BW197/5
Herbert Dunkley document collection
Notebooks and folders containing Herbert Dunkleys notes on all aspects of waterways, collected publications and personal papers and correspondence.
1931-1990
BW197/5
Dunkley, Herbert
Admin history
Herbert Ralph Dunkley (1911-1997) was born in Coventry, and became interested in waterways in his youth, making his first trip with a working narrow boat in 1933. He became a schoolteacher. In 1947 he had a trip on a tanker up the Severn and then on Tom Rolt's Cressy from Coventry Basin. Later he hired a boat to go to the IWA Festival at Market Harborough in August 1950. He was the first chairman of the Coventry Canal Society, formed in 195. This aimed to prevent to close the canal in Coventry, and was involved in the clearance and repair of the Wyken Arm in 1958. He acquired his own wooden narrowboat, Prince, in 1961, cruising with Joe and Rose Skinner (retired owners of Friendship) to IWA rallies and elsewhere.
From the 1950s he was involved in the rescue of documents, or copying information therein, beginning with the Birmingham Canal at Tipton. Much of his recording was about boats and boating families. Later he became involved in the campaign to save the Hawkesbury Engine on the Coventry Canal, and became Vice President of the Hawkesbury Engine House Restoration Restoration Society.