canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat July 2018 25
TOOLEY’S UNDER THREAT
COLUMNIST
STEVE HAYWOOD
Award-winning current affairs TV producer, journalist and
author who has been a boat owner for nearly 40 yearsT
here’s a film starring Bill Murray
which you may have seen called
Groundhog Day about a cynical
newsman who finds himself
trapped in a time warp, condemned to repeat
the same day endlessly, time after time. I’ve
felt a bit like the Bill Murray character
myself this month when I heard alarming
news that could, once again, signal the
closure of Tooley’s dock in Banbury in
Oxfordshire.
Tooley’s – as everyone on the canals
knows – holds an exceptional place in
waterways history, it being the dock from
which waterway’s author Tom Rolt started
the epic journey depicted in his book
Narrow Boat. This was this book that led
directly to the formation of the Inland
Waterways Association and the
development of the canals into the vibrant
leisure network we all enjoy today. In other
words, Tooley’s isn’t just any old dock: it’s
unique, a shrine for anyone interested in the
waterways.
Yet Cherwell Council seems never to have
grasped its significance. Where other
councils would have cherished the dock as
the ancient monument it is, Cherwell saw it
in the mid-1990s as an inconvenience to its
grandiose plans for the Castle Quays
shopping centre which now engulfs it. Yes,
Tooley’s survived that battle, but only as a
shadow of its former self, the reduced site
only saved because of the Grade One listing
which protects the old blacksmith’s shop
and the actual dry dock itself. Now even that
may not be enough to ensure its survival
following news that after 15 years the
operator of the dock, Matt Armitage, is
having problems renegotiating a new lease.
Cherwell has offered him a renewal – but
here’s the rub – it’s being proposed with a
break clause. This means Matt could be
asked to vacate the site as early as
September 2019. Why Cherwell Council is
setting this condition is not clear, but you
can’t help feeling it’s somehow connected to
its recent decision to become a developer
itself and buy the Castle Quays shopping
centre. Plans are already underway to knock
down an existing car park on the site and to
build a new hotel.
It seems that once again Tooley’s
becomes an inconvenience to Cherwell
Council’s plans. It has already suggested to
Matt that he move out of the dock while thenew development takes place, but since they
have offered no cast-iron guarantees that
he’ll be invited to return, he’s decided very
wisely to stay put. This hasn’t helped
business, and already he’s has to cease
taking bookings for work in the dry dock.
Tooley’s is already one of the most difficult
locations in the country for a boatyard.
Unlike other yards it has no mooring
facilities to provide a regular income
stream; because of its position in the
shopping centre, it hasn’t even got adequate
facilities for deliveries. And though it gets
no independent funding of any sort, it is
compelled to allow public access to visitors
as a nod to its historical importance. How
many other yards would countenance those
sort of restrictions, I wonder?
Some indication of the sensitivity of
Cherwell Council towards this jewel on its
doorstep is that in the 1990s during
negotiations for the shopping centre
development there was talk of developing
Tooley’s as a pizza parlour with tables on the
dock floor. This crass idea was finally
knocked on the head by British Waterways
who, as ultimate freeholder, made it clear it
wanted to see Tooley’s retained as a workingdock. That still remains the position of the
Canal and River Trust.
But how much can you trust anyone
nowadays where money’s concerned?We were travelling along the Oxford Canal
northwards when we met a C&RT tug boat
pushing a lighter at the recently-
mechanised Heyford liftbridge. The tug and
lighter had just passed through, so imagine
my surprise when the bridge was lowered
across my bows. ‘Thanks very much! That
was a great bit of boating!’ I shouted to the
sour-faced employee responsible as I pulled
into the bank to offload Em to open the
bridge again. ‘We’re in a hurry,’ was his only
explanation.
I guess he’d saved 30 seconds. But, with
Justice now occupying what would have
been his pick-up point, the driver of the tug
had to attempt to get his colleague on board
in shallows further down the cut. Five
minutes later, after Em had opened the
bridge, allowed me through and closed it
afterwards, he was still trying to get his
mate on board. He was still trying as we
cruised round the bend and out of sight. I
wonder if he knows the word karma?Follow me on Twitter @Cutdreamer
Tooley’s – as everyone on the canals knows –
holds an exceptional place in waterways
history, it being the dock from which waterway’s
author Tom Rolt started the epic journey depicted
in his book Narrow Boat.
The boatyard has one of the
most difficult locations