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The following account was featured on the BW Waterscape site:-
BW recently handed over two of its historic heritage working boats, Atlas and Malus, to the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society (BCNS) and the Coombeswood Canal Trust (CCT). The canal societies, based in the heart of the BCN, will lease the boats from BW with the aim of using them for the future promotion of the waterways. The two boats formed part of the BW led 'Heritage Working Boats Project', supported by the HLF. The project, which dates back to 1999,began with a fleet of ten boats that were sensitively restored back to their former glory using photographic evidence and actual oral accounts. Since then the project has continued with the dedicated support of heritage working boat volunteers, who give up their spare time to ensure their conservation and promote the use and education of the historic working boats. More recently a decision was made to rationalise the fleet of boats, with support from the HLF, to ensure the project's future sustainability. Both were offered to waterway-related organisations who would continue to care and se the boats in the same way as the heritage working boat volunteers. The BCNS and CCT will keep both the engine powered Atlas and the butty Malus moored at Hawne Basin, Halesowen, returning both the boats back onto part of their old working ground on the BCN.