The canal era really began in 1759 when the third Duke of Bridgewater built a short waterway to link his coal mines at Worsley with Manchester to enable coal to be easily delivered to power the mills and heat the workers' homes.
Over the next fifty years, 2000 miles of canals were constructed. Regions like the Potteries and Black Country developed and became prosperous because of the canal network. Most British canals were completed by 1815. Many canals became profitable whereas others lost money and declined. Some were even abandoned during construction.
The canals and railways coexisted with the railways concentrating on passengers and light goods and canals mainly transporting raw materials and bulk goods. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the national railway network, forced canals into decline. However, some canals were taken over and supported by railway companies. The canals and railways were both nationalised in 1947.
There were many different jobs associated with the canals. The waterways created employment for thousands of people and their occupations included:
lock- and bridge-keepers
toll collectors
navvies and engineers
docks and wharves workers
canal inspectors
boatmen
Thousands of men and women worked on the boats moving around the country.
The canal boat people lived in closed communities. Many boatmen and their families were born and lived on the canals. Some took jobs on land, especially when the canal trade collapsed.
Thousands of men and women worked on the boats moving around the country. Most canal boatmen were relatively well-paid and by the 1830/40s families lived in a house which meant that wives and children didn’t always travel on the canal boats. However, canal travel was still very much a way of life for many. In some areas all-male crews were common and they returned to their families and houses on completing a job, particularly the fly boats. A fly boat is also a narrowboat which works all day and all night on the English canal system without mooring. There was only one wage per boat. Boaters were paid by the weight of cargo they delivered and not by time taken to do so.
Boatman worked in all weathers because if they didn't work they didn't get paid. There was only one circumstance when the boatmen were unable to work and that was when the canals were frozen over meaning that the boats were unable to move. Most employers allowed the boatmen an advance on their wages when this occurred.
The decline in the use of canal boats to transport both raw materials and finished goods made canal work was less lucrative. Because of this, many families had to give up living in houses and resorted to living on the boats, something which was not easy because of the small cabins, and the womenfolk worked the boats alongside the men effectively reducing costs.
If cargo was unloaded at the destination by the boaters as opposed to the wharfmen, then they were paid more. Some families worked a pair of boats so were able to carry double the amount of cargo. Different canal boats were often heading for the same destination and if they did not get there first, they had to wait to unload meaning they potentially lost revenue. Loaded boats could not move quickly so the only way to get there first was to work long hours sometimes around twelve to eighteen hours per day.
Living space on board was cramped. Families were often large and so overcrowding was a problem. The average narrow boat cabin measured 6ft x 7 ft 6ins x 4 ft 6ins and this was the only living space for the family to eat and sleep. Many boatmen carried cargoes of coal or other dirty raw materials but the cabins were generally very clean and tidy. Some of the features of boat-living were a danger such as keeping the cabin warm using an open container filled with burning coals, although some boats had a built in stove similar to that used in a gypsy caravan. The cabins were highly decorated and well organised. Cupboards and drawers were decorated with pictures painted on them. Cabin decor was influenced by the art styles of the time including canal art. The living space, therefore, became a colourful and cosy place.
Although there were variations in both boats and the canals, lack of space was common and everything was carefully stashed. For economic reasons, at least three quarters of the boat was devoted to carrying the cargo.
At the end of the nineteenth century, working conditions for canal families were subject to reform, particularly elementary child education. George Smith, a philanthropist and reformer from Coalville, was instrumental in improving the lives of canal families. In 1873 he began looking at the conditions of the men, women and children living and working on canals and navigable rivers.
As a result the Canal Boats Bill was passed in 1877 enforcing the registration of canal boats at a place where there was a school for children to attend - a basic requirement of the education legislation. The Act also regulated the sanitary conditions on boats. There were no toilets on the boats and boaters used chamber pots which were emptied into the canal. There was no running water on the boats, but water taps or pumps existed along the towpath. Water was stored in ornately decorated cans kept on the roof of the cabin. Water for washing and cleaning was often taken direct from the canal. The Canal Act 1877 limited the number of people allowed to live on a boat. This depended on the type of boat and how many cabins it had. Girls above twelve and boys of fourteen years old were counted as adults with strict rules where they could sleep.
