The Church of the Pickled Past

Today is the last day of the online sale of redundant British Waterways working boats.  Originally 80 were put up for sale. However, an unlucky 13 were withdrawn from the sale a fortnight ago: 

British Waterways has shown its commitment to floating heritage by withdrawing 13 of the 80 redundant work boats due to go under the virtual hammer on 27 April 2006 ... Withdrawal of the craft from the sale will allow the working group more time to properly assess the heritage value of the 13 boats. The group consists of The Waterways Trust, the Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club, the Boat Museum Society and the Horse Boating Society.

In addition to confirming any heritage value of the redundant work boats, the [working] group will assist in developing criteria to help assign heritage craft to waterway-related organisations (such as museums) who share this aim.

I think this is depressing, and a symptom of how 'heritage' is becoming an industry obsessed with its own present, not with the past.  It's not BW's fault - it's the fault of our whole society and ethos. 

These are not original Brindley-era boats.  They are not even a hundred years old, and nothing like as remarkable as Empress or The King.

If BW really wanted a link with history, they would sell those boats to the highest bidder, and the highest bidder would use them in a variety of real uses - as leisure conversions by private users, as new working boats, as this, as that.  But above all, private owners who would be proud of their past and at the same time use them, not simply worship them.

But the authorities will now have an inquisition to pontificate on their value to 'heritage', and then 'assign the boats to waterways-related organisations such as museums'.  No look-in by independent, loving enthusiasts. If 'Shropshire Fly Boat' Cressy had been around today, Tom Rolt would have been refused permission to convert it into his home, and a new layer of history would have been stifled in the cause of 'heritage'.

This is the priesthood of preservation, the collective worship by the church of the pickled past.  I think that like too much modern preservation it stinks of formaldehyde.   

Comments

[Mark Riches]

Well said to both of the above!
If BW really wants to preserve these boats it needs to sell them. Those who spend their hard earned cash to buy them will (hopefully) look after their investment rather than being left to a bunch of wannabe do gooders with big mouths and empty pockets.

[Mark Riches]

Well said to both of the above!
If BW really wants to preserve these boats it needs to sell them. Those who spend their hard earned cash to buy them will (hopefully) look after their investment rather than being left to a bunch of wannabe do gooders with big mouths and empty pockets.

[Richard Muir]

You're right, and even worse, the "waterways-related organisations such as museums" have been unable to organise the funds to care for their existing collections of boats. (Although money for tea rooms and interactive computer displays seems to be easier to find). Many of the vessels at Gloucester, Ellesmere Port and the Black Country Museums are in a woeful condition amounting to wilful neglect. e.g. "Northwich", "Daniel Adamson" and "Birchills". Let's hope that the presence of the HNBOC and HBS in the group of worthies will see the boats going to someone who will use them, since that is more the ethos of those two organisations.