Canal People

[carlt]

I copied this from the preface of a book I'm bidding on at the moment (hands off!):

 

"Canal people : a unique community with it's own character and customs which emerged some two hundred years ago when a ''savage ungovernable banditti'' of navies was employed to build Britains waterways. This is the story of those men, and of the flatmen, keelmen, bargemen, and boat men who followed them. These ''uncouth, semi civilised men led a strange life with their wives and children- a peculiar hard breed -working long and hard, often under extreme conditions, helping each other through adversity.

 

I guess some things never change.

[Hekaterine]

These ''uncouth, semi civilised men"

 

*Belch!*

 

I don't know what you mean.

[Supermalc]

Just about describes all of us on here I would think

[cheshire~rose]

''savage ungovernable banditti''

 

Yep that will be the Fridaaay thread community!

[allybsc]

Yep that will be the Fridaaay thread community!

 

Banditti...is that a real word? if not it should be!

[Blue_skies]

Banditti...is that a real word? if not it should be!

A bit pretentious of the author, I think, but hey, sounds like a good book (As we son't say 'bandito', why use an Italian pluralisation? Should really be 'bandits'?)

[carlt]

The funny thing is the working boatmen are never credited with being normal working people. They're always portrayed as colourful, eccentric , lovable folk in their bleached white bonnets (or black after queen vic died because they were far more patriotic than your average joe), big smiles and dancing on the pub tables playing traditional ditties on their squeeze boxes; or thieving, illiterate vagabonds who would slit your grannie's throat for a chicken and a farthing.

 

I suppose saying they were normal folk doesn't sell copy.

[CanalWalker]

A lot of the articles written about boatworkers were by the religious type who wanted to improve the godless boaters. So they play up the bad language drinking, living in sin, shoeless schooless children etc

[Christine]

I've just read 'Ramlin Rose' The Boatwoman's Story by Sheila Stewart. An interesting read.

[cheshire~rose]

I've just read 'Ramlin Rose' The Boatwoman's Story by Sheila Stewart. An interesting read.

 

That is one of my favourite books!

[King Learie]

That is one of my favourite books!

 

 

Yes it's also the book that I recommend to anyone new to the subject of our canals as she seamlessly presents many different memories of boatwomen as one story. Like a TV soap, (for it's eventful narrative) it engrosses the reader it a lost world and imparts a vast amount of background information that would otherwise be very indigestible.

 

I think it is a classic of canal books, up there with Narrowboat.

 

This was Sheila's second book and I believe she did follow it up with another book about canals but the publisher didn't want to issue it for some reason. If anyone knows her address perhaps we could get it published by someone more sympathetic, like David Blagrove’s small set up, as there are so few books on the subject that are so generally satisfying and informative.

 

Tony, who runs the Kings Lock Tea Rooms with his partner Julie in Aylestone, Leicester (Now open again after a winter break), found it invaluable as it helped him to quickly integrate into the world of canals and serve the needs of passing boaters.

 

But because it is an amalgam of many real people, some canal enthusiasts look down on it as it doesn’t faithfully record history but on the other hand it has helped so many to understand the life and culture of the people of the cut that I think that far outweighs Sheila’s ‘artistic’ licence to recreate the past in such an interesting way.

 

King Learie

[King Learie]

Yes it's also the book that I recommend to anyone new to the subject of our canals as she seamlessly presents many different memories of boatwomen as one story. Like a TV soap, (for it's eventful narrative) it engrosses the reader it a lost world and imparts a vast amount of background information that would otherwise be very indigestible.

 

I think it is a classic of canal books, up there with Narrowboat.

 

This was Sheila's second book and I believe she did follow it up with another book about canals but the publisher didn't want to issue it for some reason. If anyone knows her address perhaps we could get it published by someone more sympathetic, like David Blagrove’s small set up, as there are so few books on the subject that are so generally satisfying and informative.

 

Tony, who runs the Kings Lock Tea Rooms with his partner Julie in Aylestone, Leicester (Now open again after a winter break), found it invaluable as it helped him to quickly integrate into the world of canals and serve the needs of passing boaters.

 

But because it is an amalgam of many real people, some canal enthusiasts look down on it as it doesn’t faithfully record history but on the other hand it has helped so many to understand the life and culture of the people of the cut that I think that far outweighs Sheila’s ‘artistic’ licence to recreate the past in such an interesting way.

 

King Learie

 

 

I meant to say, having just re-read that last convoluted paragraph a day later, that Sheila's 'artistic licence' created a wonderful book from many authentic recorded accounts of boatwomen that, despite not being true to reality due to their amalgamation, turned many people onto the magic of the waterways - including myself. It is one of the finest works to come out of oral history accounts that I know of

 

King Learie