page_title: Horse-drawn boat
section_title: NB Maria
hierarchical_section_title: Horse-drawn boat / United Kingdom / NB Maria
caption_attribution_description: English: Horseboat Maria with towline, Peak Forest Canal, England
context_page_description: A horse-drawn boat or tow-boat is a historic boat operating on a canal, pulled by a horse walking beside the canal on a towpath.
context_section_description: Maria is Britain's oldest surviving wooden narrowboat, built in 1854 by Jinks Boatyard in Marple, and was never converted to have an engine. From 1854 to 1897, Maria was used to carry railway track ballast for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. She was then used as a maintenance boat until 1962, lay abandoned for nine years until being salvaged in 1972 and converted to a passenger boat in 1978. In 2000 she was restored to near original operating condition.
  Maria is currently owned by Ashton Packet Boat Company. She is sometimes loaned to the Horseboating Society and has taken part in several of their events, including British Waterways' "Coal and Cotton" event, celebrating the Leeds and Liverpool Canal's history of transporting coal from Leeds and Wigan to Liverpool, and taking cotton from Liverpool docks to Leeds.
  In 2006 she was the first boat to have been legged through Standedge Tunnel in 60 years. A UK Government minister and a local Member of Parliament took turns at legging Maria through the highest, longest, and deepest canal tunnel in the UK.
caption: Horseboat Maria on the Peak Forest Canal
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