Livery Variations on Narrowboats

Art of the Waterways: NarrowBoat, Spring 2013

Christopher R. Jones

Christopher M Jones

Christopher R Jones, assisted by Christopher M Jones, looks closely at ‘rose & castle’ painting from the southern Grand Junction Canal

The opportunity to study the original photograph of Harry King’s boats Nautilus and Forget Me Not, that appeared in Chris R. Jones’s article ‘Kings of the Cut’ in Autumn 2008 NarrowBoat, has given me a chance to recreate some of the finer painting details of these craft. Decorative painting on narrowboats, generally referred to as ‘roses and castles’, usually means the distinctive naive brushstroke painting style practised by famous narrowboat painters of the 20th century such as Frank Jones, Frank Nurser and a multitude of others. The only exception is William Hodgson of Stoke-on-Trent, who painted in his own quick but more realistic style, dubbed ‘knobsticks’. However, before World War One there were other boat painters who made an attempt to render a more realistic effect, which was most likely the normal way of painting when this display of flowers and romantic landscapes on narrowboats was an expression of the accepted taste of the…