With the Port of Goole marking its bicentenary in 2026, the Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society is inviting boaters to help recreate history on the water. Trustee David Scrimgeour explained why the flotilla could become the highlight of the celebrations.
Boat owners are being invited to play a starring role in a once-in-a-generation waterways celebration as the Port of Goole prepares to mark its 200th anniversary in 2026.
The Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society (YWHS), founded in 2019 after the sudden closure of the Yorkshire Waterways Museum, is appealing for boats to join a commemorative flotilla that will recreate the spectacular opening of the Knottingley to Goole Canal in 1826.
The modern port may celebrate its bicentenary this year, but the story of Goole stretches back much further. Long before the Aire & Calder Navigation Company (A&CNC) began transforming the landscape, a small settlement known as Old Goole stood on the south side of the Dutch River. A few hundred residents earned their living through agriculture, fishing and milling, while the land on the opposite bank – now occupied by the port – was still farmland, later described as a “port in green fields”.
The creation of Goole as a major inland port was driven by growing demand for waterborne trade.
By 1817 the A&CNC recognised that existing routes via the Aire, Calder and Selby Canal were restricting vessel size and limiting movement to favourable water levels. A new route was needed.
Civil engineer John Rennie was commissioned in 1818 to determine the best line for a canal between Knottingley and Goole. Objections from landowner Lord Downe forced a reroute – still visible today as a distinctive dog-leg near Cowick – before a detailed survey by George Leather paved the way for an Act of Parliament in 1820 authorising construction.
Work began in 1821 under contractors Joliffe and Banks. Rennie died later that year, leaving Leather to see the project through. By 1822 construction of docks and harbour works was underway at Goole, with the foundation stone laid in September.
Hundreds of labourers descended on the area, and local newspapers recorded both the progress and the colour of canal-building life — including a poaching incident involving dozens of workers in 1823. Meanwhile bridges, culverts and docks steadily took shape, and the Banks Arms Hotel (today the Lowther Hotel) opened to serve both contractors and A&CNC directors.
The first vessel travelled the full length of the new canal in July 1825. A year later, on July 20, 1826, the canal and Port of Goole were officially opened with a grand flotilla of decorated vessels, bands, bunting and cheering crowds.
The celebrations culminated with the arrival of the steam packet Lowther, the first ship to enter the docks via the Ouse. Two centuries on, the YWHS hopes to recreate that spectacle. Since its formation, the society has built an online museum at ywhs.org.uk, safeguarding around 2,500 historic photographs, creating a database of 3,000 Yorkshire canal boat registrations and assembling a growing digital archive of documents, film and audio preserved by the British Library.
Now the focus turns to the future — and to the water.
From July 17–20 Goole will host a Waterways Heritage Festival, with the flotilla planned as a centrepiece event. Organisers are calling on canal boaters from across the network to take part in the commemorative procession around Goole Docks, alongside food, drink and entertainment, including a performance by TV personality Robbie Cumming.
Boaters interested in joining the flotilla can register their interest via the Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society website www.ywhs.org.uk/expression-of-interest/
IMAGE: The basin area where flotilla craft will form up for the procession in summer 2026.
PHOTO: DAVID SCRIMGEOUR
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