Canal Employment in the 18th Century

[smiffy71]

Hello,

 

We live in Braunston, a village steeped in Canal history. My young son has been set a task at school to find out what jobs existed for people who worked on the canals in the 18th Century, and to be honest we are struggling a little.

 

I was wondering if any kind soul out there could point us in the right direction. Any information would be greatly appreciated, job titles etc.

 

Thank you in anticipation

[Grebe]

There were jobs in building and also in the operation of the canals.

 

Engineer, Clerk of the Works, Boat Builder, Bookkeeper, Brick Maker, Lime Burner, Wood Valuer, Blacksmith, Farrier, Lock Keeper, Brick Layer, Stone Mason, Labourer, Clerk, Wharfinger, Land Valuer, Labourer, Paymaster, Toll Keeper,

[Starcoaster]

Hi and welcome! I live on my boat in Braunston. You may have picked a good time of the year to ask (or just missed one possibly) as the Braunston historic boat rally was last weekend.

A few working boats are still moored up outside of the marina now, so if you could make it down the towpath one day for a chat to some of their owners, I am sure you would get a lot of information from people owning real working boats who have a good understanding of their history.

[smiffy71]

Hello again,

 

Oh my goodness Grebe that is exactly what we needed, that is an amazing amount of jobs. Lime Burner sounds peculiar.

 

Starcoaster, we did have a wander down. It was really interesting. Thanks for the tip, his work has to be in by Friday and due to his footballing commitments we won't be able to come down in time, but thanks.

 

Thank you very much to you both.

[Ratzend]

When I sold my little terraced house not far from the river in Liverpool some years ago, I saw the deeds for the first time before passing them on to the new owner. There were only two conditions in the deeds that I wasn't aware of, we were not allowed to sell candles from the house, or burn lime

[Grebe]

Well if you want to stick bricks together you have to make a mortar using sand and lime.

 

Remember there are no builders' merchants or ironmongers. As my OH says..this is engineering off the land..

 

Bricks make them yourself - you will of course need coal to fire the kilns - where is that from and how is it getting there? Where is the brick clay from?

Look up limestone, lime burning and slaked lime.

Blacksmith to make the ironwork - hinges, paddle gear,barrow fittings.

Cut down the trees you have bought and cut them up using a saw-pit.

[Catrin]

I'm deep in marking and have only skimmed this, but has no-one yet mentioned boatmen? leggers? navvies?

[steelaway]

Hello,

 

We live in Braunston, a village steeped in Canal history. My young son has been set a task at school to find out what jobs existed for people who worked on the canals in the 18th Century, and to be honest we are struggling a little.

 

I was wondering if any kind soul out there could point us in the right direction. Any information would be greatly appreciated, job titles etc.

 

Thank you in anticipation

 

 

 

Hi

 

There is series of books about building canals by Anthony Burton See ---My link

Also see -----My link

 

They well give you an insight into the various trades.

 

Alex

[Tam & Di]

I'm deep in marking and have only skimmed this, but has no-one yet mentioned boatmen? leggers? navvies?

 

and slightly more peripherally: suppliers of tarpaulins for covering cargo, rope walks, all things to do with horses, boat repair yards and tradesmen .......

[Catrin]

If your son really wants to impress, check out this link: Tour of the Grand Junction 1819 (yes, I know that this is 19th C, not 18th - but I bet his teacher won't care). There is a picture of Braunston on page 111, and there is a brief description of legging through Blisworth Tunnel on page 84 and 85. The pictures of the locks look like none I've ever seen though.

Cath

[matty40s]

If your son really wants to impress, check out this link: Tour of the Grand Junction 1819 (yes, I know that this is 19th C, not 18th - but I bet his teacher won't care). There is a picture of Braunston on page 111, and there is a brief description of legging through Blisworth Tunnel on page 84 and 85. The pictures of the locks look like none I've ever seen though.

Cath

smiffy, I know friday is deadline day, but if you have time tommorow evening, and have transport, take him to the end of the Welford Arm (at Welford!).

There is a well preserved canal terminus there, and some lime kilns he can walk over with big information boards telling him what used to happen.

Probably 35 minutes drive each way. 14 miles for him to actually see and experience something tangible, if Braunston itself isnt tangible enough.

[history girl]

Hi

What about lengthsman? Some of their cottages still exist.

[Heartland]

Braunston became an important junction and canal town with the making of the Grand Junction Canal, but this situation did not really come into force until the route was finished, and that was during the first few years of the 19th century. Prior to this Braunston was on the Oxford Canal. This route opened in phases and was then a very winding and curved canal. The present boat yard and branch was on the original line of the canal that travelled southwards from Hillmorton Wharf, through, or near Barby, then Braunston, Wolfhampcote, Napton, Fenny Compton and onto Banbury.

