Honorary Research Fellow National Waterways Museum

[Ray T]

PRESS RELEASE

 

10 February 2016

 

HONORARY RESEARCH FELLOW NATIONAL WATERWAYS MUSEUM

 

The Canal & River Trust has appointed its first ever Honorary Research Fellow as part of a drive to increase awareness of the rich social history of Britain’s canals and rivers. Dr Jodie Matthews, from the University of Huddersfield, will work with the Trust’s museums and archives, and alongside canal researchers and industrial historians, to promote greater public appreciation, new research and understanding of the importance of Britain’s waterways.

 

Graham Boxer, the Canal & River Trust’s Head of Museums said: “The national waterways museum collection and archives tell the stories of the people who lived and worked on our waterways – from celebrated engineers to anonymous bargees and navvies – who changed the face of Britain. These people literally made history and we want to work with more researchers, academics and universities to make these stories more accessible to a wider audience. We are delighted to have Jodie on board, on a voluntary basis, as our first honorary research fellow.

 

Jodie Matthews is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Huddersfield. Her research explores the way in which canal figures contributed to conceptions of the nation in the nineteenth century, and how those ideas inform our thinking today. Jodie is committed to undertaking academic work that brings new perspectives to heritage and other settings.

 

Jodie has begun to establish a new Canal Research Network, bringing academics, heritage professionals and enthusiasts together to talk about new approaches to exploring waterways history and research. At the same time Jodie is one of a team advising on the new designs of the Gloucester Waterways Museum.

 

Jodie Matthews said: “The intention of the network is to bring rigorous research perspectives on canal and river histories to the Trust’s work in its museums. We also aim to create new relationships between the Trust and other networks with interests in the waterways history, leisure studies and marine engineering. My first contact with the Trust was when I examined the waterways archive, based in Gloucester at the time, thanks to a Scouloudi Foundation award and I am delighted to be back working on the redesign of the new exhibitions due to open in the Summer.”

 

2016 is a special year for the Trust as it celebrates the 300^th anniversary of Brindley anniversary of the birth of pioneering canal engineer James Brindley and also the 40^th anniversary of the museum at Ellesmere Port – first set up entirely by volunteers. The museum will be celebrating both events during the year. For more information please visit canalrivertrust.org.uk/nwm

 

ENDS

 

For further media requests please contact:

Michelle Kozomara, Marketing & Communication Manager – Museums and Attractions

m 07917899222 e michelle.kozomara@canalrivertrust.org.uk t crtmichelle

[pete harrison]

I think that this would be better received if it were awarded to a canal researcher rather than an academic that most enthusiasts / researchers have never heard of.

 

In my opinion this represents many of the problems within the C. & R.T. Archives where the long term employees with all of the knowledge have been pushed out, only to be replaced by professionals who are passing through and using their current position as a means to enhance their C.V.. Propping up these professionals are a number of volunteers, a couple who are knowledgeable and the rest who are not - hence people like me being involuntary advisor's when they should be advising me.

 

I will watch this new role with interest, but I am already fairly confident that it will add no value, even though it apparently carries no cost

[Leisure boater]

Looking at he profile most of her research interests are more 'people' related than anything else.

[Laurence Hogg]

I think that this would be better received if it were awarded to a canal researcher rather than an academic that most enthusiasts / researchers have never heard of.

 

In my opinion this represents many of the problems within the C. & R.T. Archives where the long term employees with all of the knowledge have been pushed out, only to be replaced by professionals who are passing through and using their current position as a means to enhance their C.V.. Propping up these professionals are a number of volunteers, a couple who are knowledgeable and the rest who are not - hence people like me being involuntary advisor's when they should be advising me.

 

I will watch this new role with interest, but I am already fairly confident that it will add no value, even though it apparently carries no cost

 

I am in total agreement with Pete on this, once again those in the field who have value are totally ignored. I am sure when ask what a "Joey" boat was the answer will be instantly forthcoming...

[Derek R.]

I wonder what the chances are of Dr. Jodie Matthews being introduced to and meeting with Jeannette Smith-Harrison, or as both Pete and Laurence state, the canal workers and volunteers who often are taken for granted or completely overlooked for generations, the boat builders and maintenance workers. Or will she stay in the ivory towered libraries producing reports with letters after the authors name? It takes hands on research to discover real truths, as when taken from existing history tomes any errors and absent records in their composition remain errors and missing in any future composition.

 

There was a time when workers who showed enough savvy and initiative could rise through the ranks, and be better respected for it amongst their peers and subordinates. Now everyone goes to Uni, gets a bit of paper and leapfrogs to a deskjob.

 

Old and cynical? Yes.

[dave moore]

Hear, hear!!!

 

Dave

[matty40s]

Looking at he profile most of her research interests are more 'people' related than anything else.

"I've heard a lot about Tom Pudding, so which carrying company did he work for and did he write many books??"

