(coming soon)
The Tooley’s Dockyard Heritage Series is a collection of illustrated heritage booklets exploring the people, crafts, boats and traditions that have shaped one of Britain’s most remarkable historic waterways sites.
Developed from Matthew Armitage’s extensive research into the history of Tooley’s Boatyard and the Banbury Dockyard, the series aims to make specialist research accessible to a wider audience. Each booklet focuses on a specific aspect of the dockyard’s history, bringing together archive material, photographs, archaeological evidence and personal stories to create engaging introductions to Britain’s inland waterways heritage.
The series explores a wide range of topics, including the history of the dockyard itself, the families who worked there, traditional canal crafts, wooden boatbuilding, blacksmithing, canal art, narrowboat operation and the wider story of the Oxford Canal. Together, these booklets reveal how a small working dockyard in Banbury became part of a much larger national story of industry, transport, craftsmanship and community.
Unlike academic publications, the Heritage Series is designed for general readers, visitors, volunteers and waterways enthusiasts. Each booklet presents carefully researched information in an accessible and highly illustrated format, allowing readers to discover the history and significance of the dockyard without requiring specialist knowledge.
The series also supports the wider charitable aims of Tooley’s Boatyard Trust by helping to preserve and share knowledge of traditional heritage skills, many of which are now considered endangered. By documenting these crafts and the people who practised them, the series contributes to the long term safeguarding of an important part of Britain’s industrial and cultural heritage.
Planned titles include studies of the dockyard’s operators and boatbuilders, traditional Roses and Castles canal art, the forge and blacksmithing tradition, wooden narrowboat construction and repair, canal carrying, and other aspects of working life on the inland waterways.
Through these publications, the Tooley’s Dockyard Heritage Series seeks to ensure that the stories, skills and traditions of the Banbury Dockyard continue to be understood, appreciated and passed on to future generations.
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