After a long pause in public gatherings, the Easter historic boat festival returned to the National Waterways Museum. The weekend often opens with a colourful convoy working up the Shropshire Union — a living parade of iron, wood, and paint that shows why Bolinder engines still matter on the cut: they belong in a fleet of carefully kept working craft, not only in manuals and registers.
The film
Forty historic narrowboats in convoy on the canal (CruisingTheCut — blog title Peaky Bolinders). Public YouTube film for education and atmosphere; not owned by this site. Credit David Johns / CruisingTheCut.
Bolinder highlight (about 4:05)
Jump to roughly 4 minutes 5 seconds for a close look at a beautifully painted Bolinder. Fresh paint and careful lining can make the engine look almost brand new — until you remember these are long-service marine diesels, often decades (or more) into their working lives. That contrast is exactly why this site exists: heritage engineering still out on the water.
For type history and sound, see History, Models, and Sound & video.
Places on the journey
The convoy is a places story as much as a boats story. Named anchors from the film and public write-ups:
- Shropshire Union Canal — trunk narrow canal route used for the Easter run toward the museum. Open map
- Chester area — typical start / approach side of the convoy narrative. Open map
- Ellesmere Port — gathering destination and museum docks. Open map
- National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port — Canal & River Trust venue for the Easter Historic Boat Gathering. Venue info (Canal & River Trust) · Map
Clematis and Peaky Blinders (about 19:03)
Around 19 minutes 3 seconds, the conversation turns to historic boat Clematis — a 1935 Yarwoods iron composite motor built for Fellows, Morton & Clayton, kept as an unconverted working boat. She is a screen celebrity too: in Peaky Blinders (series five) she appeared as the craft named January (with other historic boats used for canal filming around the Ellesmere Port / museum world).
Registers list her later with an Armstrong Siddeley AS2 installation — a reminder that not every star of a historic convoy is a Bolinder, even when the fleet is full of Swedish iron. For non-Bolinder context on this site, see Not Bolinder. Historic notes: National Historic Ships — Clematis · Historic Narrow Boat Club.
Why on bolinder-engines.co.uk?
Convoys and museum gatherings are where Bolinder engines are still seen, heard, and admired in public. This page is a places-and-film companion to our technical pages: register entries, manuals, and boat stories gain colour when you watch a painted hot-bulb or four-stroke in a line of working craft on the Shropshire Union.
Educational / atmospheric only. Film and third-party sites are not owned by this site. Event details (dates, boat counts) vary year to year — use CRT and museum notices for current gatherings.
Related: Locations hub · Sound & video · Messing about on the River · Boat stories · Not Bolinder · Registers