Between Staffs and Notts

Picturing the Past: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2024

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones explores images showing boats and cargoes carried between Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire 

 

A list of canal-carriers passing the River Trent to Nottingham and the Trent & Mersey Canal wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Fellows, Morton & Clayton Ltd. Here two of the company’s horse-boats wait fully loaded on the Trent, tied against an old narrowboat decked over and used as a floating jetty. Behind them is a laden Upper Trent wide-boat and, judging by the direction they are pointing, these three loaded boats might well be heading towards Shardlow. In the foreground nearest the camera is moored the horse ferry for craft crossing the Trent to and from the south off to the right. The method used to achieve this is described in NB Autumn 2015. FMC had premises at Brown’s Wharf, Canal Street, Nottingham and was a regular carrier, picking up or landing cargoes at Shardlow. The company had a number of agencies along the canals using other carriers. One of these was John Wood Gandy based at Bridgewater Wharf, Morledge, Derby, who owned a small fleet of bo…