Alternative Revenue Streams

Managing the canal site

The main illustration shows a fictional canal settlement on a narrow canal, but it could be anywhere on the system on any canal, whether narrow or broad. It shows a typical collection of buildings around a toll stop at the narrows, such as the toll collector’s office and house. There are a pub, canal company warehouses, a public wharf and weighbridge, a local coal merchant’s private wharf, a local manufactory, and a canalside dwelling house which could be an extension of the local village that has edged towards the canal over time as prosperity increased.

Rents

Stables

Adjoining the toll clerk’s house was the canal company stable. He might rent this from the company and collect stabling fees (and hopefully make a small profit) from boaters mooring at the stop overnight to enjoy the hospitality of the pub next door. If not, the publican next door might rent the stable instead for his boating customers but, whatever it was, the toll clerk, acting as the company’s agent, would have to keep accounts and collect rents for it.

Puddle bank

The clerk might also rent the land on the puddle bank nearby to harvest the grass and straw for bedding in the stable. The puddle bank could be let to a local grazier to harvest the grass, or perhaps, if there were willows growing in the stream below, let it to a basket-maker for growing osiers. Basket and straw hat making was a common craft industry at these sorts of location, all of which meant a record and collection of rents by the clerk.

Public wharf

The adjoining wharf space next to the toll office allotment garden was a public wharf, of which the clerk was often the company wharfinger. A public wharf meant anyone using the canal for trade and transport had the right to access it and use its facilities. If the wharf was large enough, coal merchants would rent individual pitches for stacking their coal for resale, and the clerk had to manage the wharf so each tenant could conduct his business unhindered.

Sometimes the clerk organised the unloading of boats by hiring local men to do it. Up to World War I, professional loaders were the norm, with the boatman making up one of the gang. It was only after unloaders were conscripted into the military, that it became normal practice for boaters to do all their own unloading. There was also a company warehouse on the wharf in which tenants could rent individual rooms for the storage of hay, grain, goods and even coal. Again, it fell to the toll clerk to collect rents and keep accounts for the management of the company property.

The wharf also had a weighbridge and office, so it was up to the clerk to manage this and issue tickets or receipts for its use. Sometimes non-canal traders wanted to make use of the bridge, such as farmers weighing livestock or produce on a cart on their way to market. Again, accounts were kept for this facility and paid into the company bank account.

All cargoes landed had to pay wharfage at so much per ton to the company. The permits carried by boats delivering these cargoes had to be collected by the clerk and examined to make sure the weights landed were the same as those on the permit, and if the tolls and wharfage had been paid or charged for when the permit was issued. Any discrepancy had to be investigated and reported. If a permit showed the wharfage had been paid but landed at a private wharf, the wharfage had to be refunded. Likewise, if the wharfage had not been paid but landed at a public wharf, it must be charged for. Correspondence was sent to the clerk who issued the permit so he could alter his records accordingly.

Warehouse

The company warehouse on the towpath side against the stop would receive or dispatch any canal-borne cargoes over the towpath, so wharfage was charged by the company for that. Just like the other company warehouse on the opposite bank, rooms within were let out to tenants, whether it be corn, hay and straw merchants, or anyone connected with local industry.

Water use

On the off-side there is a small factory at the water’s edge which is extracting water for some part of its business and returning it. There may be a water meter fitted to keep a record of quantities used, and the firm would be charged for this. The clerk may have to keep records of this usage. Records were also kept of water levels at a specific point near the stop. These would be passed on to the engineer so he could compile annual statistics.

Wharfage

Behind the factory is an open coal wharf on the off-side, which could be a public or private wharf. There are stacks of house coal shown neatly arranged in individual pitches. If a private wharf, the trader would pay an annual rent to the clerk or to head office. Wharfage on coals landed there went to the tenant of the wharf, not the canal company. There were many such private wharves along canal and river navigations for the landing of coal, grain, timber and roadstone, the latter often for the local council surveyor for the repair and resurfacing of roads in the district.

Wayleaves

Accounts were also kept for wayleaves payable to the company which could be collected by the clerk. The factory has a protruding chimney and ventilation pipe over the canal. This constitutes a trespass over the canal company’s property and an annual wayleave was due for this. In some instances, even a rainwater drainpipe descending from the guttering over the water was liable to be charged for.

GPO telephone pole

The General Post Office had a telephone pole on the towpath with wires over the canal to the toll office telephone. A wayleave was due for this too, but in this case most likely dealt with at head office as telegraph poles (and later telephone poles) and wires covered most of the length of canal and therefore were beyond the scope of the local toll clerk’s accounts. Fees were charged if boaters or others wanted to use the toll office phone, even for matters of business.

