Craft of the Upper Thames

A Broader Outlook: NarrowBoat, Summer 2025

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones examines images showing various boats and traffics on the Upper Thames during the 19th and 20th centuries

This is our free-access sample article from the Summer 2025 NarrowBoat

Perhaps the most illustrated Thames craft of all was the West Country barge. Although extinct by the latter decades of the 19th century, it was the standard Upper Thames mode of transport for commercial cargoes and a common sight in the Pool of London. They were portrayed in many engravings, paintings and sketches of Thames scenes by famous landscape artists such as Constable, Turner and Canaletto, as well as a multitude of lesser-known artists. They were large punt-shaped shallow-draught vessels, often using a mast and sail when not being towed, and fitted with a large rudder. Crew accommodation was at the stern, being merely a tarpaulin stretched over wooden hoops to form a makeshift cabin. This scene titled ‘The Thames at Shillingford’ was painted in 1823 by British maritime artist John Thomas Serres (1759-1825) and was one of several paintings he did featuring these barges. This one is of particular interest as it shows a West Country barge in front of a more familiar…