Family historians had a fascinating insight into how the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port started.

With the museum celebrating its 40th anniversary in December Di Skilbeck, now president of the Boat Museum Society, took the Ellesmere Port Local and Family History Society back to the very beginnings of the site which now attracts 10,000 visitors a year.

Dressed as a traditional boat person, she described the functionality of the boatwomens’ dress with the cap layered at the back for warmth and to prevent sun burn and the shawl for warmth.

The pinafore also doubled as a shopping bag and the clogs gave excellent foot protection.

The boat people, she explained, were travellers and were often treated by others in a similar way to modern day travellers.

The boatyard had ceased to function in the 1960s and by the 1970s it had been pillaged and was very derelict and silted up.

During December 1974 a group of volunteer enthusiasts took on the mammoth task of trying to restore the site and Di took a group of girls from the school where she was a teacher to help with the project.

There are pictures of these young people working on the site, including digging up concrete from a cobbled path to restore it to its original state.

They had tremendous enjoyment and fun doing the work but it was obvious that the regulations were different then.

Di became hooked and joined the group in a permanent capacity and it became the Boat Museum Society initially meeting in the Grosvenor pub.

Metal parts that were missing were remade by apprentices from Shell and Vauxhall's and walls were rebuilt by trainees from the building trade.

Raddle’s iron ore that was brought in and shipped to Wolverhampton and clay from Cornwall was stored in the clay yards now the leisure centre of the Holiday Inn.

The pumping station was restored to speed up the lock operation.

The society heard the blacksmiths were very important for metalwork and up to 100 horses were stabled overnight.

Present at the talk was Olwyn Dodd whose father William (Billy) Hughes was born in Ellesmere Port in 1890 and served his blacksmith's apprenticeship at the boatyard, spending his whole working life there, except for a few years during the 2nd world war when he was sent to Liverpool to work in the docks.

He retired when he was 72 and was presented with a plaque when he reached his 100th birthday.