Summer 2020 - Issue 58

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Front Cover: Chesterfield Canal 'cuckoo' boat carrying small coal for an industrial premises in Lincolnshire. These boats regularly traded to Gainsborough and well beyond after entering the River Trent at West Stockwith.

The Summer 2020 issue includes the following features.

The Port of Gainsborough

Chris M. Jones investigates the boats and traffic along the old Trent riverside at the Lincolnshire town

You can view an excerpt here.

Last Traffic

Carrying at Cowroast

A sequence of photos that capture coal-carrying British Waterways narrowboats on the Grand Union in the early ’60s

You can view an excerpt here.

Historical Profiles

The Donnington Wood Canal

Andy Tidy explores the history and remains of a little-known Shropshire waterway

You can view an excerpt here.

Canal Postcards

The Great Storm of 1904

Trevor Ellis examines how postcards captured a freak weather event on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in the early 20th century

You can view an excerpt here.

A Broader Outlook

Brindley’s Bank and Colton Mill

Tom Foxon discovers a long-lost river transport route between the River Trent and the Trent & Mersey Canal

You can view an excerpt here.

Picturing the Past

Laying at Lambeth

Chris M. Jones studies a rare magic lantern image of narrowboats on the River Thames in central London

You can view an excerpt here.

Unearthing History

Pratt’s Wharf and the Wilden Iron Works

Tom Foxon looks at a local traffic on the River Stour that continued until 1949

You can view an excerpt here.

From the Archives

Ulverston Canal

Using the British Newspaper Archive, Joseph Boughey provides insights into this Cumbrian ship canal

You can view an excerpt here.

Historical Canal Maps

Charting a Catastrophe

Richard Dean examines the official report of the famous Regent’s Canal explosion of 1874

You can view an excerpt here.

Time and Place

A Thames Carrier at Staines

Chris M. Jones and Lorna York reveal the background to two images of the River Thames at Staines, showing various craft owned by Elizabeth Timmins and giving a rare glimpse into the operation of a female carrier in the 1880s

You can view an excerpt here.

Last Traffic

Loading Coal on the BCN

Another delve into the Jack Parkinson collection shows a variety of boats at Anglesey Basin in the final years of carrying on the BCN

You can view an excerpt here.