1960s and before

Towards the late 1950s, horse-drawn narrow boats became a rarer and rarer sight on Britain's canals. Carrying a wide variety of cargoes to such destinations as the Potteries, the textile mills of Lancashire, the papermills of London, the colleges of Oxford, they struggled on against increasing competition from rail and road traffic to maintain their place in the country's economy. Yet little has been written about the families who lived and worked on these boats – in particular the women.

Drawing on recorded interviews with the few boatwomen left who were born and bred on horse-drawn boats, Sheila Stewart recounted their experiences as seen through the eyes of an illiterate boatwoman, travelling mainly on the Oxford Canal through the Great War, the Depression, the Second World War, and the decline of the canals. It is a poignant account of astonishing courage and resilience, capturing a unique way of life during the first sixty years of the twentieth century.

First published 1993; new edition 2023.

John Knill tells of his entry into the secluded world of the English canals of the post-war years. He bought the steel working boat Columba together with her butty Uranus in 1948 to start a carrying business on the canals of England when many owner/operators were already leaving. Accepting work whenever it was available, he made several epic runs carrying salt from Middlewich to Newbury or Reading. More boats were acquired in the 1950s, and his carrying business grew until they were sold off several years later. The trials and tribulations of these years are related here in vivid detail, together with the story of his involvement with the infant Inland Waterways Association. Sir John Knill wanted to tell this fascinating story for nearly fifty years, and self-published his book in 1998. This second edition is published over 70 years after John Knill started his canal carrying business.

by John Liley.

This book is primarily a personal account, lively in style, and an adventure all the way, covering John's involvement with the waterways, both in this country and on the continent.

Soft back. 202 pages. 18.5cms x 24cms approx. Colour and black & white photos throughout.

by L.T.C. Rolt.

In 1946 Tom and Angela Rolt embarked on a journey to Southern Ireland.

Their voyage takes them over the broad Shannon, and down Lough Derg, across the great Bog of Allen to the docks of Dublin, returning to the Shannon via the lonely and near defunct Royal Canal.

This is the fifth edition, published in 2015,

Soft back. 237 pages. 18.5cms x 24cms approx. Black & white photographs by Angela Rolt.

by Jack Roberts.

Only a few canal boatmen have ever written about their work and life, and Jack Roberts' hitherto unpublished autobiography tells us about canal carrying a century and more ago.

It provides a unique and fascinating insight into the world of the fly-boatmen on the extensive Shropshire Union Canal system before, and until just after the First World War.

Soft back. 175 pages. 18.6cms x 24cms approx. Black & white and colour photos.

by Andrew Hemmings & David Swidenbank.

In the 1950s, Britain's waterways were still full of commercial traffic, and lined with the mills, factories and ports of a then-leading industrial nation. This is the era captured in the photographs of the Lytham Sea Cadets, who in 1958 ventured from coast to coast via the canals of Lancashire and Yorkshire aboard Training Ship 'Queenborough'

Soft back. 128 pages. 16.5 cms x 23.4 cms approx. Black & white photos and drawings.

by Desmond Stoker.

This book is about the travels of Desmond and his father in the double-sculling skiff 'Hebe'. She was rowed, sailed and man-hauled along the canals and rivers the length and breadth of the country in trips that often extended well over 200 miles.

Desmond recorded their exploits on three of these trips, in 1928, 1929 and 1930. These records have now been brought to the wider public by Desmond's son Simon. The observations and photographs in the book document parts of the canal system now long since disappeared.

Soft back. 192 pages. 17.1cms x 24.5cms approx. Illustrated with black & white photos and diagrams.

by James Hewitt.

A home-made motor cruiser travels the picturesque inland waterways system during the fifties and sixties when the great days of carrying by narrow boat were coming to an end. Many canals were threatened with closure which enthusiasts opposed whenever they could and conflict with officialdom was inevitable.

This is the story of Nippy and her crew.

Soft back. 164 pages. 19.4cms x 21cms approx. Black & white illustrations.

by L.T.C. Rolt.

