Iris Abbott was built in 1948, by Isaac Pimblott & Co of Northwich who were responsible for building many historic narrow boats, barges and ships, some of which can be found worldwide. The boatyard continues to this day but concentrating on boat repairs rather than commercial ship building and operates under a different name. When we bought her, we took Iris Abbott back to the Pimblotts yard on the River Weaver Navigation and she has been berthed for the past five years.

Frederick J Abbott Ltd was a Manchester based independent barging and warehousing company with offices in Castlefield. At the end of the second world war the company received ‘War Remuneration Money’ as recompense for the craft of theirs that had been lost in the war effort. With this money they had the timely insight to commission a motor barge to replace the tug that was used to pull their dumb boats on the Manchester Ship Canal and the Bridgewater Canal.

The Iris Abbott was extremely successful for them and gave them a far faster turnaround than their competitors, as a result the Manchester ship canal company’s ‘Bridgewater Department’ commissioned six similar craft to be built by Pimblotts and Yarwoods of Northwich and Iris Abbott had changed the face of barge traffic on the Ship canal and Bridgewater for ever. This class of barge were affectionately known as ‘Dukers’ as an acknowledgement of their place along side the duke of Bridgewater in the way they had impacted on canal traffic.

When operating, Iris Abbott would have carried about 90 tons of cargo and pulled up to four of the Mere class dumb boats each with a capacity of about 110 tons. One of the Mere class barges, the ‘Bigmere’ forms an important part of the waterways museum collection at Ellesmere Port.

The appearance of Iris Abbott has changed to better suit her conversion into a cruising barge when she was saved by her previous owners in 1977. The alterations have not detracted from her historical significance and she is a regular visitor at the waterways museum and working boat festivals in the Northwest.

Her conversion as a cruising barge was completed under the supervision of the then owner who was a senior River Mersey pilot and his architect wife. They cruised her on coastal and river voyages in their leisure time. During their ownership, she was known as The Black Abbott of Mersey.