☺

[Québec]

What a load of uninformed, prejudiced comments!

It's clear that Dr. Matthews is no 'ivory tower' academic (what a quaint, old-fashioned stereotype that is), and that she is genuinely interested in canal and canal people, and has presented and published on the topic.

 

The fact that she's a skilled, professional researcher ought to be welcomed. If you have information she might be interest in, instead of sniping from the towpath why not jump on board and offer to help?

[Derek R.]

Then I for one await to be informed further. Jodie Matthews is a lecturer in English literature. She has succeeded in obtaining funding from the Scouloudi Foundation (who supply funding for charities) and that has allowed her (i.e. paid her) to research the archives in Gloucester. This much can be gleaned from the press release put up by Ray T. And from that press release we can also see that her work will be in redesigning exhibitions and displays for CRT. As such, should it not be the task of such a researcher to seek out those who have already had their work experiences published in widely available books telling of first hand experiences? Possibly not. As I feel sure this honorary research fellow will be seeking to advance her field of acumen through association, rather than any direct involvement with the canal system, in doing so increase the feathers in her cap.

 

Though I would delight in being proven wrong.

 

A potted profile: https://www.hud.ac.uk/ourstaff/profile/index.php?staffuid=smusjm9

Edited February 11, 2016 by Derek R.

[Laurence Hogg]

 

 

A potted profile: https://www.hud.ac.uk/ourstaff/profile/index.php?staffuid=smusjm9

 

Looks like we are going to be "water gypsies" very soon or Romani bargees ....

 

. If you have information she might be interest in, instead of sniping from the towpath why not jump on board and offer to help?

 

Do you know how many times people like myself and others on this forum have tried to get involved? Everytime we have been ignored, CRT will simply go its own way with its "hired in" academic experts, like TWT did before it.

[Jodie]

Hello, I thought I should virtually introduce myself and say thank you for the thought-provoking comments on my academic research and work with CRT. Always good to know where one stands, and that people care about the way research is conducted. It’s clear from some of the perceptions of my profession (or, perhaps, of me) articulated here that some of my academic colleagues have not done a good job previously of communicating what they do nor of valuing the expertise of people outside universities. I realise that some academics have, as Joseph Boughey put it, ‘looked down on’ the research and knowledge beyond their ivory towers. I try to be a different kind of researcher, and am keen to learn from the vast body of work that has already been undertaken (properly credited, of course). I aim to champion this expertise within academic circles, and not just in the disciplines usually associated with this field. At a meeting of researchers (academic and non-academic) at my institution recently, I opened with some words of appreciation of volunteers and all those who work on and research canals, including a picture of local people clearing up after the floods caused havoc on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. As one poster here notes, I lecture in English Literature, so come to the issues from another perspective (often valuable in itself) – I’m particularly interested in the way Victorians represented the canals, but I do have broader interests in that period and in the longer history of the people of the waterways. I’m a Midlander living in Huddersfield – how could I not be?

 

Genuine question: which human stories of the canals do you think should reach wider public and academic audiences? And if you have any questions/comments about my work, you can either ask me here or drop me a line: j.matthews@hud.ac.uk.

[Ray T]

Jodie, welcome to the forum.

[Jodie]

Thanks! I may not be able to post as often as I'd like, but will be calling by when I can...

[Laurence Hogg]

Welcome to the forum Jodie. It may be worth your while to look through the topics in this section. Many are queries and questions that probably would not get a correct answer anywhere else. The collective knowledge of enthusiasts and researchers here is vast and often the impossible answer can be found. Good luck with the job.

[Jodie]

Thank you; I have been reading the section with great interest yesterday and today. The amount of detailed knowledge is, as you, say hard to match anywhere. I look forward to engaging with the forum and its members more. I should note (and this relates to an earlier post, too), I am full time at the University of Huddersfield; the CRT role is honorary (i.e. I do the CRT activities in addition to my lecturing role and without additional payment).

[Derek R.]

I'd echo Laurence's comments, but be aware that many of the folk who worked the boats are a fast dying breed, even the modern enthusiasts are struggling to learn their ways and as can be read on other threads, mistakes can still be made. I'm no expert in anything, and have only been around the cut since '79, but there are others whose families were linked directly, it is they who need approaching for further research for what went on in terms of boats and their handling and who did what and where. As regards to company histories, there is much that has already been published and is common knowledge. What is being lost are the peoples stories - so many already gone.

 

Good luck with the research, I hope the efforts are fruitful and can be incorporated in future CRT activities - though you may have an uphill struggle.

[Aurelia]

Congratulations on your appointment, Jodie. I hope you enjoy your research and look forward to reading the results.

[Bekaybe]

Derek and others have made a very good point. There are still quite a number of people around who have worked the canals. Mal Edwards MBE comes to mind. I have listened to many a fascinating tale over the years. These are the people whose first hand recollections need to be recorded.

