About Oakley

This is a record of the restoration of narrowboat Oakley, a large Northwich of the Town class of the Grand Union Canal Carrying Co. Ltd. built in 1936 by Yarwoods in Northwich. Her fleet number was 159, she was registered at Rickmansworth number 98 and her gauging number was 12631. She originally had a Russel Newbury DM2 engine. She was originally paired with butty Oxted. She was absorbed into the British Waterways fleet in 1948. If you have any information regarding the history of Oakley then please contact me.

Sunday, June 22, 2008





Here' some photos of the launch, still struggling with my computer.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

broken computer

My computer has not been performing at all until today, so unfortunately I am quite far behind with my blog.

In fact so far behind that she is now insulated with spray foam painted in a holding coat of ocean blue and she FLOATS. I re-launched her on May 18th and to my relief none of my welds leaked, but one rivet in the skeg did seep slightly, this rusted up within a couple of Days. once in the water I decided I needed a well deserved break. So a week off and a trip to Angelsey for the bank holiday was taken.

Feeling refreshed but under no pressure I went back to work on her. First job was to load ballast in that i had acquired. So far I have put two and half tons in, which is not enough! Think I need the same again so some bricks shall be ordered.

Also been cutting the excess spray foam back which when the weather is like it is at the moment, is a bloody awful job, but nearly done.

Photos to come.