Narrowboats of the North Midlands

Historical Profiles: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2026

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones studies a series of images showing craft at work, mainly in Cheshire and Staffordshire, and the various cargoes involved

The largest general carrier in the north Midlands, other than Fellows, Morton & Clayton, was the Anderton Co Ltd, originally founded in 1836. This scene at the bottom of Runcorn Locks was commonplace for Anderton boats bringing light loads of finished earthenware pottery in large wood and straw crates, either square or barrel shaped, stacked in the holds, awaiting unloading. These were transhipped at Anderton originally, then later to crate warehouses on the dockside at Runcorn for export. A full load of pottery crates weighed about 5 tons and so boats could travel faster than when carrying coal or pottery materials. Large quantities of pottery raw materials including china clay, china stone, flints and bone ash were carried. Other cargoes were flour imported through Ellesmere Port and taken to Stoke, Burslem, Tunstall and Red Bull. Steel and fire bricks were also carried from south Staffordshire, and in later years slack coal to Seddon’s saltworks at Middlewich, and gravel f…