Commercial Carrying in Yorkshire

Picturing the Past: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2024

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones looks at two images from the Jack Parkinson Collection showing commercial traffic on the waterways of Yorkshire in 1966 

This view, taken midstream from Jack Parkinson’s pleasure-cruiser Grey Dove at Selby Long Reach, shows the spectacular Olympia Mills owned by the British Oil & Cake Mills Ltd at Barlby, near Selby, on the River Ouse in Yorkshire, proving that commercial activity was still thriving in the mid-1960s. In contrast to much of the narrow canal system, modern unloading equipment is much in evidence with powerful vacuum suction hoses suspended from the nearest rail-mounted mobile grain elevator into the deeply laden motor barge Selby Michael. This barge and its companion on the left, Selby Maurice, were owned by BOCM, with the craft on their right being dumb barge Selby Castor, owned by carrier John H. Whitaker Ltd of Hull. Just visible behind Selby Maurice is BOCM dumb barge Selby Leo, which has already unloaded. The oldest of these craft was Selby Castor, built by Joseph Scarr & Son at Beverley in 1915, followed by Selby Leo by Henry Scarr at Hessle in 1921, both for the Selb…