b'Gillian - a Thames double skiffLOA 24ft. Beam 3ft 9ins. Draft 8ins. Built in 1908 by W.E. (Wally) Downing at E.T. Ashleys yard in Pangbourne. Clinker Honduras Mahogany planking on Oak frames. Restored 1995.We own this skiff thanks to Tony Hobbs of Hobbs and Sons in Henley. He was selling a small boatyard at Pangbourne and, prior to the sale, allowed me to select a boat to restore from the many old skiffs, punts and dinghies that had accumulated in his sheds over the years. I chose a dusty old skiff lying on her side under a leaky roof, as I saw that she was finely built, unlike the robust hire boats, with some of her original flooring still intact.This was the start of a delicate and detailed restoration that would reveal some special bits of history: the builder Wally Downings signature; the faintest shadow of the gilded decoration beneath the thole pins and on the transom, and the date December 1908 written in pencil on the underside of the rowing thwarts. It is a rare treat to restore a boat and be able to retain much of the original structure and fittings.However, this puts an added responsibility onto the boatbuilder because if a broken or missing component has to be replaced, the new work must 40'