 

Banbury was the initial terminus and a principal traffic was coal from the mines near Hawkesbury. A dispute between the Coventry Canal Co and the Oxford Canal Co delayed any junction being made initally and for a time the Oxford was an isolated waterway. A junction with the Coventry was finally arranged at Longford (Hawkesbury came later), but both the Coventry and Oxford remained isolated from the rest of the system until 1790 when the Oxford was completed to the Thames at Oxford and the Coventry linked with both the Birmingham & Fazeley and Trent & Mersey Canals. When this happened mechandise boats came to work along the canal.

 

Braunston for merchandise traffic had a strategic importance as the old wharf was placed beside the turnpike. So during the last decade of the 18th Century, Braunston gained a more important role for transhipment of merchandise traffic between road and water.

 

Ray Shill

[RLWP]

Nice post Ray. I hadn't considered the relationship between the canal and the turnpike at Braunston

 

Richard

[Chalky]

We seem to have missed the main one from the list - Navvy, the men who dug the cut with shovels using nothing more that muscle power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navvy

[IanM]

I'm deep in marking and have only skimmed this, but has no-one yet mentioned boatmen? leggers? navvies?

 

 

We seem to have missed the main one from the list - Navvy, the men who dug the cut with shovels using nothing more that muscle power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navvy

 

We didn't miss it

[Heartland]

Yes,then there is the navvy. Each canal was then made with picks and shovels and relatively short sections were let for cutting the waterway (and embanking, digging out cuttings, diverting streams and rivers under new culverts or aqueducts etc), with often a different team of people for erecting the bridges, tunnels and locks, and yet others for the stone masonry and carpentry. So making the canal through Braunston would have many of these tasks going on during the years 1773 and 1774 when the contractors were on the sections of the waterway working towards Napton. James Brindley had died by this time and Samuel Simcox was the engineer in charge.

 

Another factor was brick making. Lime has been already mentioned, but bricks were hand made, and burnt in temporary kilns near the canal (those ar Fenny Compton remain. Clay was dug up and left over winter for the weather to improve the clay for grinding, shaping and burning.

 

Ray Shill

Edited June 30, 2012 by Heartland

[bizzard]

Horse manure collectors,sorters,graders and dealers. Someone had to do it.

[RLWP]

I'm not sure why The Navvie has to take such a prominent place. OK, they were colourful characters, in the grand scheme of things they dug a ditch and then went away to dig another one. That's a couple of years right at the beginning of a couple of hundred years of history

 

Richard

[carlt]

The Braunston Tunnel leggers lived down Cross Lane and, according to "Ye Olde Narrowboatworld", they were a rough lot and it was an early example of "Bandit Country" best passed through early in the morning, when they were still nursing their hangovers.

Edited June 30, 2012 by carlt

[Laurence Hogg]

On the BCN there were the "Hufflers", men who hung around flights of locks to help work boats through for a small return or some coal. "Cut side Sallys" were hookers who worked the main lines earning a bob or too or a bag of coal, Gauging clerks were everywhere due to the vast number of junctions and stop places, offices were busy due to the volume of traffic at the peak so vast amount of office staff was required.

[Heartland]

Boats passing through Braunston in these early days would have passed through the short tunnel at Wolfhampcote and an aqueduct over the Leam at the top of the valley. The new works 1829-1834 included the new Leam Aqueduct and embankment across the valley there. Once this work was finished boats were diverted on to the new route and that via Wolfhampcote abandoned. Hugh Compton in his book on the Oxford Canal, I believe, had a picture of the short Wolfhampcote Tunnel. Although when I was involved with the planning of the RCHS 2008 AGM that tunnel under the road had gone, but the old canal was still in water there and culverted under the road. Braunston Tunnel was on the main line of the Grand Junction Canal. Work had started in making the canal at both Braunston and Brentford in July 1793, with authority to start Braunston Tunnel given in June 1793. So after this start those navvies and brickmakers were again busy in the Braunston area, with local brickyards making bricks for the tunnel. Braunston Tunnel was opened on 21st June 1796 and at the same time locks and cutting had been completed both sides of the tunnel and it and some 6.5 miles to Weedon was opened for traffic on the same date. So by 1800 there were two navigations in Braunston, and in that year the Grand Junction to London and the Thames was almost completed. Through navigation was not achieved until Blisworth Tunnel was completed in 1805. So it would seem that canal building was part and parcel of the canal scene at this time. Yet once the work was finished the next chapter, that is the increasing use of narrow boats for trade on the line to London began.

 

Ray Shill

[Giggetty]

and slightly more peripherally: suppliers of tarpaulins for covering cargo, rope walks, all things to do with horses, boat repair yards and tradesmen .......

Innkeepers, draymen, pedlars, entertainers....

[carlt]

Innkeepers, draymen, pedlars, entertainers....

...bowler hat makers, red neckerchief manufacturers...

[bizzard]

And a load of Cobblers.