Unfortunately, the requirements of the Act were often difficult to enforce so adherence was intermittent which meant the quality of life of the boatmen and his family did not really change. A further Act in 1884 required local authorities to enforce the attendance of children at schools as well as appointing an inspector of canal boats. Inspectors ensured the rules were being followed. One of the major difficulties of implementing the Canal Boats Acts was persuading the boatmen to send their children to school. Because the canal families moved from area to area, no education authority in reality took responsibility for the children nor were they able to summon boatmen to court for their children’s non-attendance at school.
Changes in the law meant that many boat families moved back into houses. The Canal Boats Act and compulsory education for children made it almost impossible for families to live on canal boats. For those families who continued working the canal boats it meant that wives and children lived in a house while the men continued to work the boats. Sometimes in order to sustain an income there was no choice but for the wife to also work on board leaving the children in the care of another relative.
It was not until 1920 that a law was passed so boat children had to go to school 200 days a year. Some children were taught on land and only saw their families in the holidays. “Schools on boats” also opened in stopping places along the canal.
When women were on board they were mainly responsible for cooking, laundry and cleaning and mothers cared for their young children. Pregnant women had to work almost up to the birth at which point the boat was moored and the baby was born in the cabin. After only a few days the boat moved on again. Children frequently sat on the cabin roof in fine weather, fastened with a harness to prevent them falling into the water. Older boys helped crew the boats and the girls helped with the chores. Boat children had little time to play only doing so in the hold when it was empty.
Children were often “lent” to boats that did not have enough crew, although most children still lived on their parents’ boats. Most were well cared for and worked almost as hard as the adults. They were leading the horse by the age of seven years and working locks by the time they were twelve.
Horses were a critically important part of canal life. A horse was the most efficient form of power for a canal boat. Most boatmen treated their horses extremely well because they were essential to their livelihoods, however, some boatmen were prosecuted for cruelty to their horses. At walking pace, a horse could move approximately a hundred times its own body weight. Being on water the boat moves without friction so the horses could pull quite easily. Even into the twentieth century canal boatmen still used horses..
In the canal age there were many bridges and locks but each canal was provided with a towing path for the horses which went under the bridges so the horses did not have to be disconnected from the boats. The sole purpose of towpaths was to accommodate horses.
Managing the canal horse was a skill in itself because horses worked long hours requiring experience in handling them which canal children learned at an early age. Some horses would work by themselves without a driver but it could be risky, so a boatman had to be ready to go on the towpath when they met a boat travelling in the opposite direction.
Towpaths were only on one side of a canal. There were set rules about rights of way on canals so one horse would be stopped enabling the canal boat towline to slacken so the other horse pulling the canal boat with the right of way could step over it without stopping. The towing path was as important as the water channel. Towpaths were always kept free of obstructions because anything that tangled with the towline was both a nuisance and potential danger to both canal boats and the horses who could get pulled into the water if the towline tangled with an obstacle.
Every working canal boat needed at least one horse to pull it. If the boat was working nonstop, it may need a couple of changes a day. The number of horses involved required an infrastructure of blacksmiths, farriers, ostlers etc. to keep the horses shod, fed and healthy and often to provide stabling.
Every boat horse needed a stall at the end of each day so every stopping place had to be provide stabling. Some stables employed ostlers to look after the horses. Each horse would wear out its shoes in a month so blacksmiths and farriers had to be available to keep the horses and canal boats running.
To start the canal boat moving when laden with a heavy cargo required a sustained effort but after about a minute of heaving the boat would be underway and could be kept moving. Starting off needed to be fairly quick when working a flight of locks.
Canal boats did not have brakes, so once the boat was moving it took the same amount of effort to stop it as it did to start it. This is where a strapping post was important; these were upright posts of wood or iron set firmly in the ground close to the canal bank for the boatman to wrap the strong piece of rope (strap) around. Each lock had a set of strapping posts.
Legging was the way in which boats were navigated through the canal tunnels. Members of the crew would lie on their backs in the top of the boat often on overhanging boards with their feet on the canal walls or roof and would push the boat through the tunnel using leg power. The horses would be led over the tunnel to meet the boat at the other end. On the longer tunnels, leggers were hired to help "leg" the boat through the tunnel.
