Canal Boat — January 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat January 2018 39

HISTORY

in the water with the well raked graceful

stern of the butty, and their finely curved

water-cutting bows was a sight never to be

forgotten. Samuel Barlow’s boats were the

most magnificently painted, coming as

they did from Nurser’s yard at Braunston,

SE Barlow’s boats were very handsome

but lacked something of the brilliance of

the Limited.

Thomas Clayton’s were more prosaic

and the roses and castles of the painter

Fred Winnet at Oldbury were decidedly

idiosyncratic. However sometimes

Clayton’s had their boats docked and

painted at the Atkins’ yard at Polesworth

and then they looked superb.

The painting that was most striking of

all was to be seen on the boats of the

‘Number Ones’, the men who owned and

worked their own boats and who arranged

their own business. They had immense

pride in their skills, their horses and their

boats and when economic circumstances

forced them to sell their boats and work

for a company like Barlow’s, they took

their standards with them.

The Oxford ‘Number Ones’ were known

and respected throughout the canals and

the Beauchamps, the Hones, the

Hambridges, the Harwoods, the

Humphrieses, the Jameses, the

Townsends, the Granthams, the Wilsons

and the Skinners are still remembered by

those of us fortunate enough to recall the

canals in their working days.

By 1950 nearly all had retired or worked

for a company. John Wilson continued

until 1951 with his motor boat Mable. Joe

and Rose Skinner with Friendship, towed

not by a horse but a little black mule called

Dolly, continued working until 1959 when

Dolly stumbled on a piece of ill-maintained

towpath, fell into the canal and caught

pneumonia from which she never

recovered.

As a small boy I was somewhat in awe of

Joe but became friends with him and Rose

in the Sixties, having been reintroduced to

them by another Oxford Canal boatman

Tom Humphries. They had a small cottage

at Hawkesbury Junction but continued to

live there on Friendship. To their

bewilderment they became celebrities of

the canal world until they died in the early

Seventies.

As well as the Skinners, I particularly

remember Sue and Albert Beechey who

worked the gas boats and the Littlemores,

who worked for SE Barlow. Dick was a man

of stature and dignity and he, his wife Ada

and their daughters kept their boats

immaculate as were those of the family’s

relations, the Stokes, who worked a pair of

Ovaltine boats on the Grand Union.

The Oxford Canal is now busier than

ever, but pleasure boats have long

replaced the working boats. No pleasure

boat can have for me the magic of the

sight, sounds and smells of a pair of

loaded boats being worked through

Pigeons Lock.

Sadly many people who travel the

canals today seem to have little or no

knowledge of the past and show scant

interest in it. But the working boats and

boat people must never be forgotten. I am

truly fortunate to have seen the last of the

working narrow boats and I am proud and

privileged to have been able to consider

among my friends some of those who

worked them. CB

The Littlemore family have just completed a tricky manoeuvre on the

Thames in their SE Barlow pair with a load for Wolvercote Mill

The Littlemore family’s butty in Banbury,

with Tom Rolt’s Cressy in the background

Joe Skinner in the back
cabin of Friendship