Working the Abington Canal: Narrowboat People in a Christmas Miniature Village Display

NOTE:  For background to this article you may wish to read the two blogs of Tuesday, April 26, 2011, "'Navvies':  Builders of English Canals and Railroads in Dept. 56 Villages" and "Dept 56 Dickens' Village 'Abington Canal Series.'"

The Golden Age of Canals in England, between 1770 and 1840, gave rise to a whole new subculture of canal people, who helped fuel the industrial revolution by plying narrowboats through England's extensive canal system, carrying loads of either raw materials or finished products.  This is the story of these colorful canal people

Dept 56, Dickens' Village
"Abington Canal Boat," 58522

Living on Narrow Boats  Families of narrowboat operators originally lived on land.  By the 1830's, however, boatmen were suffering from competition from the new railroads, and fares for transporting goods by boat were being slashed.  Boatsmen could no longer afford rent on land, and they needed more "free" help on the boats to stay competitive.  Abington Canal Boat (Set of 2) - Department 56 (Retired)

Using family members, instead of hired help, could cut the cost of labor, and thus raise the profit margin.  Faster hauls and expeditious turnarounds were important since boatsmen were paid by the tonnage hauled, not by the time required for transportation. More "hands" made hauling faster, and thus more profitable.

Photo from www.canal-photos.co.uk

Additionally, the boatsman would be paid more if he unloaded the cargo himself, so the family help was even more beneficial.  Of course, many families just wanted to stay together, and came on board for that reason.  Therefore, increasingly, married men and their families came to live on the narrow boats. http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/narrowboats-a-brief-history-3272548.html

Narrowboats could only measure about 7 feet in width in order to navigate through all English canals and locks.  However, the boats could be up to 70 feet in length.  The owners had great pride in their boats, painting them in bright colors and highlighting their names in two-colored shadowed lettering.

Ropework design on narrowboat.
Photo from canaljunction.com

Ropework woven in intricate panels also decorated the boats.

Interior of Narrowboat caption.
Photo from fotosearch.com
#u18506316

The rear of the boat became the boatman's cabin, where the family cooked, ate, slept, and lived.  It measured only about 3 meters (9.9 ft.) X 2 meters (6.56 ft.)  Imagine storing food, water, clothes, supplies, and everything else needed for a family in such a small area.  It is easy to romanticize, but the life must have been difficult, particularly since small children shared the space.

Photo from National Waterways Museum

To protect young children from falling into the canals, the mothers would harness them to the roof of the boat.  Starting at about age 5, the children might begin to work by steering the boat.  At  7, children could be seen leading towhorses, and by age 12 or so, even opening the locks.  By 1895, there were approximately 4000 children living on narrowboats.

Photo by Robert Longden

Canal boat families with children lived on the water into the 1950's.  Canal People: The Photographs of Robert Longden

Castles and Roses painting.
Photo from canaljunction.com

Art of the Narrowboats  The interiors, panels on the exterior, and even domestic tools like pails, stools, and pots were frequently painted in the "Roses and Castles" style.  This folk art included very colorful paintings of landscape scenes and profuse explosions of flowers.  Roses and Castle painted goods were a source of pride to boat families.

Some of the most popular decorative pieces were called "bright bits."  These intricate brass workings, made from sand casting molds, were originally made for harness decorations, but later adapted for boat decoration. The bright bits were executed in bold, yet simple, designs, such as crescents, sun discs, stars,  or hearts.  Many believed they brought good luck or protected against the "evil eye."

Photo from canaljunction.com

While steering the narrowboat, women had time to crochet, and many produced delicate shelf edgings or decorations for shawls, hats, and belts.  They even crocheted earcaps for their horses, to protect them from flies as they pulled the boat.

Measham Ware teapot.
Photo from etsy.com

The most valued cookware on board a narrowboat was Measham pottery.  Also called bargeware or canalware, this pottery was made around 1860 to 1910.  It was usually glazed in dark brown and featured flowers and sometimes animals in white relief.

In subsequent blogs I will introduce you to the horses that towed the narrowboats and to the men who made a living on land servicing the narrowboat trade.

"Navvies": Builders of English Canals and Railroads in Dept. 56 Villages

One of my most popular historical blogs is from Feb. 25, 2011, entitled "Abington Canal Series."  I re-posted this article just below today's blog, should you wish to reference it after reading about "Navvies":  Builders of English Canals and Railroads!
______________

"English Navvies and the Iron Horse, Acton Grange,"
Birtles, Warrington, from Salford Local History Library,
published: www.transportarchive.org.uk/ getobject.php?rnum=T2176&searchitem=&mtv=&pnum=

The canal and railroad building-spree that gripped England in the early 19th century contributed to the rise of the industrial age by providing a safe, efficient, and economical means to transport raw materials to factories and to distribute the manufactured products to cities.

New Jobs and New Ways of Life:  The men who built the canals and railroads spawned a new and distinct subculture in Victorian society.  This is a story of the builders of canals, and how they lived.

Navvies near Sheffield, Yorkshire,
Digitally repaired by Andre Hallam,
Published by Brett Payne, "Photo-Sleuth."

Navvies:  Colorful Guys who Built the Big Stuff:  Building canals and railroads was hard, dirty, dangerous work performed by men called "navvies," or laborers, who worked during England's Industrial Revolution on large-scale civilian projects.

Dept. 56, Christmas in the City,
"Keeping Sidewalks Clear," 808830
Surrounded by dirt, this figure would
look like the men in the photo above. 

