OBJECTS IN CONTEXT

By Robyn Priestley

Between 1750 and 1820 over one hundred canals were built across Britain, the first of them was the Sanky Canal opened in 1751, shortly followed by the Bridgewater Canal in 1761. The canal network was used to transport of food, raw materials and other products across the country cheap and efficiently. This helped Britain become the first industrialized nation in the world.

However, many of the earlier locks created were extremely thin and shallow and so and could only hold small barges. The locks were re built in 1835 to accommodate over another seven feet of water, making it more practical for larger barges to pass along, this was seen as a great investment. The most traditional form of transport on the British canals is the narrow boat. These were long and flat bottomed and consisted mainly of cargo space with a small cabin for the crew.

 

The boats were lead along the canal by horses on the towpath. A single horse pulling a boat could move over fifteen times the weight than it could pull on a cart along the old fashioned roads of the time. This proved to be an extremely economical method of transport.

Barnsley in the South of Yorkshire was a coal-mining town, and used the canals as their main and most efficient transport system. Cities surrounding Barnsley such as Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Huddersfield were also developing large textile and coal mining industries. All four cities were linked by the canal navigation systems -(the Aire and Calder Navigation system and the River Don Navigation System.)

(A historic map of Barnsley with highlighted canal paths)

Around 1836, Thomas Hamond Bartholomew, a Barnsley man and one of Mr George Leather’s (a noted canal engineer) most treasured members of staff, felt his work was not appreciated enough and he decided to take a different job role working for the Air and Calder Navigation Company. The company guaranteed him double the pay and offered him and his wife residence at the company’s house at Lake Lock, located between Barnsley and Wakefield. This was the house that on the 30^th of January 1831 his son William Hamond Bartholomew was born.

William Bartholomew, known as a young boy to his friends as “just Will,” grew up on the grounds of Lake Lock wood. His father would often bring home friends who worked at the companies repair shops to discuss business (and repairs) over dinner. William would listen closely to their conversations and was fixated at the technical drawings that were laid before him. He later attended Wakefield Grammar School, where he strongly excelled in Mathematics and Art. Will would visit his Grandmother in Barnsley at the weekend and since he was lucky enough to be creative AND academic, he would often find himself sitting in the back bedroom of the small terraced house his “Nanan” owned sketching the barges that would pass across the canal that ran behind her house. These drawings were often accompanied by detailed listings of what it he imagined them to carry –in those days he thought they could to be full of sweets since the last shop he could see as the Canal faded into the distance was the local news agents, as it grew to winter and the intricately painted, more desirable barges passed he imagined them to be full of presents for the people on the street.

As William developed, his weekly drawings of the barges developed too in keeping with the different styles of the time. He worked along side his father during the day, doing whatever work he could to help, then, in his spare time his mind would wonder over his drawings and he started thinking more about the practicality of the barges, he knew that the mining industry was speeding up and that with more and more coal to be transported across the canals he began to design larger structured barges, playing with scale and considering stability. He often would create and test small model versions of his designs with the tools found around the company’s workshops.

His Father, Thomas Hamond Bartholomew, died around William’s twenty fifth birthday. The Aire and Calder Navigation Company that Thomas had dedicated the last years of his life to assigned William to be an engineer to fill the vacancy left by his father.

William met and quickly married Maria Wilson at the age of 29, in 1860. Being one of the lead engineers he decided to propose the creation of “a new type of barge” to the company. He set up a meeting and spread across the table masses of technical drawings presenting a series of compartment boats that would be fixated together liked a train and would be pulled along buy a tug. The presentation was a success; the compartment boats were put into production and later nicknamed “Tom Puddings,” (Tom’ meaning something large and ‘Pudding’ because the compartments of the boats looks like intestines or a strings of sausages.) They were used across the country and in particular Barnsley to transport coal from the collieries to Goole, and then on to the power stations.

(photograph of a "Tom Pudding" boat)

The chain of boats making up the “Tom Puddings” often consisted of up to twenty-one compartments, and most would flow at different levels depending on the type of coal being used. The front few of compartments were usually not fully loaded to make the pull on the boat more efficient. The “Tom Puddings” proved to be extremely practical and economical making the trips more beneficial to the power stations due to the sheer amount of coal being delivered in such large bulks. This kept the traffic on the canal down.

