Spring 2021 - Issue 61

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Front Cover: Day-boat traffic was the mainstay of boating operations in the BCN and some of its connecting canals. Here a boatman manoeuvres a deeply laden boat of pig iron ingots in front of Fazeley Street Rolling Mills in Birmingham during the 1890s.

The Spring 2021 issue includes the following features.

Last Traffic

Annus Horribilis

Tom Chaplin looks back to 1969, a year when narrowboat carrying suffered serious decline

You can view an excerpt here.

Historical Profiles

Gower Branch Traffic

Chris M. Jones studies traffic passing Brades Hall Toll Stop on the Gower Branch of the BCN in 1946-47

You can view an excerpt here.

Working the Waterways

Life in a BCN canal cottage

Andy Tidy explores the social history of a family of BCN workers, who resided in a canalside cottage at Perry Barr

You can view an excerpt here.

From the Archives

Closure of the Forth & Clyde

Jospeh Boughey examines records showing the decision to close this Scottish waterway in the early 1960s

You can view an excerpt here.

Picturing the Past

Stoppage at Cowley Lock

Chris M. Jones looks at two images recording a stoppage at Cowley Lock in 1896

You can view an excerpt here.

Last Traffic

Twilight of Horse-boating on the BCN

Andy Tidy narrates photos showing the last horse-boat operation on the West Midlands waterways in the 1970s

You can view an excerpt here.

Canals That Never Were

Macclesfield Projects

Richard Dean details early competing schemes for a Potteries-to-Manchester canal

You can view an excerpt here.

Tracing Family History

The Davies family Archive

Chris M. Jones studies images from a family collection deposited at the Waterways Archive

You can view an excerpt here.

A Broader Outlook

Keels at Elland

Chris M. Jones studies three images of West Country keels on the Calder & Hebble

You can view an excerpt here.

Picturing the Past

Trent & Mersey Boating

We explore details of four pictures from the Jack Parkinson Collection showing traffic near Rode Heath in 1964

You can view an excerpt here.