Julian & Caro Tether - barge Parglena

A new class of motorised steel barge was built by the Bridgewater Canal Company as late as the 1950's this 'Duker' fleet of power barges and dumb lighters only finished carrying to Kelloggs in 1974.

There were 6 Motor barges built in 1951 / 1952 and named:

Paradine
Parbella
Parcastle
Parderry
Parelia
Parfield

Parelia & Parfield were built by Yarwoods and the other four were built by Pimlots.

Parglena is a 5/7 copy of Parbella and was originally called Parbela by way of acknowledging her heritage.

Having had the boat surveyed by the owner of Parfield with the owner of Parbella in attendance it was suggested by them that I look for a name with ParGxxxxxx to continue the line.

This idea I took on board and after lots of searching we came up with Parglena, the derivation of this is that Galena is a form of lead hence heavy metal but ParGalena doesn't sound right so it became Parglena.

I have always wanted a "British" barge rather than a "Dutch" barge and this was one way for me to fulfil my dream as older British barges are becoming very rare.