by Hairy-Neil
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I'm glad that Tooley's is still there, even in its present form. It is to the credit of the Banbury town planners that they retained the boatyard at all.

 

It's not entirely a credit to the Banbury Town Planners and it certainly isn't a credit to BW, who were ready to flog the site and "relocate" the business. It is a credit to the much maligned IWA who, yes, did the softly softly bit (Brian Roberts at the IWA asked me, not then a member, to act as unpaid town planning consultant) and we persuaded Banbury to keep it. It isn't just that Rolt's boat "Cressy" was refitted there, it is that it was, for a brief period the southern most point on the canal network and is (unless someone knows otherwise) by far and away the oldest dry dock still working.

 

Credit to Banbury and BW for listening, but without intervention from the IWA it would have gone the way so may pieces of canal heritage

 

I started work at Tooley's very soon after it opened and worked there up until 2006.

 

How old are you, it opened in the late 18th century! :P:lol:

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It's not entirely a credit to the Banbury Town Planners and it certainly isn't a credit to BW, who were ready to flog the site and "relocate" the business. It is a credit to the much maligned IWA who, yes, did the softly softly bit (Brian Roberts at the IWA asked me, not then a member, to act as unpaid town planning consultant) and we persuaded Banbury to keep it. It isn't just that Rolt's boat "Cressy" was refitted there, it is that it was, for a brief period the southern most point on the canal network and is (unless someone knows otherwise) by far and away the oldest dry dock still working.

 

 

I think that Worsley Drydock will be the oldest canal dock still in regular use, though there may be earlier ones on river navigations.

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And I always thought it survived because of its listed building status.... :rolleyes:

 

I assume that was tongue in cheek, but no, it's destruction was assured at one point with Banbury and BW wondering what the hell we were on about :angry:

 

"It's just an old dry dock with some tatty buildings around it!" :wacko:

 

BTW. the perpsex cover replaced the previous asbestos shed that was over it.

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And actually it wasn't run by Tooley's in 1790 anyway, the boatyard would have been known by a different name back then :P:lol:

The 1881 census for Banbury, (being one where occupationsa re indexed), shows two people in the town assosciated with boat building.....

 

John Redman, aged 36, shows as a Boat Builder.

 

William Powell, aged 14, shows as a Boat Builders Apprentice.

 

 

There were 14 Tooleys in Banbury at this time, but none showing an obvious canal connection, that I could note.

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Not sure why....

 

Having worked in and restored an old corrugated iron shed of my own in recent years, I'm delighted the working dock still survives in the middle of town, surrounded by the paraphernalia of modern life. I'm just dismayed that, in order to continue doing what it had happily done for 200 years, it had to be encased in some sort of jolly gazebo.:rolleyes:

 

clicky

 

What a superb website! I particualy enjoyed the photo entitled 'Iron in the snow...'

 

The 'Jolly Gazebo' does let in alot of light however. Which is much better then being in a dark old shed.

 

Edit: spelling

Edited by kitman
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The 1881 census for Banbury, (being one where occupationsa re indexed), shows two people in the town assosciated with boat building.....

 

John Redman, aged 36, shows as a Boat Builder.

 

William Powell, aged 14, shows as a Boat Builders Apprentice.

 

 

There were 14 Tooleys in Banbury at this time, but none showing an obvious canal connection, that I could note.

 

 

Picked this query up from the CuriousFox website, but no reference links to follow .... "Thomas Cotton of Tooley's Yard - Did he have a brother Robert? Did he know Thomas Hughes, boat builder of Banbury in 1790's ?"

 

... and now found the following query "Looking for any info on my 6x gt grandfather Thomas Cotton he owned the boatyard that went onto become Tooleys"

Edited by Graham!
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I'm glad that Tooley's is still there, even in its present form. It is to the credit of the Banbury town planners that they retained the boatyard at all. Also being open to public display makes it more than just a boatyard, and coupled with the museum opposite, it makes the area quite a waterway tourist attraction, despite the modern shopping precinct.

 

I wish other towns were as waterway conscious. Take Worksop for example. With their straddle warehouse and old BW yard they could really make a feature out of the canal in their midst, but they ignore it.

 

Tone

Worksop is seriously grim, but still preferable to Banbury.

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