BBC Radio Shropshire’s Genevieve Tudor visited the Oswestry Town Museum last week to find out more about a ghost boat – a narrowboat called the Usk, which resurfaced at Crickheath during the Shropshire Union Canal Society’s restoration of the waterway. The story will feature in a BBC series, Secret Shropshire soon.
Chris Bryan-Smith from Shropshire Union Canal said, “The story goes that the 24-year-old skipper of the Usk, George Benbow was killed in an accident on the Shropshire Union Canal in 1886 and following that the boat was unlucky with boatmen refusing to work on her, so eventually, she was left to sink at Crickheath. All that is true, but does George still walks to towpath at dusk – who knows”.
Mark Hignett from Oswestry Town Museum said, “We are thrilled to have the ironwork from the Usk and lots of other artifacts from the canal restoration on display and we are planning to do further projects and research so that the story of the canal can be told in more detail. It certainly does seem to be a secret part of Shropshire’s history”.
The Oswestry Town Museum is situated in the Guildhall at the Bailey Head and is well worth a visit.
Chris Bryan-Smith, Genevieve Tudor & Mark Hignett
Picture: (CBS)
