Taylors wooden boats
The story as we know it so far.
Welcome. Here is a collection of boats unique to the inland waterways of the UK.
If you click on the names of the boats at the top of the page you will get a little more detail on them.
J H Taylor and Sons was set up as a partnership between Joseph Harry Taylor and his son Wilfred in 1914, They made all sorts of boats from traditional Dee skiffs and salmon fishing boats to passenger launches, and tugs. The majority of their work was building and maintaining wooden narrowboats.
Harry died in 1924. Harry’s sons, Wilfred and Horace, carried on with the business with the help of their apprentice, Arthur Howard, who worked for the company all his working life.
They had a large boat yard in Chester until recently run by David Jones.
From the 50’s through to the 70’s they also made some rather smart mahogany gentleman’s narrow beam cabin cruisers. They were similar in style to the Broads cruisers popular in Norfolk but were built for the canals. Most were 33’ long and all had a beam of 6’10”. They were all built to order so no two are identical. The basic design is credited to Wilfred ( Wilf ).
At the moment I’m are trying to build up a bigger picture of the history of these boats so if you own one, know any more of their history, or indeed can correct some of my assumptions, please let me know.
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