Stainforth and Keadby Canal - Boatbuilding

Boatbuilding

Large numbers of boats were built beside the Stainforth and Keadby Canal. Richard Dunston set up a boatyard at Thorne, on the north bank just below the lock, in 1858, after selling his previous boatyard at Torksey. He initially constructed clinker-built sailing barges, capable of carrying up to 80 tons. The boatyard was fairly self-contained, using timber which was grown locally and was sawn by hand at the yard. It included a ropewalk, which made ropes for many industries in the locality, as well as for rigging of the boats, and supplied sails, masts and chandlery to much of the Humber region. Gradually, carvel-built barges with their smoother hulls replaced clinker-built ones, and boat sizes became more standard, with Sheffield-sized keels and larger sloops. Shortly after Richard's grandson took over the yard in 1910, it was remodelled to build iron and steel ships, and only one wooden boat was built subsequently.

One of the issues with the yard was that the size of boats that could be built was restricted by the locks at either side of the site. Sheffield-sized boats were around 61.5 by 15.5 feet (18.7 by 4.7 m), and could leave the yard either by passing through Thorne Lock and on to the Don Navigation, or by travelling to Keadby and entering the Trent. Sloops were restricted to the Keadby route, because of their larger size, and the largest boats built at Thorne before the 1940s were 700-brake-horsepower (520 kW) tugs, 300-ton coasters and 300-ton lighters. From 1933, the yard began experimenting with welded rather than riveted construction, and their first all-welded steam tugs were constructed for the Admiralty in 1942. They continued to lead the field with developments in tug propulsion in the 1960s, and by the last 1970s had build seventeen tugs with Kort nozzle or Kort rudder steering and twenty tugs with Voith-Schneider propulsion systems at Thorne. With the yard at Hessle on the Humber, bought from Henry Scarr in 1932, they were one of the largest un-nationalised shipbuilders in Britain.

The Empire Laird, a self-trimming diesel collier measuring 140 by 21.5 feet (43 by 6.6 m) with a draught of 10 feet (3.0 m), was one of the largest vessels ever constructed at Thorne. It was built for the Admiralty in 1943 for use in the Bristol area, delivering coal to power stations. It was fitted with a 275 bhp (205 kW) Crossley engine and a single propeller. Keadby Lock is much shorter than the ship, and so it had to sail through when the river made a level with the canal, and both sets of gates could be opened at the same time. However, the canal company were worried that because of its width, it might jam in the lock, which would cause flooding of the hinterland at high tide, and draining of the canal at low tide. Dunston's had to build a dam across the canal beyond the lock, to prevent both consequences. Once built, the ship successfully passed through the lock, and the dam was removed. During the Second World War, Dunston's designed and built TID (Tugs in Dock) tugs. They were constructed from eight pre-fabricated sections, manufactured by companies who were not normally involved in shipbuilding. The sections weighted less than 6 tons, with a maximum size of 10 feet (3.0 m) by 17 feet (5.2 m) by 13 feet (4.0 m), and were delivered by lorry to the yard. There they were joined together by welders, many of whom were women, and fitted with steam engines. The first TID tug was completed in February 1943, and for more than a year, one left the yard every five days.

In the early 1980s, there were still 80 workers involved in construction work at Thorne, and 15 other staff. A total of 1,358 vessels were built there between 1932 and the end of shipbuilding in 1984. The yard closed completely in 1987, and had been cleared by 1993. Subsequently, it has become a housing estate, where a number of the roads reflect the former use of the site, including Capstan Rope Way and Dunstan Drive, although the spelling of "Dunston" is not quite the same.