First published in 1944 and now re-issued with a new section of black and white plates, this book has become a classic on the subject, and may be said to have started a revival of interest in the English waterways.

It was in 1939 that L.T.C. Rolt first stepped aboard Cressy, and this book tells the engaging story of how he and his wife adapted and fitted out the boat as a home and recreates the journey of some 400 miles that they made along the waterways of the Midlands.

Hard back, 212 pages, 13.9cms x 21.7cms.

by Eily Gayford.

Eily Gayford started boating during the Second World War, and went on to become the only trainer of the wartime all-women crews to write her memoirs. First published in 1973, this 2008 paperback edition contains extra text and illustrations.

Soft back, 160 pages, 14.8cms x 21cms approx, black & white illustrations.

by Susan Woolfitt.

This book describes in unadorned detail the life of a 'trainee' working on canal boats during the Second World War.

Softback. 223 pages. 14.8cms x 21cms approx. Black and white photographs. 2008 edition.

by Emma Smith.

She describes her experiences of the war-time scheme under which women were recuited 'off the land' to crew canal boats. Only a teenager at the time, she captures how it felt to be young and working on the boats, sometimes with more enthusiasm than efficiency.

Soft back, 208 pages, 14.8cms x 21cms approx. 2008 edition.

by Margaret Cornish.

First published over 40 years after the war, it provides a balanced account of the war-time canal scheme, tackling aspects which no-one else raised. Predictably, those who volunteered were by no means run-of-the-mill; faint hearts were unlikely to apply, and certainly could not stick the privation and physical demands of the job.

Soft back, 208 pages, 13.7cms x 21.1cms approx, 17 photos.

by Tim Wilkinson.

Re-published in the 'Working Waterways' series by M & M Baldwin, this book tells how the author and his wife hired a pair of boats from the Docks & Inland Waterways Executive in 1948, and spent a memorable year carrying cargoes on England's canals.

Soft back. 192 pages. 13.7cms x 21.1cms approx. 16 b/w photographs.

by Tom Foxon.

This book describes the exciting and colourful life of a teenager who gave up office work in 1950 to crew a canal boat. His fascination with every aspect of life on the canals makes this a wonderfully evocative book, full of authentic detail about narrow-boat carrying.

Soft back, 168 pages, 13.8cms x 21cms approx, 10 illustrations.

by Tom Foxon.

In this, the sequel to 'Anderton For Orders', Tom is demobbed from the RAF and sets himself up in business as an owner boatman or Number One. Before doing so he takes a memorable trip with a horse boat from Tardebigge to Cannock and back to Worcester.

His first few trips are plagued by engine troubles but, after replacing his National engine with a Ruston he settles down to recouping his fortunes by a winter spent on local work around Birmingham before starting to carry coal to Oxford.

Soft back. 136 pages. 14.8cms x 21cms approx. Illustrated with black and white pictures by Brian Collings.

by Tom Foxon.

The third, and last, volume of Tom's boating trilogy finds him ranging widely over the waterways system as an owner boatman before selling up and working for British Waterways on the Birmingham Severn route. With the loss of this contract imminent, Tom goes to work on a general cargo barge trading between Bristol, Avonmouth, Lydney and the River Severn.

Soft back. 138 pages. 14.8cms x 21cms approx. Black & white photos.

by John Thorpe.

An autobiographical and evocative tale of a young boy's journey into manhood set against the background of the Midland canal system in the 1950s and '60s

It tells of his acceptance into the canal community and gives a vivid account of life on, and journeys in, a working boat.

Soft back. 290 pages. 15cms x 23.7cms approx.

by David Blagrove.

This book describes the colourful experiences of a young man who worked as a Thames lock-keeper, while also running a narrow-boat carrying company. His recollections of the Thames Conservancy, Salters' Steamers, and taking the Skinners to the re-opening of the Stratford-on-Avon Canal vividly recapture the waterway scene in the early 1960s.

Soft back, 248 pages, 13.6cms x 21cms approx, 19 photos.