Newsprint Photographs on the Grand Junction

Picturing the Past: NarrowBoat, Spring 2018

Christopher M Jones

Chris M. Jones delves through a collection of published images showing canal-carrying in south-east England during the early years of the 20th century.

Photographs of narrowboats and barges have featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles over the years, and some of the most interesting were published in the first decade or so of the 20th century. Although grainy and not of the same quality as those printed from negatives, such images still provide a fascinating view of a way of life that has disappeared, and also give an insight into some of the social attitudes towards boaters of the time.…