Spring 2017 - Issue 45
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Front Cover: The Salt Union Ltd was a cartel of salt manufacturers formed in 1888. The company soon had a sizeable fleet of narrowboats operating on the canals, as well as barges and steam packets that were primarily used on the River Weaver. Depicted moored up on the Trent & Mersey Canal on a bright sunny day is houseboat Dane, fleet number 117. One of the company's many craft named after rivers, Dane was registered at Stoke-on-Trent on 29th September 1905. The boat's livery is based on historic photographs.
The Spring 2017 issue includes the following features.
Famous Fleets
Salt Union Limited
Alan Faulkner and Chris M. Jones look at the canal-carrying fleet of The Salt Union Limited, a consortium of salt manufacturers that operated both narrowboats and barges from Cheshire and Worcestershire bases.
You can view an excerpt here.
Picturing the Past
Red and Green
Another delve into Patrick Rawlinson’s photo archive highlights the once-ubiquitous colour scheme of commercial craft
You can view an excerpt here.
Last Traffic
Claytons on the Wolverhampton 21
Harry Arnold recalls encountering Claytons’ skipper Jimmy Moores on motor-boat Umea on the BCN during the company’s final months of carrying in the mid-1960s
You can view an excerpt here.
Working the Waterways
Grain on the Water
Chris M. Jones provides a comprehensive history of grain carriage by boat, which formed a substantial traffic on the south Midlands waterways for many decades
You can view an excerpt here.
Time and Place
Easter Gathering
Chris M. Jones looks at two photographs showing an Easter Sunday service at Little Venice in 1932 for the benefit of its boating community
You can view an excerpt here.
Canal Finder
Nutbrook Canal
Andy Tidy goes in search of a short and little-known East Midlands waterway once used to transport minerals
You can view an excerpt here.
Working the Waterways
Behind the Scenes at British Waterways
James Hewitt recalls some of the disagreements, deceptions and debacles of his years spent working for the British Waterways Board from 1967 to 1974.
You can view an excerpt here.
From the Archives
Nineteenth Century British Newspapers
Joseph Boughey uses an online archive to augment printed information on two canals that were superseded by railways in the late 1800s
You can view an excerpt here.
Canals That Never Were
Pontcysyllte to Chester
Richard Dean details the Ellesmere Canal’s missing northerly link to the city of Chester. But why was it never built?
You can view an excerpt here.
Picturing the Past
Wallingford Wharf
Chris M. Jones explores the details in pre-WWI photographs of a wharf on the River Thames near Oxford
You can view an excerpt here.
