Towpaths in the horse-boat era.

[MoominPapa]

It's been raining for a week, and all the heavily-used towpaths around here, apart from the ones which have been coverted into cycle racetracks, have started to turn very muddy.

That made me think about what it was like when horses were tramping up and down the towpaths every day. Surely they must have reduced the towpaths to an impassible quagmire during the winter?

Was that the case, or were the towpaths maintained and surfaced somehow to avoid it? What with? Maybe ashes or clinker would work, and that would be fine around the BCN and in industrial areas. More difficult for the rural miles and miles of the South Oxford or the Shroppie.

 

Cheers,

 

MP.

 

[mrsmelly]

Good question MP. Praps some old boat enthusiast like Alan F might know the answer? Probably boil down to it will have been muddy as hell but people were not as poncy as we all are now so just got on with life muddy or not?

[Ray T]

Closest I can find to historical muddy towpaths.

To quote Mike H who's dad William preferred 'orse boating to a motor "We just got on we it." After all time was money to working boaters.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Ray T

[cuthound]

Wouldn't the horse manure help bind the mud?

[Ray T]

8 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Wouldn't the horse manure help bind the mud?

Well it was used with tar to make HOSMUCANTA, apparently very effective at plugging leaks in wooden boats.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Ray T

[Nightwatch]

Can't remember names,but my brother knows quite well the lady who operates the Horseboat on the Wey, or is it the Basingstoke.

[Ray T]

Just now, Nightwatch said:

Can't remember names,but my brother knows quite well the lady who operates the Horseboat on the Wey, or is it the Basingstoke.

Sue Day? 

http://www.horseboating.org.uk/

[Nightwatch]

That's him. No it's not. Jenny Roberts is the lady. It's just that I'd heard of Sue Day. I think Sue can be a bit bossy if you get in her way. Jenny also doesn't suffer fools gladly. 

Edited April 2, 2018 by Nightwatch

[Tumshie]

Unlike us humans who walk heel to toe, horses have a slightly toe first action and as they walk their hind foot should land almost exactly in the foot print that the front one has just left - this is called tracking up. I hope that's not as clear as mud. This means that they can cut up soft ground really quickly. 

Unfortunately horses also hate being made to walk through mud so if they can they will try to walk it round which means the muddy path gets wider and wider, while this is slightly harder for them when they are dragging something, walking at their head may necessary.

Having said that horses will happily stand knee high in mud at the field gate when a bucket of something edible is due to arrive. Go figure.

If you get a lot of horses walking the same path they can sometimes create a slightly corrugated effect across the path, which is really hard work and a bit ankle breaking if you're the one walking behind holding the lines. As I don't know how many horses a day were walking the towpaths, I don't know of this was an issue or not.

As every one who has ever emptied an ash pan knows a cinder path can be a good way deal with mud but again I don't know what the mud to cinders ratio was at that time. I've used cinders to turn an incredibly muddy field gate into pretty good hard standing, so it could be that some of the towpath was quite firm.

As has already been said mud or on mud both humans and horses would just have to get on with things but I do think the horse woking on the towpaths would have been for the most part quite happy with their lot.

Sadly horse poop does not help to bind the mud it just adds to it but it will give a rather nice green hue. 

While I have worked horses, I've never pulled a boat with one nor do I know anyone who has, so I'm sorry but I can't give a more detailed picture of boat horses specifically.

 

[Pluto]

This is lock 11 on the Wigan flight. The towpath would have been heavily used, particularly as boats had to be started out of locks, which required more effort than just keeping them moving. Some of the traffic was coal to mills, and as a perk from time to time, boatmen could be paid to remove the boiler ashes. A quick word with the local bank ranger would locate a suitable  section of towpath for the ashes, so the canal company had the towpath 'improved' free of charge and boatmen made a little extra cash.

[Derek R.]

The mixture of horse muck, cow hair and Stockholm tar known as chalico was laid on hot and used in lining the insides of a wooden hull, covered in brown paper or felt, and kept in place with Oak sheathing. The chalico helped seal the outer planks from within.

See: Robert Wilson's 'Boatyards and boatbuilding'.

Speaking of 'corrugations' made by horses, those made by cows along farm tracks in their twice a day milking would often be 12 inches deep - real ankle breakers when frozen in winter.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Derek R.
Added text

[Heartland]

i believe ashes were in ready supply and these helped with the maintenance of the towpath. In an age of coal there were many sources of ash from factory and works boilers.

The problem came when clay was washed down on the path making it very slippy. 

I horse boating days there was not a general problem of banks being eroded by the wash of passing motorised craft, allthough steam powered craft started making an appearance on canals during the 1820's, their use was initially limited. Another cause of wash, and towpath wear for that matter, was the packet boats. The Swift Packet on the BCN main line between Birmingham & Wolverhampton probably did affect the towpath in wet weather.

[X Alan W]

17 hours ago, Ray T said:

Well it was used with tar to make HOSMUCANTA, apparently very effective at plugging leaks in wooden boats.

I thought the "ingredient" of that was pitch/tar cow muck, & horse hair  may be regional variations dependent on availability

[Derek R.]

Well we are reaching into a boaters most talked about subjects now (usually at the dinner table) - poo.

Cow dung is more easily mixable (and it does make a difference whether they've been fed indoors during winter, or fresh grass in summer) and is generally less fibrous than horse dung. Either way, the fibrosity is added to by the hair, and a good batch of hot tar with said ingredients must have made some interesting smells around the boatyard. What would the neighbours say! Certainly the smell of a smouldering farm or stable dung heap brings back early memories for me - first job from school was as farm boy. And oddly enough, I'm back living on a cattle farm today - full circle.

Ashes - we'd filled holes in towpaths when tied up as a regular event, but todays ovoids have no 'body' - useless. Cinders and clinker were grippy.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Derek R.

[Pluto]

On chalico, I was told that it was best made with horse manure where the horses had been eating oats. The manure was boiled up with a mixture of tar and pitch to get a hard but flexible product, with all the water content of the manure boiled off. Mixing the pitch and tar could create foaming, with a major fire if any spilled over out of the container onto the fire. After application and covering with steel sheet, the manure part of the mixture would swell up and get pushed into any crevices, with the tar/pitch helping to stop further deterioration of the wood.

On bank protection, this was a problem even in the days of horse boating, and I have come across several late 18th century descriptions of planting the off side to reduce the effect of boats passing. The photo shows a culvert repair on the off side at New Lane, Burscough. The concrete piling will date from around 1960, and behind it you can see the plants which formed the original bank protection. Wooden piling was also used after steam boats began working circa 1880, though it was not fitted everywhere as the protection provided by plants was considered sufficient.