Boats built by Crossfields

Crossfields built yachts,  Morecambe Bay Prawners, rowing boats, bay boats, and sailing dinghies, including Arthur Ransome's Swallow and Coch-y-bonddhu. Bay boats were sailing boats used to take holidaymakers on excursions from Morecambe to Grange and Arnside. Boats built by Crossfields include.

She was sailed across the Atlantic by Ashley Butler, a young boatbuilder in 1999, who then spent four years cruising her in the Caribbean and off America.  She featured in a  documentary by the explorer Tim Severin investigating the different inspirations for Robinson Crusoe in 2000. In 2006 she was transported across America to the West Coast by road.

Pastime (1903)

Recorded as being built in 1903 by Lloyds Register, Pastime was built as yacht, though registered for fishing during both word wars. In 1930s she had an outstanding record in the Liverpool Isle of Man Midnight Race winning the race in 1931 and 39, coming second twice and third twice. By the 1950s she was kept on the Menai Straits. In the early 1970s, she was owned by a young folk singer Dave Walters who wrote a song about her “Ballerina of the Bay”.

In 1976 after David has sold her, she sank off Anglesey in a Force 10 gale with the crew of four being rescued by the Holyhead lifeboat.

Laura (1908)

Laura was built as a yacht for William Sellars of Poulton-le-Fylde.  She took part in first Fleetwood to Isle Man Race in June 1914, in which Moya came third. In 1918 at the end of the First World War she was briefly registered as a fishing boat at Fleetwood - FD319. Laura featured in Edmund Delmar-Morgan's 1953 book "I brought a Prawning Boat." Edmund lived in the boat at Burnham-on-Couch with his second family in the late 50s. He started his daily commute to London by rowing to shore from Laura in his pin striped suit and bowler hat. In the 1990s Laura the leading gaff rigged boat on the East Coast winning nearly every race she entered when owned by Gayle Heard. She is now kept in North Wales

Formosa (1909)

In 1909 Crossfields built a 50 foot long steamboat. She was taken by traction engine to Windermere at Easter 1909 along narrow bendy country lanes. 

She was seen off by members of the Crossfield family wearing their Sunday best.

Moya (1910) 

Moya is now based in Aegina, a Greek isle. Moya featured in an Italian TV documentary in 2017. At one time owned by John Llewellyn Moxley, a TV and Film Director. Moya took part in the 50th anniversary Fastnet Race in 1975 coming second in the classic yacht class. In 1920s Moya was owned by Walter Townsley, a future mayor of Morecambe. She was owned by an artist in the 1950s who brought up his family on the boat.

Her history is recounted in "Il segno dell’onda, Moya 1910-2010, the Mark of Tide" a book in Italian and English.

Coronation Rose (1911) 

Crossfields built several Bay Boats including Coronation Rose in 1911 for the Harbour Sailing Company in Morecambe. Bay boats were used to take holiday makers from Morecambe on day trips to Grange and Arnside, sailing with the tide. The boat's crew was often just a man and boy. Passengers wore the best clothing and no buoyancy aids. Matchless, a Bay Boat built by another boatbuilder, capsized off Silverdale in 1894 drowning 25 passengers.

The photograph shows Shamrock a typical Bay Boat setting off from Morecambe ladened with passengers from the Collection of Keith Willacy.

Swallow ( circa 1912) 

The most famous boat built by Crossfields was Arthur Ransome's Swallow. Arthur brought Swallow for £15 in April 1928 , so that the Altounyan children could learn to sail on Coniston Water. Their father brought Mavis (Amazon). The story of Swallows and Amazons is based on the children's summer holiday. In the late 1930s Swallow was owned by Roger Fothergill a local teenager, who kept her on the estuary at Arnside. Roger went onto run a charter yacht business in the West Indies.

Deva (1912) 

A Rivers Class yacht like Severn. She featured in Jon Wainwright's book "Only So Many Tides". Jon owned Deva for over 40 years. An European Classic Yacht Champion in 1997. Deva has been sailed across the North Sea and back 5 times, often through stormy weather. Between 1926 and 1938 she was owned by the 17^th Earl of Derby, who was Commodore of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club, Secretary of State for War 1916-18 and a leading racehorse owner. It is doubtful that he ever sailed her. Deva is the Latin name for the River Dee which flows through Chester. Deva is currently being restored by Tom Curtis, a young boatbuilder on the East Coast.

Molly (1914) 

Molly was built for a Lancaster doctor and kept at Glasson Dock. Between 1936 and 1997 she was known as Nahula. She was owned by Selwyn Hooley a Chorley cinema entrepreneur from 1949 to the early 1980s. Selwyn kept her at Skippool on the Wyre Estuary and at Lytham. The last boat to leave the Ulverston Canal in 1949. She is currently kept on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona. She featured in a German magazine article in 2021  

Sir William Priestley (1934)

The Morecambe fisherman's lifeboat, now awaiting restoration in the Lancaster Maritime Museum. In Morecambe the fishermen provided the town's lifeboat rather than the RNLI. Lady Priestley donated the money to build the boat in memory of her husband Sir William, a Braford millowner, MP, RNLI supporter and owner of Littledale Estate in the Forest of Bowland east of Lancaster. Her launch in 1934 was a major civic event watched by 20,000 spectators with three mayors in attendance. Around 12 boats have built from a mould taken from the Sir William in 1979.

Coch-y-bonddhu (1934)

Built by Crossfields  in Arnside for Arthur Ransome. She is named after a fishing fly. In the 1950s the boat was used by Earnseat School in Arnside to teach sailing.  In 1995 she was restored by John Hodgson a boat builder at Morven on the Sound of Mull, after being rediscovered in a hotel garden in a sorry state at Strontian on Loch Sunart on the West Coast of Scotland. John Hodgson had previously worked for the boatyard in Arnside

The boat is now on display in Windermere Jetty Museum.