 

Edward Pageat-Tomlinson recorded, to tape, many hours of recollections of canal families around the North West. I wonder what happened to these? Proably stuffed away in some dusty archive I guess.

 

Knowing who to talk to is where the knowledge of the wider canal community can play a part.

 

[Pluto]

Although having a good background knowledge of canals would be useful, you should be able to challenge some of the current perceptions of waterway history. I helped Guido Fackler, a cultural historian from Wurzburg University, when he was looking into the effect of 18th and 19th century canal building on society. It gave me a somewhat broader view of the importance of Bingley 5-rise locks, something I wouldn't have had without contact with someone from outside the usual canal circles.

 

On 19th century literature, I would certainly think that Edward Baines and Samuel Smiles, both newspaper men, are worth considering regarding their effect on how canals and industrialisation are recorded today. Adrian Jarvis has already written about Smiles, though further work would be useful. Then there are all the diaries and other stories, many of which have not been considered in any depth by canal historians. I should also mention the dialect writer, John Hartley's, 'Grimes Comical Trip from Leeds to Liverpool by Canal'.

 

For me, one of the major problems with academic work today is how it is funded. Projects seem to be so narrow in their subject matter that they begin to loose relevance. It is perhaps a result of modern economics, where everything is decided by the bottom line, and no account taken of wider benefits. Many successful canals were not very good financial investments on their own, but they brought wider benefit to the local economy and society, and this is what modern investments are failing to do today. Now there's a subject for good academic research.

 

As to Edward Paget-Tomlinson's recordings, they are probably in his own archive which his wife Pam looks after. However, she has moved recently and I am unsure where things are at the moment. Edward kept meticulous notes of interviews as well, though unfortunately in his own particular style of hand writing.

[Giant]

Genuine question: which human stories of the canals do you think should reach wider public and academic audiences?

 

To me, there is a very clear answer to that question: those of the North East.

 

There is precious little public awareness nationally that the broad canals around the Humber even exist, let alone that they are home to whole different types of much larger working boats, the trade for which was still booming in the decades when the narrow canals in the rest of the country were in terminal decline. Some of the last of that has only just ended. We were there in Goole closing the purchase of our own Humber keel on the same day in 2013 that the gravel barges were laid up to rest. The sadness around the whole community was palpable. Last year saw the massive 600 ton Humber Princess, still working up to Rotherham, laid up too.

 

The folk that worked these boats, and others back to the 60s and 70s, are still around. I'm on a group on Facebook with a lot of them, sharing photos and stories and piecing together the histories of the different boats and people and where they all ended up. All that should be captured and only a few enthusiasts are doing it.

 

The Humber Keel & Sloop Preservation Society has done a great deal in restoring, maintaining and regularly sailing a keel and sloop, and has along the way collected a lot of historical material - primarily on the sailing era. The Yorkshire Waterways Museum at Goole not only preserves a number of boats, including the unique Tom Pudding system, but also holds a great deal of other historical material relating to the North East waterways, much of which has recently been scanned and put online. But the museum almost closed a year ago for lack of funds. CRT don't even list its existence on their museums page.

 

There's a story to be told in the North East, and it's one of an almost completely different canal system with its own boats, traditions, history and people. One that was still active and profitable long after the government had decided that waterways were obsolete, and sorely neglected as a result of that decision - something that many of the folk who worked it are still angry about today.

[Pluto]

I remember about 20 years ago talking to a professor of transport at one of the Berlin universities, and his amazement when I told him that the A&CN was carrying around 4 million tons per year. At the time, a smaller continental waterway would have been considered well used with1 million tons annually. The Department of Transport just didn't seem to have any interest in promoting inland water transport, or telling people about what was, at the time, a very useful English waterway.

[Jodie]

Thank you all for these insights (and welcomes!); much appreciated. I will be following them up.

[Grebe]

Hi Jodie, welcome to the forums.

 

The clear message coming from this thread is that there is valuable information out there. It is either sitting in various peoples various collections or is waiting to be discovered and recorded. However with a very exceptions where atrefacts come to the market the value of information is only realised when it is made available to all of us.

[pete harrison]

On 10/02/2016 at 16:43, pete harrison said:

I will watch this new role with interest, but I am already fairly confident that it will add no value, even though it apparently carries no cost

So we are fast approaching 2 years since the announcement of Dr Jodie Matthews appointment as Honorary Research Fellow, but apart from this thread I have never heard another thing regarding this. Am I missing something ?

[Sea Dog]

1 hour ago, pete harrison said:

So we are fast approaching 2 years since the announcement of Dr Jodie Matthews appointment as Honorary Research Fellow, but apart from this thread I have never heard another thing regarding this. Am I missing something ?

Well it appears she was on here for just that one week in Feb '16 and hasn't been back since, so it's unlikely we're gonna hear from the lady herself.  I guess you're thinking that your first thoughts at the time were pretty much right?