Using and Working the Canal - The Communities

Regular services

By the time work on the Kennet and Avon Canal was completed, both the Kennet and the Avon Navigations had long histories of use, and trade had continued on these waterways for many years.

It therefore followed that as the new waterway gradually reached completion, the knowledge, skills, working practices and social arrangements associated with the original navigations, spread to significantly influence the canal and its operational environment.

Once the canal was operational, long distance trade between London, Bristol, and the inland towns between, soon developed.

Dauntsey Wharf invoice - 1860

Families

Regular services were provided by some carriers from Bristol to major London wharves such as those at Queenhithe Dock, Kennet Wharf, and Three Cranes Wharf, all close to Southwark Bridge.

Apart from these regular services, there were additional special transport contracts.

For example in 1812 the marble plinths for Lord Pembroke's new colonnade at Wilton House near Salisbury were delivered by barge from London to Devizes.

Compared with travel by road, the regular canal service was considered to be exceedingly fast, with duplicate crews working all day and through the night, and regular changes of horses being arranged at suitable locations along the canal.

Eventually these arrangements enabled a five-day delivery service between the two cities to be established.

A vast improvement on the long, dangerous, and uncertain travel a coastal voyage would entail.

Somerset Coal Canal permit

Crews

Many of the boats used were individually owned, with the owner and his immediate family living aboard in what was likely to be their only accommodation.

This arrangement enabled family members, including children, to undertake crewing duties, and as the work was invariably unpaid, costs could be kept down and hopefully, profits and income for the family increased.

Earnings

In 1844 the canal company ruled that each barge or pair of boats working "fly" (fast service with navigational priority) must be crewed by a captain and four men and that each single boat had to be crewed by a master and three men.

Museum records show that Tom Hams and his father, George, both worked as bargemen for Robins, Lane and Pinniger, a local company established in 1812 as boat builders, traders and sawmill owners at Honeystreet in Wiltshire.

Narrowboat 'Caroline'

Skills

The elder Hams, Tom's father, earned 12 shillings (60p) a week as master of the Kennet Barge Unity.

This amount was below the national average for barge work at the time, but if a barge master did not have to pay for his crew or stabling for the horse, and had housing provided, then it could well have been a reasonable income.

Honeystreet was an important trading point on the K&A with virtually the whole village owned by Robbins Lane and Pinniger, who provided housing for their workers.

This sort of arrangement was not uncommon at the time, and with such stability it is not surprising that little migration occurred, and that rural families often remained in one area for many generations.

Trades

In addition to barge and boat owners and their families, canal operations required many other trades and skills for its successful operation.

Honeystreet Wharf, Woodborough, Wiltshire

These included maintenance and other engineers, boat builders, carpenters, blacksmiths, toll clerks and agents, as well as wharfingers, masons, lock keepers, and labourers.

As an example of this, the canal company employed the following staff in 1823.

Some of these were provided with the remuneration shown:

• One engineer - £300 pa plus house
• One sub engineer & mason - £100 pa
• Thirty-one lock keepers - 10/6 (52 ½ p) per week plus house
• Twenty-six navigators
• Twelve carpenters
• Two pump men
• One blacksmith

Next: Using and Working the Canal - The Cargoes