Perseverance IV was built in 1934 by G J V Edwards and Sons at Dapdune Wharf, Guildford – the tenth of eleven Wey barges made by the company.

[1][2] The barge was built for the then owners of the Wey Navigation, William Stevens & Sons, and carried bulk wheat between the London Docklands and Coxes Lock Mill, Addlestone.

[3] She then went back into service, before being sold to another owner who used her as a cable-laying barge on the Regents Canal, where she ended her working life in 1982.

[1][2][3] She is one of only three remaining Wey barges in the world, and is the only floating example – the Reliance is permanently damaged and in a drydock at Dapdune Wharf, whereas Speedwell is in poor condition at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port.

[4] In future, the National Trust hope to use the barge for public boat trips up and down the Navigations.