Boat People of the Black Country: Canal Study Day
The Black Country Living Museum, Saturday 23 September 2017
9.00 Arrival, tea and coffee
9.30 Opening Lecture: Black Country Canals
Dr Paul Collins (Local historian)
Waterways played vital role in the development and daily life of the Black Country. Without the canals there would scarcely have been a Black Country at all. The ill-defined area that forms the Black Country lacked any navigable rivers, but sat upon untold mineral wealth in the form of an incredibly thick ten yard seam of coal, plus clay, iron ore and other minerals, plus stone which outcropped at or near to the surface. The canals unlocked this potential and made much that followed, from around 1770 onwards, possible. This talk will take the form of a brief voyage along the Black Country’s seven main canal routes. Some of these no longer exist, and many of the industries and activities seen are consigned to history. But all is not lost. A lot of the Black Country’s canals are still in water and in use, often through the dedication and persistence of the various canal trusts which have been formed since the 1950s.
10.15 Working the Cut 1: Mary Ward
Pat York, Learning Team Manager
Pat will tell the story of Mary Elizabeth Ward - the third of fifteen children born in 1905 to Philip Ward and his wife Hannah, a traditional boating family. Mary worked on canal boats for most of her life. She worked the “cut” throughout both world wars, and became Captain of President – the Museum’s steam narrowboat – in 1941
11.00 Break
11.15 Walk to Dudley Canal Trust
11.30 Dudley Canal Trust Boat Trip
Exploring the limestone mines under Dudley. The tour includes an interactive show explaining how limestone was originally formed and how it was exploited by miners during the 18th century.
12.00 Working the Cut 2: Oral History Project
Dudley Canal Trust
(The Function Room, Dudley Canal Trust)
12.45 LUNCH
(Vouchers for fish and chips/meal on site)
13.30 Walking Tour of Castlefields Boat Dock
Rebecca Wilton, BCLM Boat Demonstrator & Local Historian
14.30 Working the Cut 3: Working at Caggy Stevens
Donald Payne
15.15 Break
15.45 Closing Lecture: The boatmen of the Chesterfield Canal
Philip Riden, Department of History, University of Nottingham
The Chesterfield Canal was an isolated waterway, connected to the rest of the system only by a junction with the Trent below Gainsborough, on which a unique type of narrow boat was used, mainly as day boats. Until about 1900 most were owner-operated, although the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, which bought the canal in 1847, had a small fleet with employed masters. Farley & Co., the Hull and Gainsborough ship's agents, later ran a handful of boats. In the laternineteenth century the canal mainly carried coal down to the Trent and brought back corn, malt and fertiliser. Because of its location andthe small scale of operations, it is possible to use standard genealogical sources to reconstruct a detailed picture of boatmen on the Chesterfield Canal (and their families)between about 1850, when railway competition began to affecttraffic, and 1950, when it ceased altogether. This talk will present the results of this research and offer some general conclusions about the scope for work of this sort on canal boat people.
16.30 Questions
16.45 Finish