Since workers such as these frequently had a say in plotting routes of canals and railroads, they became known as navigators, or "navvies."  Most of their work, though, was physical.  They used pick axes, shovels, and back-breaking strength to dig canal ditches and shape rail tip slopes, and dry acerbic wit to dampen the hardness and isolation of their existence.Department 56 Christmas in the City Village Keeping Sidewalks Clear Accessory Figurine

If you would like to see some dramatic images of canal-building, with a wonderful musical accompaniment by author and musician Foster Brown, click on this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcDJ5hmTkpo  You can find information about Foster Brown at www.FosterBrown.net.

Navvies in front of their hut in Leicester, circa 1897.
Leicestershire Co. Council,
Pub. by Railwayarchive.org

Often working in sparsely-populated and inaccessible locations, navvies were housed in temporary buildings, dormitories, or shoddy huts, which distanced them from local residents and culture.  Our own Villager Charles John Buffam (Boz) Dickens himself described one of these huts in "All Year Round," Vol. 74:

...poor thin edifices of a single storey, facing the Canal...as higgledgy-piggledy as the Canal banks in the neighborhood...Disorder and dirt were rampant.  And the walls of the room were loosely papered with fragments of fifty different patterns, which from they grime might have been rescued from a Runcorn Ashpit.(1)

Dept. 56, Dickens Village,
"Fagin's Hide-A-Way," 56.55522

Fagin hardly lived better, and his Dickens' Village house could stand as a Navvie home:Dept. 56 Dickens Village Oliver Twist Fagin's Hide-a-way 55522

Dept. 56, Dickens' Village,
"Constables," 56.55794

Most often "navvies" were single men or living away from their families.  Their living conditions were so bad that it was difficult to stay clean or prepare food in a normal manner.  Because of this transitory lifestyle, they did not integrate with surrounding towns.  This isolation from conventional society brought on violence, heavy drinking, and lack of conventional morality, which further isolated them. It was a vicious cycle, and the police were frequently called in.  When navvies completed their work and left the area, local communities celebrated.

Yet Dickens had kind words for the men, and gave hope for an improvement in their lives:

Navvies...big ruddy fellows, most of them, walking advertisements of the virtues of honest open-air toil....And yet, I daresay, when the "Ship Canal" job is over, the tenants of this dismal camp will settle down elsewhere and form as neat a home as need be.  The transitory does not stimulate like the permanent. (2) 

Dept. 56, Dickens' Village,
"Keeping the Streets Clean," 56.58532,
Surrounded by dirt, these would work well in
a construction scene with "navvies."

Navvie Names:  Their names for themselves belied their humor, and said a lot about them.  "Lank" would hail from Lancashire, or was lanky.  "Yorkie," from Yorkshire;  "Moonrakers" were Wiltshire men; "Taff," a Welshman.  A "Punch" was a man from Suffolk, named after their big horses, or sometimes the name just referred to a wide-shouldered squat man, like "Punch and Judy."  A common nickname was "Scan," short for "Scandalous...a name so common it's a mystery how so many navvies managed to scandalize so many others as to earn it."  (Read that again if you didn't get it the first time.)  (3)Keeping the Streets Clean #56.58532

From http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/sullivan/4.html
Notice the "pantry" and the metal tea bottles.

Navvie Language--Colorful as the Men Themselves:  To the "navvie," food was called "tommy," and it was purchased in a "tommy-shop,"
and wrapped in red and white fabric called a "tommykerchief."  The "tommy" was carried to work in a straw bag called a "pantry."  Tea was the "navvie's" drink, made onsite in a "drum," which was any biscuit tin or basket with a handle.  Making tea was "drumming up," and the tea was carried by the "navvie" in a metal tea bottle.  A "nipper" was a boy who "drummed up." (4)

Dept. 56, Christmas in the City,
"Bucket Lunch," 799984
Notice how similar he is
to the men in the photo above.

Department 56 Christmas in the City provides a perfect fill-in for a lunching "navvie," the "Bucket Lunch."Department 56 Christmas in the City Bucket Lunch 799984

According to a "navvie," to "welsh" or to "slope" was to do a "midnight flit," or sneak away without paying your debts.  The worst sort of "sloping" was for one "navvie" to steal from another, though that was not wide-spread.  "Sloping" was considred dangerous, since you never knew when you would meet up with your victim again. "Slopers" were not considered "navvies," but rather "...moochers (that) have no business working with decent men, and bringing disgrace on our respectable class.  I wish every (sloper) was back and starving where they came from." (5)

Gang of navvies near Haddenham,
Buckinhamshire, from
www.railwayarchive.org.uk/stories/getobjectstory.php?rnum=L2202&enum=le123&pnum=0&maxp=8

Dept. 56, Dickens' Village,
"London Gas Worker," 56.58576
Surrounded by dirt, a good representation
of man in a navvie costume.

Navvie Dress:  The most common clothes for navvies were knee-breeches or long sturdy woven pants, vests, white shirts, and thick-soled shoes.  Apparently in the early railway period, navvies dressed more gallantly, with "scarlet waistcoats, glowing neckerchiefs, velveteen coats, white felt hats with the brims turned up, breeches buttoned at the knees, high-laced boots.  The "navvies" above, and the Dept. 56 worker to the left, however, seemed more sensibly attired. 6)London Gas Worker Dept. 56 Dickens Village D56 Dv


References:  (1) http://books.google.com/books?id=1N4RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=charles+dickens+canals+navvies&source=bl&ots=VwHNBIRyKF&sig=z63ImNMTF4eJqYBPpdTFSCXweR0&hl=en&ei=yZu1Ta-iOsffiALbq7ivBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false  (2)  See #1 above.  (3), (4), and (5) http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/sullivan/4.html