IMG 8441-001-Pusher Tug Bantam IV

I found this info on the Flickr stream of Janet Roberts. Hope she doesn't mind my reposting it.

The tug "Bantam IV" was built in 1949-50 by E.C. Jones and Sons of Brentford. She was the fourth of 91 similar tugs built over a period of 20 years. They were designed to push barges from behind. This is around 40% more fuel-efficient than towing a barge behind a tug.

Bantam tugs were used for canal maintenance and on gravel pits. No 4 worked first at Walter Smith's gravel quarries at Brasted, Kent, and then at quarries in Surrey. In 1985 she was bought by Christopher Gibson and his father George, who took her to Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, to work on the Kennet and Avon Canal. They enlarged her cabin and carried out renovations before using her for some years for contract maintenance work.