Keay’s of Walsall

Working the Waterways: NarrowBoat, Summer 2025

Andy Tidy

Andy Tidy looks at the BCN’s last wooden-boat builders 

The photo from the mid-1970s shows Ken Keay caulking a seam in the snow and in the background can be seen one of his moveable open-ended shelters, which he used to provide a measure of protection from the weather. The Daw End yard appears to have been largely uncovered, and images of the old Worsey’s Dock at Pratts Bridge in 1955 reveal a mix of the mobile canopy and a fixed shed, which was large enough to accept a complete narrowboat under an arched Belfast roof. Tea Colin Sidaway wrote a beautiful account of his experiences at the yard in the early 1970s and his feeling of acceptance when offered a cup of tea. Because the yard had no electricity or gas, and its single tap was locked away in a hovel, canal water was often the key ingredient, heated over a fire of waste wood in an old oil drum. The tea itself was a fusion of canal water, tea, sugar and milk all stewed together in a kettle and served into a tin mug wiped clean with bit of rag. They do say that the taste of Guin…