Electricity supply pole

Shown in front of the factory is a line taking electric power generated by the nearest electric light works. This leads from a pole on canal company property and crosses the canal to a local mill next to the stream on the right. This was also a trespass and a wayleave due. This might be dealt with by the toll clerk as many electric light companies were local. Local wayleaves were considered small items by companies and individuals, and payment was often overlooked during their day-to-day business. As the toll clerk was locally based, he was at an advantage when chasing up such minor accounts.

'Gate'

Next to the telephone pole on the towpath in the foreground is a cottage, access to which is from the towpath. The person living in the house has a garden gate giving access, and a wayleave was due on this and was known as a ‘gate’, on which an annual fee was due. Its bay window is protruding from the house over the towpath, so was a trespass and a wayleave was due on that too.

Towpath access and water

Money was also collected from local farmers for trespassing onto company property and for the privilege of towpath access. This could be for herding cattle along the towpath to get from one field to another, or using the canal as a sheep-wash. Charges were made for water piped to the local railway for a water scoop trough in-between the tracks to replenish the locomotives when passing at speed. Road locomotives and traction engines had to pay for using canal water to fill their tanks at bridges and local wharves, so the clerk had to be alert in case drivers were surreptitiously filling their tanks without his knowledge. Other canal workers, such as lock-keepers and lengthsmen, were informed to act as the eyes and ears of the clerk and keep watch at road-bridges and wharves. These informants also kept a look out in case a coal merchant might be storing railway-borne coal on the wharf, upon which no toll was derived and so was forbidden.

Employment

The wharf on the towpath side may well be a local maintenance depot for the company, which had several workers based there. These could be bricklayers, masons, carpenters and labourers, or perhaps a dredging gang, and they were under the control of the foreman who worked under the head foreman and company engineer. The clerk would have to issue and collect time sheets for the men, in order to pay their wages, and after 1912 deal with National Insurance contributions.

Money was also paid out for various expenses for services and materials from local tradesmen, or for icebreaking when men and horses were employed to pull the iceboat. This was because the clerk had access to the company bank account at a local bank, which was an arrangement made by head office to deposit the daily or weekly cash tolls and hold a company bank book. All this meant records were kept for this administration. Wages were paid to other staff, such as lock-keepers, and pensions were also paid to retired former staff who lived locally. Drawing money off for this could easily make the bank account overdrawn, and so the toll clerk would have to obtain a cheque or bank notes from head office to restore the balance.

A change in working hours 

The biggest change for toll clerks probably came after World War I. Up until then many clerks were effectively on duty 24 hours a day, but this did not mean they worked continuously. A typical day (except Sunday) began at 5am by opening the stop for traffic, which could be a chain across the narrows. He would also open the gates to the wharf so traders could begin their day’s business. Usually, several pairs of boats might be waiting to go through and, after these were gauged and permitted, it might be an hour or so before the next boat came. This meant he could catch up on his paperwork and other duties, and perhaps tend his allotment garden. Towards the end of the afternoon he might have to visit the post office and visit the bank to deposit the day’s money. Being away from the stop when boats might appear was only possible if the clerk was married, with his wife acting as an unpaid assistant. In fact, some companies required the clerk to be married and would not employ a bachelor. The clerk earned a man’s wage, i.e. to support himself, wife and children, and so the company felt entitled to expect the clerk’s wife to contribute to the running of the toll stop when needed.

After WWI, reduced working hours came in, which left canal companies with a manpower problem. This meant they had to employ extra staff or assistant toll clerks. This led to problems over accommodation as there were sometimes no extra canal houses available or even in the local vicinity.

One way around staffing problems was to get existing staff, perhaps a lock-keeper or lengthsman, to gauge boats and note down their details when the toll clerk was off duty. He could not accept money for tolls as he was not authorised to do so and he did not have any fidelity insurance. When the clerk came back on duty, he would write up all the permits from this information and send them by post ahead to another toll stop along the canal, at which point the toll was paid.

After WWI some canal companies hardened their attitudes to their employees, possibly due to a number of pay increases with the rising cost of living, but also increased trade unionism and a more militant attitude of some workers. They considered their staff well off with houses provided by the company, but rents paid by staff hardly covered any repairs. However, some companies had an easy-going attitude to their staff; as long as their work was done properly they could take time to work in allotments etc, as long as they returned to work when required.

The toll clerk was like a cog in a wheel, and his accounts had to correspond with accounts kept by the other clerks along the line of canal operated by the company. At the end of each month, the company clerk or secretary at head office checked through all the accounts and any anomalies would be investigated.

All this demonstrates how the canal company wrung just about every penny it could from its property, and shows the amount and type of accounting necessary to manage locally a canal around a toll stop, even in a modest and quite rural area.