The Bow Knife  -  2

Newsletter of the ‘Duchess Countess’ Packet-boat Project

Extracts from the Spring 2003 edition

Celebration! -- Another 3 miles of the ‘Monty’ Opens

The opening of the Montgomery canal along the three miles between Queen’s Head and Gronwen links the site of two historic boats.

The last resting place of the Duchess Countess before she was finally scrapped was on the bank of the Llangollen canal, about one hundred metres beyond bridge number 1.

Before being converted into a canal cruiser, the former working boat, Cressy, was owned by the Peate family of Maesbury Hall Mill, which is situated within a few yards of Gronwen Bridge, the new temporary terminus of the eastern section of the canal.     

Meanwhile, beyond the dry section through Pant (with its own tramways and kilns), there are discussions underway about development at Llanymynech where, it is hoped, Duchess Countess will eventually be based.

The Heritage Area in Llanymynech, with its historic Hoffmann and other kilns, and site of a once thriving limestone industry, is to have improved access and visitor facilities.    Together these will be interesting attractions for boaters and other visitors to the canal.

Just Missed the Future

Peate’s Mill at Maesbury Hall is a landmark beside the Montgomery canal.    Sadly it suffered a massive fire in September 2002, which took fourteen fire engines and their crews twenty-four hours to put out and smouldered for a further three weeks.    This caused the mill to close for good, just eight months before the re-opening of the canal which had served it so well in the past.

Maesbury Hall Mill came into the Peate family in 1862 when it was purchased by Andrew Peate, who moved his milling business from the Weston road.     The present owner of the property and last miller is his grandson, Francis.     Over the years the business changed from being a provender mill to the production of animal feeds.

A private, narrow, quarter-mile arm ran from the Montgomery to the mill.     Much of the corn came from local farms but additional Canadian grain came by water from Liverpool docks, via the Shropshire Union network to Maesbury.      The 2cwt sacks were hoisted into the mill and the narrow boats had to reverse out onto the main canal.

Shortly after the First World War the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company sold off its fleet of narrow boats and eleven were purchased by the Peate family.    The names of nine of them had military significance;  the other two were named after Andrew Peate’s daughters.

In 1932 the family sold all its boats and turned to road transport.    Eventually one of the fleet, Cressy, which had been converted from a horse boat to a motor boat at Beech’s yard, Welsh Frankton, was purchased by Tom Rolt, who used her to cruise the canal system of the West Midlands.    His adventures in her are recorded in his classic, “Narrow Boat”.          

The mill property has regained its business association with the canal in recent years.     Maesbury Marine Services, builders of much sought-after canal cruisers of high quality, is situated on part of the former mill site.