Birchills comes back to life

摘要

A rare surviving wooden Joey, or day-boat, has been repaired following an appeal which raised £62,000 of charitable donations. In contrast to the more familiar long-distance working boats whose crews lived aboard, the craft which plied the Black Country canals were mostly day-boats on short-distance traffic with either a small 'day cabin' or no cabin at all. Of the thousands of the boats built, Birchills is the only surviving example with a day cabin. Specialists who undertook the refurbishment, which included replacing a rotten stern post and planking, had to take care to preserve evidence of traditional construction techniques.