Bartimaeus

There was a distinct change in the weather forecast for the day after our ride. It was a good plan to cycle in the sunshine and leave the museum till the next day. It turned out to be much larger than I had thought. Several buildings were involved. A great many boats (inside and outside) as well as boat artifacts and even a row of replica houses. 

I am used to seeing the odd vintage boat or hull, but this collection included not only narrow boats but other craft that might have been in the area  before the canals, rowing boats, coracles, a dug out canoe. As well as a few narrow boats there were several ice breakers too. 

The arrival of the industrial revolution, with mass production, brought demand for increased transport of mass goods, coal to be transported and goods produced in large mills and the huge engineering task of creating a network linked canals. The museum had a room of steam engines, a boat used down in mines and giant winches used to haul boats up the slipway. 

The boat used to haul coal inside mines was very robust and called a starvationer because of its exposed ribs. 

The heavy working boats were more robust and the demand to keep the industry and profits going meant that ice breakers were used. A canal is more likely to freeze than a river but companies don’t pay for transport if their goods aren’t shifting so they had ice breaker boats. I have seen the solid hulls of these boats but hadn’t realised they were manned by several men rocking back and forth in side. There was a movement detecting activity that suggested you mimic the rocking action. We had a go.

The building of them was heavy going and tools and a navvies hut were on display. The hut was pretty tiny with no room to stand up and living on a work boat wasn’t much bigger. At first the boats had two men on them and families lived in houses, but times change and tougher times meant that families moved on to the boat so they didn’t pay for accommodation as well and could keep moving and do longer journeys. This lead to more decorated interiors with rag rugs, colourful knitted or crocheted blankets, painted wood and utensils and lace edged curtains as room dividers, made by hand. Utensils were brightly painted with the name of the boat on them. Ribbon plates decorated the walls, but these that did not make themselves..

The boat families were still very poor and the children largely unschooled, except in the trade of boat handling or horse handling. Mobile schools were set up but families were on the move and all hands were needed. A family on a boat meant children leading horses and helping loading to speed things up.

Further changes in technology made some boaters give up horses with engines fitted inside boats. This meant they could increase income with a move to sole handling again, whereas a horse needed at least two workers. Plus you had to buy food for the horse. Some were too attached to their horses to give them up. Women crocheted ear cover for their horses and some one has has created a crochetedcover for a horse and a bicycle.

The cafe had crocheted flowers on the tables too. We had spent a good long time there but I hadn’t found the houses. I had seen a travelling navvies hut and a boatyard workers shelter where they might have lunch on a cold day.

Shane knew where they were and it showed the changes in home comforts and housework, lighting, washing, cooking, heating and toilets were different in each little house. I was thinking we had seen about everything but had lost Shane and was standing outside when I noticed the fire brigade. They seemed to be pumping water from the canal and using the hoses in a training exercise, just in front of Bartimaeus. Luckily it was not a fire on board as that would have been an unfortunate change to our plans for the next few days.