Goole, located in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was wear a large number of empty compartments and tugs would be kept. Power stations would inform Goole daily of their requirements, which would allow the coal coming in to Goole on the boats to be evenly distributed into other compartments before going on. 

news paper article about the explosion in Barnsley Colliery Coal Mine 1847

 

Barnsley coal mine now

The “Tom Puddings” were such a success that William Bartholomew was rewarded with a promotion and went on to went on being heavily involved in the design and development of larger projects such as the Aldam dock, the Victoria Lock, the Stanhope dock and the South Dock. These are now described as “Bartholomew’s Vineyard” situated in Goole. (The Aldham Dock was built to ease over crowding this was similar to the Victoria Lock and the South Dock, which were built to cope to build with the new larger vessels using the port. The Stanhope Dock was built containing a fifty-ton crane, which was used to move heavy goods from the barges to the carts.)

By this point William Bartholomew and his wife, Maria had two healthy daughters. Maria was expecting her third child, that winter Maria suffered a traumatic labor and they lost their infant son shortly after he was born. William decided to take time some time of work to support his family. Due to recent events he decided that with the money he had collected over the years from his inventions, he would buy the land and an old cottage close to where his grandmother once lived and transform it into a small hospital, (a building that if it would have been there on the cold winter night when his wife went into labor could have possibly saved his sons life.)

On the 12^th of December 1867, Thomas Blacker Field whose occupation was a cow keeper, brought 1,939 square yards of land located in Old Mill Barnsley, from John Gilliot and Mary Radley for the price of £550. A part of this land was bounded on the North by a proposed new road (30ft wide) that would later be named “Twibell Street,” after Joseph Twibell –an owner of the land many years before.

Thomas Blacker Fields newly claimed land was also located on the South Towing Path of the (Canal) Aire and Calder Navigation Company. The land to the west of the canal was already owned by Field and was the center of a proposed new street 30 feet wide called Warf Street… the complete pieces of land that had just been brought by Thomas Blacker Field are highlighted in pink and brown and outlined in red. Field agreed to the passing of other boats on his canal and for other locals to use his newly proposed streets whenever needed. He also agreed that if any coal, ironstone lead or any other minerals were found to be lying underneath his newly claimed land he would not hesitate give the land back to Barnsley council.

Field a humble man, loved Barnsley, and since he had money to do so, he dedicated his life to giving back to the community, and created jobs for many towns people by building property’s around the outskirts of town, these were close to other land he had and used to keep animals (which he shared with another local farm.) He also built stables for horses and created buildings for slaughtering animals, running the slaughterhouses alone created over 50 jobs for the people of Barnsley.

In 1925, Alice Field, (granddaughter of Thomas Blacker Field,) married George Hunt. The wedding was a small one with only twenty guests at a local church called St Marys in the town center of Barnsley. There probably would have been more guests if the wedding hadn’t fallen on the snowy December Friday it had...

The couple had met very young and both of their families had been good friends for many years. George was given a job working as a stable boy for the Field family from a young age, Alice often used to come out to the stables after dinner and ride the horses with George. As they got older Alice would often meet with George on the newly built Twibell Street and walk with him along the towpath, behind the horse. The two of them would stop to chat to the “water gypsies” which were some of the poorer families, living on some of the smaller boats along the canal.

(photograph of a family living on the canal - some would call them "water gypsies")

On the 26^th of July 1920 Mr. George Hunt, (my great, great Grandfather,) inspired by Thomas Blacker Fields work and love of community, decided to buy the land around the Canal and one house from him, (for him and his wife.) He knew that Thomas was elderly now and did not want to see the ruin of his part of the canal. Thomas agreed to the sale and was happy to see the land passed down to another family member.

(These are scanned images of the original documents from when the land was signed over to George Hunt)

The use for transportation on the Canal continued to develop throughout the 1920s and new contracts were gained between George Hunt and local companies such as Woods Glass works, Redfearns Glass Works, Star Paper Mill and Monk Bretton Colliery.

