Name Beatty

Built in 1937, by W.J.Yarwood & Sons, of Northwich, Cheshire, for the Samuel Barlow Coal Company Limited, BEATTY, was launched in Northwich in November 1937 for final fitting out by Lees & Atkins at Polesworth. BEATTY was originally fitted with a Petter single cylinder 12/14 hp semi-diesel engine. In 1955 this was replaced with an Armstrong Siddeley 22 h.p. twin cylinder, air cooled diesel engine, believed to be the first of its type fitted in a narrow boat. BEATTY worked for Barlows for 23 years carrying coal from the Warwickshire coalfields down the Grand Union and Oxford Canals. She is known to have been paired with Barlows buttys IRONSIDE, LITTLE MARVEL, IRENE and probably others over the years. BEATTY was sold in 1960 for conversion to an eight berth cruising boat. A timber cabin was constructed by Waltons then fitted out by the owner at Brewood on the Shropshire Union Canal. Beatty cruised many of the Midlands waterways in the mid 1960s. She was used as the official boat at the reopening of the Stourbridge 16 locks in 1967. 

In 1968 BEATTY changed hands again. She has remained in the same ownership since then, being used for extensive cruising over most of the inland waterways system. She has travelled as far north as York and as far south as Godalming, to Bristol in the west, Cambridge and Boston in the east. The original timber boatman’s cabin was replaced in 1987 with a new steel cabin by David Harris at Coseley, near Wolverhampton. It has been refitted, re- using some of the old cabin furniture. In early 2006 the boat was completely rebottomed, using Opepe to replace the worn out Elm. This also involved replacement of most of the keelson. This work was carried out by Malcolm Webster on Worsley Dry Dock. 

In August 2006, BEATTY was taken to Brinklow Boat Services for replacement of the timber cabin. After carefully measuring and photographing the old cabin it was replaced with a steel replica, retaining the distinctive lines and style of the 1960s conversion. This was finished in the summer of 2007. Fitting out was completed at Brinklow in 2008. The hull is 100% original iron sides with a new Opepe bottom, maintaining the original hull construction. Original engine room, replica boatman's cabin, steel cabin conversion which replicates the 1960s timber cabin. In June 2012 Beatty took part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, officially representing the County of Merseyside. In 2014 the Armstrong Siddeley engine was replaced like for like with an identical Armstrong Siddeley engine which previously had been little used as a stand-by generator.