For over fifty years, until 1984, wooden narrowboats were built at the boatyard of Peter Keay & Son beside the Wyrley and Essington canal near Walsall. This compilation contains uncut low-quality VHS footage shot in 1979 - three years before the foundation of I.A.Recordings, when we were still experimenting with techniques.
Although the technical quality of these 'juvenilia' is very low, the recording is a rare glimpse of a vanished trade. It features views of wooden and steel boats on the slips and in the sheds, the mixing of horse dung and tar for caulking a newly constructed wooden tug and a boatbuilder's reminiscences.
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The images on this page are taken from the video.