After watching businesses pass through the canal George decided to invest in his own barge with the hope of making a profit over time from renting it out to other businesses. This did not prove to be a wise investment since the late 1800’s had seen the birth if the steam age, George knew that railways were taking over however he did not believe in this new faster method of transport. -He had been bought up surrounded by the horse filled fields of Barnsley, and he now owned a few himself. Being reasonably wealthy and a well known business man, he was approached many times by different companies who were interested in if he was going to invest in different methods of transportation, he did not believe in the “new technology” and believed that the use of lorries on the new roads could never be seen as effective as the barges on the canals.

He was proven wrong, as the canal could not compete against the speed of railways. The canal companies had to slash their prices to try and compete with this new method of transport. There was talk of canals in the surrounding cities being closed and replaced with rail lines. Many of the struggling barges came to a halt or were bought out by the railway companies; this was seen as a tactical move from the railway companies to remove the competition in the town. Many of the canal workers lost their jobs, whilst a few stayed dedicated to the canal transport system… most of the men who did however, began to find it hard to live with the cuts they were having to make and many moved their families onto the barges with them since they could no longer afford a house.

George Hunt’s business suffered greatly and the last boat that passed across his part of the canal was on the seventh of December 1950.  George and Alice sold their barge and a small amount of land but continued to keep their horses and remained living in the same house until they died. Their three sons although in their in their eighty’s continue to keep horses to this day.

A small few of the larger canal companies managed to survive and still to this day make a prophet, however this is extremely rare, and many of the people that use canals now are holiday makers. There has also been in some cases “pleasure boats,” such as hotel barges, so that people can book to sleep on them and then see the country at a slow pace. Many of the canals across Britain were filled in and rail tracks were placed where they had once been, a fine example of this is Croydon Canal.

Croydon Canal was opened in the early 1809 and ran from the Grand Surrey Canal to Cross Gate. The canal only survived until 1836 when talk of investment in the rail industry was too good to miss, so West Croydon rail and Bus station sit where it once was.

BRITISH CANALS IN 1982

Canals were not just used for transportation purposes, the Royal Military Canal on the Romney Marsh was built and a hiding place and barrier against invading troops during the Napoleonic War. They are also now used to hide network cabling, since companies often have to bury them in the ground and then dig them out if there is a problem, putting them in the canal removes the risk of damaging them.

(This is a photograph of some of the rail workers during the industrial revolution, their uniforms are simple jackets and trousers,  which are quite smart however not at all safety conscious,) 

There is also talk of bringing back the canals as a method of transport. The Scottish government for example is looking at the recreation of their canals. They have set out new aims to make the canals cleaner and more accessible to the public, they feel that this not only will be good got the environment but it will bring more money into the country from tourists. They believe that the canals are an excellent way to view the countryside, and there is talk of employing security to walk along the canals to make sure they are being cared for properly. Canals are no longer taken seriously by people as a method of transport however they can be seen to play a more varied role, - for example the flat tow paths could be used by cyclists or walkers.

There is also talk about canals being used as a mode of goods transportation again in Scotland. The government knows that it’s unrealistic to believe that canals we be able to out run trains or lorry’s, however with the rise in fuel prices in the economic climate, barges could be used for projects that involve large bulk goods that do not require “just in time” delivery. SUSTRANS – the sustainable transport charity have helped fund the renovation of the canals, particularly the ones along Pennine Way, (a national trail that runs along the Pennine hills, north of the Yorkshire dales finishing just inside the Scottish border,) and West Highland Way Canals (a path running from the north of Glasgow to fort William in the Scottish highlands.)

There are plan to restore two of the main canals which form the missing link between the Aire and Calder Navigation (running across Barnsley) and the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, which will recreate the Yorkshire Canal Ring. However, since some parts of the canal have been filled in, digging them out could mean that mining subsidence across the route could possibly create problems. Hopefully these problems will be resolved over the next 10 to 20 years, bringing back to life a vital part of Barnsley History. This also would create the possibility of new job opportunities and for money to be brought back into the town from outsiders passing along the canal.