Sculptor's History

I am indebted to David Blagrove for the words and the word smithing that go to make up this history of Sculptor. Sculptor is also a recognised historic ship and is on the historic ships register. Pete Harrison also provided a large number of points of detail which I failed to include originally - and I am most grateful to him for his help and for providing the information.

Sculptor on her mooring in Stoke Bruerne
Photo: Kathryn Dodington

Sculptor was built as a Small Northwich motor boat of the Star Class by W. J. Yarwood Ltd in 1935 - ordered 29-December-1934 / delivered 28-November-1935. She was a motor boat of one of 12 pairs of motors and unpowered boats (‘butties’) and was delivered to the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (GUCCCo.) in November 1935 along with the butty Toucan, with which she was originally intended to pair.

In 1936, Sculptor's cabin was registered as a dwelling to accommodate '3 persons or man, woman and 2 children'. The registration certificate goes on to detail the route she was going to use as 'Midlands District to London' and that she was to carry general goods. The Master of the boat at that time was George Leese. Sculptor was, at this time in two-tone blue livery.

Sculptor in her 'fire' days at Greenford
from 'Floating Fire Engines' by
Geoffrey Lawson

During the Second World War the Ministry of War Transport needed additional canal boats to use as 'fire fighting facilities' and Sculptor was first commissioned by them on 5 October 1943 - to be based on the Grand Union Canal in Greenford, Middlesex. At the end of the war, Sculptor was returned to GUCCCo. Some alterations were made to her hull at the time to accommodate pumps, traces of which are still apparent. (Based at Greenford and fitted with 3 'heavy pumps' each rated at 700 gallons per minute). 

Although Sculptor was not in service as a fire-fighting boat during the height of the London Blitz (September 1940-May 1941), she was so engaged during later raids and particularly the V1 and V2 bombardment of the capital between June 1944 and March 1945. As a survival from these desperate times in our national story she may also stand for the fact that on at least one occasion, on 29th December 1940, the City of London was saved from a ‘fire storm’, such as those that destroyed Hamburg and Dresden, by the presence of the Grand Union and Regents Canals. With the Thames virtually empty because of low tides and most water mains shattered by high explosives, the canal was the main source of water to extinguish fires caused by incendiary bombs and which could otherwise have developed into a ‘fire storm’. The iconic picture of St Paul’s Cathedral surrounded by smoke and flames dates from this particular event. Thus Sculptor represents an important part of our national (and indeed world) story.

In 1945 Sculptor was returned to GUCCC and put into storage at Stockley Dock.

Sculptor on her mooring in Stoke Bruerne
Photo: Kathryn Dodington

In 1948, Sculptor was still in the GUCCCo fleet when it was nationalised and Sculptor passed into the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive's South Eastern Division Carrying Fleet. She must have been in a fairly poor condition as, shortly afterwards, extensive work was carried out to her bottom and keelson.  Documentation shows that on 05-February-1948 Sculptor was listed as being in storage at Stockley Dock; a survey showed that  32' of keelson and 28' of bottoms to be renewed (document dated 08/03/1948). Not long after this she was transferred to the then North Western Division of the nationalised waterways as a maintenance boat for the Engineering Department at Northwich, Cheshire. In 1960 her 2 cylinder, water-cooled Russell Newbury DM2 18hp engine was replaced with a 2 cylinder, air-cooled Lister HB2 diesel engine.

By 1985 Sculptor had come to the end of her working life and was withdrawn from the canal maintenance fleet and (apart from the engine) was restored at Ellesmere Port, to become part of the British Waterways Museum collection. This included repainting her to GUCCCo's wartime livery. The following year, in July 1986, Sculptor was moved to the Waterways Museum at Stoke Bruerne (now the Canal Museum) as a floating exhibit.

Sculptor approaching Lock 18 on the
Stoke Bruerne flight (Photo: Rob Westlake)

Apart from a brief period when the boat was returned to Ellesmere Port for essential maintenance and a number of longer promotional visits around the canal network, Sculptor has since performed a vital role at Stoke Bruerne. Stoke Bruerne canal side is a major tourist venue, preceded in the county only by Silverstone Racetrack and Althorpe Park. Most of those visitors use the Museum car park, but as this does not require them to visit the Museum, something is needed to draw their attention to it and hopefully persuade them to come inside as well as walk around outside. Ascending from the car park the first thing visible on the canal to any visitor is Sculptor. Using volunteers as guides, visitors are invited to visit the boat's cabin, and are thus encouraged to venture inside the Museum to learn more about the canals and life afloat. School groups are also shown the cabin as part of their visit. Occasionally Sculptor will be used to promote the Museum by attending local canal events where it serves as a valuable advertisement for the Museum and it is vital that it is kept in as good a condition as possible to continue in this role. By 2010 every journey had to be treated as a 'one off' since the condition of the bottoms affected the insurance contract.

Sculptor on her mooring in Stoke Bruerne
Photo: Kathryn Dodington

After 25 years outside of the Museum, Sculptor had almost acquired iconic status and was well known as 'the boat from Stoke Bruerne Museum'. Along with the cabin replica of Sunny Valley and the boat horse it was one of the highlights of the Museum and the area. Canals need boats to attract visitors. 'Working boats' were the reason for canals being built in the first place, so a working boat outside the Canal Museum is really desirable. The Friends of the Canal Museum funded a cabin exterior repaint to improve the visitor experience, and raised further funds to allow the complete re-bottoming. This was essential if the boat is to remain afloat and continue to attract attention of the right kind. A derelict boat is not a good advertisement for any Museum.

The Museum Trustees desired Sculptor be re-bottomed in an as original way as possible, hence the decision to use timber rather than the considerably cheaper steel. There now remain very few motor narrow boats of composite structure (i.e. with iron or steel sides and a wooden bottom). Possibly there is only one other as many have had the wooden bottom replaced by steel.

Although the work was urgent, there was a considerable difficulty in finding boat-builders who were sufficiently skilled as to be able to undertake work of this nature. A suitable boat-builder was found who was willing to undertake the required restoration work within a reasonable time frame. Suitable materials were sourced; volunteers moved the boat to a safe location and prepared it for restoration between December 2010 and March 2011; funding was found to secure the boat. The engine was removed at the same time and taken by another boat to Ellesmere Port, where skilled volunteers refurbished in the newly equipped workshops of the Heritage Boatyard. It was returned in November 2011. The rebottoming work was completed in March 2012 and the boat was towed and returned to the Museum in the following month. Volunteers refitted the fuel tanks, engine bulkhead, re-aligned the engine and made the boat mobile once more. On 17th June the boat once again moved under her own power and following a trial trip successfully attended the Braunston Traditional Boat Gathering the following weekend, returning with the butty boat Ilkeston, which was to be delivered to Cowroast, near Tring for the London Canal Museum. 

There is information on Sculptor on the Historic Narrowboat Club website (HNBC) here.