Norton Canes

Our Norton Canes site is at the current northerly limit of the BCN Cannock Extension Canal, just off the A5 at Norton Canes. It was occupied by Yates Bros. from 1846. Their livery included the three diamonds logo which is still used on Norton Canes branding and boats today. The three Yates brothers, James, Alec, and their half brother John, later moved into haulage. Malcolm Braine began building boats in Norton Canes in 1966 and soon acquired a reputation for producing fine looking craft, often with steel hulls and wooden cabins.

The image below shows a side launch at Norton Canes.

Graham Edgson originally worked as Malcolm's foreman. During his time working for Malcolm, he was responsible for introducing boats with steel superstructures. On Malcolm's retirement in 1986, the opportunity arose for Graham to run the operation himself, and Norton Canes Boat Builders was established. 

For over 30 years Graham and his team applied their engineering and fabrication skills to produce traditionally styled canal boats of fine lines, sweet curves and exquisite balance.

Today, we operate the Norton Canes site as moorings.

Glascote Basin

In 2015, Graham Edgson and his daughter Sarah Edgson moved the Boatbuilding & Repair business to Glascote Basin on the Coventry Canal.

Glascote Basin was probably built to act as a coal depot and transit hub for Thompson and Southwick, the heavy engineering works which used to be based beside Glascote Locks. The map below shows Glascote Basin in 1883.

In 1985 Glascote Basin was Central Line’s hire base, then the it was briefly occupied by Tony Francis of Crestelle, whose operations closed in about 1991 (he was mainly based in Hawkins Lane, Burton). Finally, before Norton Canes arrived in 2015, the site was operated by the well regarded SM Hudson Boatbuilders.

The move allowed Norton Canes to expand and offer a comprehensive range of boat yard services with the benefit of being on a popular part of the Midlands canal network.

Graham retired at the end of 2015 and his daughter Sarah took over the day to day running of the business. Sarah has added a number of highly skilled individuals to the Norton Canes team and has created a ‘one stop shop’ for narrow boating excellence at the heart of the Midlands.

All Norton Canes boat building and maintenance is now undertaken at Glascote Basin.