Canal Boatmen were wary of doctors and hospitals. There is a perception that they were healthy because they lived and worked in the open air. However, a report from the Registrar General showed a higher mortality among canal people than within other social classes. The death rate of boatmen between the twenty-five and sixty-five times higher than that of agricultural labourers.
The canals themselves were often heavily polluted which became a general health hazard. Children were more likely to die due to drowning in the canal than adults. Local newspapers often carried reports of such deaths or the inquest results.
During the Victorian era one disease to which boatmen were particularly prone was cholera because their primary source of water was often the polluted canal. Another common ailment was St Anthony's Fire, a bacterial skin infection. It could cause death where a wound became infected. Boatmen could also be at risk of disease and illness from the cargoes they carried, the most common being poisons from treatments used on materials they carried such as antimony poisoning. Daily life on board a narrowboat could also give rise to other accidents. The children and women foraged from the hedgerows but occasionally they got it wrong and people were poisoned because of what they ate.
Use the information given on birth, marriage or death certificates to work back in time. Some boating families did not register the births of all their children even after 1875. Where boat people registered events, particularly births, it may not have been where the actual birth took place. Many canal boatmen never formally married or did so after the birth of some or all of their children. Being a close community boat families tended to intermarry, legally or otherwise.
It was less easy to avoid death registration and very few escaped the system. Some deaths may have been registered in a different place to the death, particularly in the event of drowning whilst travelling. There would still be a coroner’s inquest so a record should exist. Very often a death or burial would be the only formal record of your ancestors' existence. For boat people who were so inclined drowning oneself in the canal was a popular method of suicide. Where bodies were found, they were usually taken to the local pub for the inquest and it also gave people the opportunity to identify who the deceased was.
Alternatively, parish registers record baptisms, marriages and burials will help. Most boat families would have their children baptised; the question is where? Often in the “canal cathedral” and burials often took place in family plots in a cemetery irrespective of place of death. When researching parish registers for boat families, think of the waterways they travelled along as their home ‘parish’. All Saints’ Church, Braunston, known as the boaters' cathedral was a popular venue for boaters' weddings from all over the country and many boaters were also buried there.
Census records provide a fascinating window into the live of canal families. Sometimes canal boats were ‘missed’ by census enumerators but where canal families had a house on land, some family members may have been at home while others were working the boat. Sometimes finding a family on the census may be challenging. If a narrow boat was moored, then the enumerator should have had a completed return, but if a narrowboat was on the move, the chances that the occupants were enumerated was usually low. However, it is unlikely that a boat would have missed enumeration for every census. Census returns, where they exist for boats, will also show the name of the boat your ancestor was on. The occupation description is sometimes misleading because enumerators were not always sure of the correct terminology.
Until nationalisation canals were ran by private companies that employed boatmen, engineers, clerks, toll clerks, blacksmiths, navvies amongst others. Minute books, wage books, staff ledgers, pension books and rent rolls of a canal company are a valuable resource. The National Archives at Kew hold a large collection of canal company records. Use “Discovery” to find canal company records. Some British Waterways Board collections are also held at county record offices.
There are several waterways museums around the country which contain archive material and illustrate the canal era including The Gloucester Waterways Museum, The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port and the Canal Museum at Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire. Each tend to reflect the history of their own particular area or canal system.
The Waterways Archive at Ellesmere Port holds many hundreds of documents and historic photos of canal boats and workers. The Waterways Archive at Gloucester has records of boat owners and registered boatmen, some toll records allowing you to associate a person with a boat and archives of large carrying companies and gauging tables which were kept by each Navigation Company.
Health registers can also be helpful. After the Canal Boats Acts, local authorities kept registers of canal boats. Inspectors checked the boats regularly. The registers include owners’ addresses and journals record the number of adults and children on each boat usually with names. These registers are held at county record offices, although the Waterways Archive has a collection. There are also online databases of registers for some regions available through the Waterways Archive.
Register of boats and barges were kept from 1795; canal boats and barges had to be registered with their owner’s name by the Quarter Sessions. These registers where they exist are deposited at local record offices.
Magazines and journals like Narrowboat feature articles and photos of canal carriers and families on the historic working boats. They have also been various articles published on researching canal families. Old newspapers may have family notices or reports of accidents on the canals.
The Railway & Canal Historical Society has a useful and very informative website www.rchs.org.uk uniquely showing the connection between canals and railways.
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