Carrying in ’50s London
Picturing the Past: NarrowBoat, Spring 2020
Another delve into Julian Thompson’s photo archive reveals details of boat and barge traffic in and around the capital in the 1950s
Taken on 30th April 1955, this view splendidly evokes the working environment of the Regent’s Canal at Hampstead Road Locks, Camden. The post-war shabbiness and litter of light industry on its canalsides were quite typical of the time. The main focus is the iron barge Lyd being hauled and shafted into the lock. This craft was owned by Vokins & Co Ltd, general lightermen of Blackwall. The business was started in the late-1850s by lighterman William Vokins and became a limited company in 1886. The company continued in trade until May 1973 when it was taken over by the Thames & General Lighterage Ltd. Lyd’s history dates back to 1886 when it was called Orlando and owned by lighterman John Henry Saunders of Strand-on-the-Green, Chiswick, who used it mainly to carry grain. It was sold to Walter Graham & Co, seed crushers and oil cake manufacturers of Headby Oil Mills, Greenwich, and renamed Insight in 1893. During that same decade it passed to Vokins and was renamed yet again as Lyd. She was registered for Vokins under the Canal Boats Acts at the Port of London in November 1899. This registration was cancelled in 1909 as the barge was no longer being used as a dwelling. Lyd appears to be carrying a substantial load of tropical hardwoods, probably loaded ex-ship or from a wharf in the Surrey Docks or on the Surrey Canal. There were a number of timber merchants along the canals of London, some of which specialised in hardwood imports, such as Samuel Putney Ltd of Paddington Basin.
Two British Waterways craft running light have just descended Uxbridge Lock 88 on an overcast winter’s day in the mid-1950s. Both boats are former Grand Union Canal Carrying Company craft, the motor being a steel large Woolwich town class with its butty a large wooden Ricky. It’s likely they have unloaded coal at one of John Dickinson & Co Ltd’s paper mills and are proceeding south to Brentford, perhaps for grain or timber, or to Regent’s Canal Dock to pick up a back load of metals.
Despite the introduction of towpath tractors for towing, horse power remained a vital part of haulage work on the Regent’s and the lower Grand Union canals for barges and lighters. On the GU at Frogmore Green, Southall, on 8th May 1954, this horse and driver are making short work of towing a laden steel lighter, judging by the bow wave as they pass Norwood Wharf Works. It is not possible to positively identify the barge-owner, although it is most likely one of several general lighterage firms that operated in the ’50s, hauling from Brentford. Barges were fitted up in various ways for carrying different cargoes. There were open craft for carrying steel and long lengths of timber, and hatched barges licensed by the government for carrying goods under bond. Some were licensed for the cargoes of petrol and carbide of calcium. Also, there were insulated vessels for transporting frozen meat and perishable produce, and bulk liquid barges with tanks for oil, petrol, turpentine and other volatile liquids.
British Waterways large Ricky butty Cheam and an unidentified Large Woolwich motor are just about to enter Widewater Lock 86 on the Grand Union on 5th February 1956. The pair are heading southbound towards Brentford or Regent’s Canal Dock. Records show that the previous year Cheam was paired with large Woolwich motor Alton and it was steered by H. Lapworth. The ice was indicative of severe wintry conditions and ice-boats were run at the time this image was taken. Four pairs of boats were held up at Northampton in floods, while at the coal loading wharves, railway wagon doors were frozen shut. Boats could force their way through the ice on the main line of canal as shown here, but the loading basins were frozen and boats were unable to move.
Barges were the main mode of commercial transport on the Lee Navigation. Here barge Wapping is just leaving Fieldes Weir Lock on 10th July 1954 with a typical large draught horse taking the strain. The lock is at the junction with the Stort Navigation, which joins the Lee just off the picture on the left. It is not clear who the barge-owner is as there were a great many operating on the river, either based in London or at places along the navigation. Grain, flour and seeds formed some of the cargoes carried both by lighterage companies and millers and maltsters established at places like Ware. Wapping has a family crew, with the boatman’s wife steering.
