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Feb 24 2011 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

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WORK is progressing to bring an historic boatyard back to its former glory.

Pete and Yvette Askey, of JP Marine, are now in place at the Grade II-listed Taylor’s Boatyard, near Telford’s Warehouse, which dates from the 1840s.

They are starting a programme of restoration work and will be offering a full range of boatyard and dry dock services.

Meanwhile, volunteers from the Chester Canal Heritage Trust are working in tandem to help clear the yard and over the last two years have made a record of historical artefacts discovered.

JP Marine is sympathetic to the aims of the trust which has a long term plan for an education and visitor centre within the old carpenter’s shed and paint shop.

A thriving heritage centre would tie in with new housing, cafes and restaurants being created on the opposite side of the canal fronting a mooring basin expected to attract visiting craft.

Economic experts from the Urban Land Institute have advised that Chester should regenerate this area of the city to create a new leisure experience.

Ray Buss, from the Chester Canal Heritage Trust, said: “Hopefully this will create a lot more interest in the area and both residents and visitors will come down and see parts of Chester they don’t normally see. Currently, a lot of people who come to Chester by boat don’t come into the city but stay on the outskirts at Christleton.”

Speaking about a possible museum, he added: “Having spoken to a number of potential funders, they seem quite excited by it. It hits all the right buttons.”

In its commercial heyday, the boatyard employed more than 200 people, servicing the huge fleet of canal company working vessels. It comprises a workshop, former saw mill building, former blacksmith’s workshop, covered slipway and dry dock.

The yard has been known as Taylor’s Boatyard since it was bought by Joseph ‘Harry’ Taylor in the 1920s. The Taylor family owned and ran the yard until 1972.

Among the artefacts found recently are a hat worn by Arthur Howard, son-in-law of JH Taylor, a square with the initials ‘JHT’, colourful water cans, a stone for sharpening chisels and a copper gauging plate.

Mr Taylor’s grandson, Geoff Taylor, who lives in nearby Cambrian View, is giving a talk entitled 250 years of boat-building at the Chester Home Guard club, Canal Street, at 8pm on March 2.