Tooley's Boatyard

We hired a narrow boat starting at Lower Heyford and the boat broke down as we were leaving the lock in the centre of Banbury. Fortunately, this happens to be just opposite Tooley’s Boatyard who noticed our predicament immediately and helped us to secure the boat. To keep us moving, our boat hire company asked Tooley’s to help and they stepped in to help diagnose the problem and then fix the broken throttle cable. After an hour or so, Tooley’s had fixed the boat and it was back in perfect working order. And a short weekend holiday break was saved… Thanks again to Tooley’s, great expertise, experience and a friendly service.

The folks there are a joy to visit. Fully committed and passionate for the alternate travel needs. A wonderful place to visit and talk to the ones who run the place. We had a great visit, and will return.

We had a great time on their Saturday duck boat ride covering beautiful Banbury canal area. Its about 40 mins and skippers make sure you have nice and safe journey throughout. The ticket money goes to charity so I would encourage locals to support them whenever they can.

Had a lovely short canal boat trip with grandchildren. Informative talk & interesting shop with activity going on (wool spinning in our case)

What a pleasure to come to Tooley’s to have our boat blacked! Fascinating site and a national treasure.

On our travels, one of my engine mounts failed. On removal, I found that a small modification on the engine bracket was required. Popped in to Tooleys and 15mins later I left with a modified bracket.Many thanks to Matt. Great service.

I highly recommend breaking down close to Tooley's boatyardMy boat had broken down a couple of miles away from Tooley's, this was not an issue for Matt at Tooley's boatyard. i gave him my boat name and the bridge it was near and Matt was able to come out and fix it. We was able to do all of the communication over the phone so I didn’t need to take time off from work, after fixing the boat Matt created a video to show me what he had done, he also gave some good tips on how to improve the electrical system coming from the alternator which was really useful. Clean and tidy, other than a shiny new starter motor I wouldn’t have known Matt had been there.

Had our narrowboat (engine) serviced here and very impressed with Matt's professionalism and attention to detail. He obviously loves what he does and all the staff are knowledgable - a real pleasure, nothing was too much trouble. Great experience all round, happily work our way back here to get a service done here again when it's due! Excellent :)

Tooley's Boatyard is a dockyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended southwards, finally opening to Oxford on 1 January 1790. The canal's main boat yard in Banbury was the original outlay of today's facility at Tooley's Boatyard, which is an officially listed cultural site. The canal brought much growth and prosperity to Banbury over the years and is still popular with boat users today.Tooley's is the oldest continuous working dry dock in Britain and was established to build and repair the wooden horse-drawn narrow boats which regularly travelled up and down the newly constructed Oxford Canal network. This is why it was so vital to the development of the Industrial Revolution in Banbury. Over the years, road haulage and the railways eroded away the importance of the canals, although they regained their local importance during the Second World War.Tooley's was lately immortalised in Tom Rolt's popular 1944 book Narrow boat, which was re-released in the 1990s when the boatyard's future was threatened. The yard kept on working up until 1995, and is a scheduled Ancient Monument and run by a private company in trust.Its fully restored workshops date from the 1930s and include a carpenter's store, a steam-powered belt-driven machine workshop, a paint store and a 200-year-old forge where a blacksmith pursues his trade.A blue plaque to Mr Rolt was unveiled at Tooley's Boatyard, Banbury on 7 August 2010 as part of the centenary celebrations of his birth.

I completed the RYA Helming 2 day course this week under the instruction of Jacob. Absolutely brilliant and so glad I did the training. I'm amazed it's not compulsory for new users and new owners. With only three on the course everyone has time to practice manoeuvres. Highly recommend the course and Tolley's as the provider and also Jacob as the instructor. Knot and rope work was also excellent.