All that remains of the historic Shropshire canal tug W. E. Dorrington is her bell – and it is now on public display for the first time.

Built in 1906 for the Shropshire Railway and Canal Company (SR&CC), the steel steam tug W. E. Dorrington played a significant role during her lifetime, including a three-year service with the Admiralty in the First World War. The cast bronze bell from the long-scrapped vessel is now a centerpiece at Warrington Museum, on display until 28th February 2026.

Recent research has revealed the tug’s vital wartime contribution. On 30th May 1917, the Admiralty sent W. E. Dorrington to the port of Le Havre, northern France, where British and Commonwealth regiments were landed, assembled, and trained before heading by rail to the Western Front. Le Havre, 280 miles from the front at Arras, was well connected by rail and equipped with hospitals and rest facilities, making it a crucial hub in the war effort.

Following the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, Le Havre also received large numbers of American “Doughboys,” with 840,000 passing through the port en route to the front. W. E. Dorrington, weighing 175 tons, would have been used to tow and position troopships efficiently alongside the harbour.

The tug returned to the SR&CC after the war, resuming cross-Mersey trade on 15th September 1919. She was later sold for use on the Manchester Ship Canal in 1922 and eventually scrapped at Preston in 1937.

On Display at Warrington Museum

The bronze bell, clearly marked 1906, is now the highlight of a display celebrating northwest waterways, with a particular focus on early 20th-century shipping and tugs. The exhibition features ship-spotting books and items from the Manchester Ship Canal, where W. E. Dorrington once traded. Her sister ship, Daniel Adamson (known as “The Danny”), has been preserved and now cruises on the River Weaver.

Les Green, volunteer for both the Shropshire Union Canal Society and the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society, said:

“We were delighted to receive the bell as a gift and to make it a centerpiece of the display. Preserving and researching historic items like this is so important. The efficiency of troop movements through Le Havre may well have been helped in no small part by this humble tug once owned by the SR&CC.”

For more information:

The bell from the ‘W. E. Dorrington’. The
picture was taken on the ‘Daniel Adamson’