The Staintondale as most of you are aware is a Mersey Flat that has been the club house since the foundation of the club. It has now unfortunately seen the best of its days and work is due to start on a purpose built building, plans and information about which is available here

There's a lot of history regarding the barge, not just from the many years it has served us as a club house ,but also from its life carrying grain up and down the River Mersey.

Our Barge

Several years ago a long standing club member Brian Taylor researched into its previous history and has passed it on for us to include on the website.

Most of the information below has come from The Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port, so many thanks for their help

Staintondale was built May 1926 and was originally called 'Nigel Vernon' ,registered in Liverpool No. 1623

Built by W J Yarwood & Sons, Northwich for a company called Vernon & Co who named the barge after one of his sons. It had a steel framed, oak planked hull and weighed in at 92 tons . Later it is shown in the Health extracts of November 18th 1949 as owned by Spillers Ltd Liverpool

Ownership was then transferred to Richard Abel & Sons, Liverpool in October 10th 1960

Shortly after that the 'Nigel Vernon' was renamed to The Staintondale after a small village just north of Scarborough. A recent expedition by 4 club members cycled through the town and kindly supplied the following picture of the now disused railway station

The boat was probably disposed of sometime between 1964 and 1967 after Abels were taken over by Hoveringham Gravels in 1964

The Barge is frequently mentioned in the Liverpool Shipping Registers under both its names,and is thought to have been regularly carrying grain from Liverpool and Birkenhead to the flour mills at Ellesmere Port.From the registers it is possible to identify several of the Ships previous Masters names

1949 C Good,Wallasey

1960 S Jones , Liverpool

1961 D Douris, Liverpool

1961 T Douris, Liverpool

1965 D Douris, Liverpool

After its working life the barge was retired and brought up the weaver and 'Placed' in its current position at the club. Founder member Arthur Lightfoot helped and recalls fellow member John Cheshire, of which there is a trophy in his name ,also being involved. The Club house as we know it today was then built on top of the barge and that is where it has seen out the rest of its days

The Stern of the barge with the still complete rudder section, also the great view from the stern,with the lawns and launching area

Below is the bow where the name of barge is still clearly visible

Brian Taylor who is responsible for most of the information in this article