Thrupp Family Gathering

Tracing Family History: NarrowBoat, Spring 2023

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones studies two images that reveal insights into an Oxford canal-boating family

Independent boatmen contractors, known by some as ‘Number Ones’, have become synonymous with the Oxford Canal. However, a less well-known group preferred to hire-boats rather than own craft, and paid a weekly hire or rental fee to the owners. But perhaps the rarest group were those who occasionally worked traders’ or carriers’ boats, but on their own account, rather than just as employees.Acknowledgements Thank you to Lorna York and Margaret Wilkins (née Beauchamp).…