CRT/CLAYTON(OBY)

Thomas Clayton(Oldbury)Ltd Collection

company records,memorabilia and photographs relating to company(family retain part of the collection)

1900-1977

CRT/CLAYTON(OBY)

Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd.

Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd The name of Thomas Clayton is probably best known in canal carrying circles for the colourful fleet of narrowboats that were some of the last to trade on a regular basis around the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN). The business also had a major involvement at the southern end of the Grand Union Canal and at one time its boats traded widely over many other parts of the inland waterways network. Thomas Clayton Ltd was set up in 1889 and changed its name to Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd in 1904. It took over the special liquid carrying business established earlier by William Clayton, when the remainder of the business was incorporated into Fellows, Morton & Clayton Ltd. Claytons carried petroleum, oil and tar, and the boats were known locally as the "Black Boats". The company ceased operations in 1966, and its wharf was drained and filled in when construction of the elevated section of the M5 motorway, near Stone Street began Only one Thomas Clayton horseboat now survives in an unconverted condition, the Gifford, restored and maintained by the Waterways Museum Society at Ellesmere Port. As one of the society's basic principles is to keep her in working trim as a travelling museum exhibit, she can be encountered almost anywhere on the narrow canal system, although the museum is her regular home port. Unconverted Thomas Clayton motorboats still surviving include Spey, Stour, Tay, Towy, Severn and Umea.

5 boxes