canal crafts and traditions

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CRAFTS & TRADITIONS

The crafts and traditions of the old canal community developed from the distinctive lifestyle of the boatmen and women who lived out their lives in the confines of the canal system of the 19th Centuary.
It was short lived as we think of time today, lasting only about 200 years.
The boats origanally were crewed on a daily basis, it was the coming of the railways which promoted the living boats that we think of when we refer to the traditional narrow boats.
Roses and castles spring to mind when we think of boat decoration.
No one is sure where this originated from, the narrow boats came before the gypsy vardohos, so this could not have been the origin.
From personal observation they do seem to resembol the paintings on the bows of Spanish fishing boats, and Arab dhows have traditional signs to give them good luck, so maybe the just evolved from many traditions.
what does it matter, they are attractive in their own right so let us just enjoy the crafts of the waterways and be thankful that they are still with us today.

This is Alan Ewins of Get Knotted.
He can be found at Warwick TopLock

Rope on boats is a functional necessity, there is so much of it that it was only time before it became a part of the decoration of the boats. Cotton rope is the most common type of rope found on boats, not because its white, but because it will stretch and take a strain and take up the load slowly, where if sisal rope was used it would break if a sudden strain was put upon it.
The splicing of rope became necassary occupation for the boatmen, maybe it helped to while away the time on long streaches of cut with no locks to tend.
Today we do not have to learn how to splice and knot we can buy our fenders from people like Alan who keep the old craft alive.

Sue Days Horse `Bonney`

Towing horse harness

Sue Day, models the traditional bonnet worn by many boatwomen of the canal days.
I think it used to be worn further over the face than Sue has it in this photo.

This barrel has nearly all of the old traditional symbols of the boat painting, photographed at the Crick boat Festival 2004