National Waterways Museum - Boat Trip

Take a boat trip along the canal.

Explore the former canal port and experience life aboard our collection of canal and river boats.

Discover the stories of the people who worked on our canals and rivers through interactive displays, film and audio recordings.

And step back in time at the dock workers’ cottages and see how people lived from the 1840s to the 1950s.

Designed by Thomas Telford under the direction of William Jessop, this was a working canal port until the 1950s. The scheme of locks, docks and warehouses together with the pump and engine room which provided the power for boats and cranes, blacksmiths forge and stables vividly recreate what life was like at the turn of the century.