{"id":1176,"date":"2022-05-20T20:19:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T19:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ywhs.org.uk\/?page_id=1176"},"modified":"2023-01-24T10:09:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T10:09:39","slug":"blog-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/itexpressonline.com\/ywhs\/blog-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Yorkshire’s Watermen Database"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Canal Boat Registration - Canal Boats Act, 1877<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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When campaigners were pushing the Canal Boats Act through parliament in 1877 the improvement of the cramped and often poor quality accommodation found on canal boats had been their major motivation. Particular concern had been expressed for the sleeping arrangements and impact on the moral welfare of women and girls. There were also concerns that children living on a travelling canal boat were not being given a proper education, as would a child living in a house. Registration was mandatory for the owner of any canal boat carrying commercial cargo on which persons slept overnight. After passing inspection the vessel was registered and a certificate issued to the owner which had to be carried onboard the vessel and produced on demand.<\/span><\/p>

The following extraordinary illustrations by the late Edward Paget-Tomlinson appeared in Humber Keels and Keelmen<\/em>\u00a0(1988) by Fred Schofield. They are reproduced here with the kind permission of the publisher but our attempts to contact Edward’s widow for her permission have proved unsuccessful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The left hand image shows the aft cabin of a typical wooden keel drawn from what Paget-Tomlinson described as an “impossible position above the stove” being the only way to show the complete layout. The right hand image shows the forward cabin from the bulkhead separating the cabin from the cargo hold.\u00a0 The canal boat inspector would measure the width, height and length of these cabins to compute the cubic capacity of space available to any family living onboard. He used published tables to establish how many adults and children were then legally allowed to inhabit that amount of space. The cabin dimensions and allowed numbers of persons were entered on both the register and certificate of registration given to the owner.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Creation of a Canal Boat Register for Yorkshire<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Society trustee David Scrimgeour was formerly one of the volunteers who worked in the archive at the defunct Yorkshire Waterways Museum. Having been a family historian for many years David found himself helping with enquiries from fellow genealogists searching for their watermen ancestors and the vessels they had worked on the canals and rivers of Yorkshire.<\/p>

Of the few printed sources available to help, Knottingley historian Ron Gosney\u2019s 1996 transcription\u00a0Register of Canal Boats for Goole Registration Authority<\/em>\u00a0was the most informative. Working keels with accommodation had to be inspected and registered following the Canal Boats Act of 1877. Listing 792 vessel registrations between 1878 and 1898 by name, Ron\u2019s document showed owners and masters with changes made since first registration. Great information for a genealogist but it was a nightmare to search through all 35 pages for names of keels and keelmen. Perhaps there would be an easier way to make the registers searchable?<\/p>

Prompted to see what other registers might exist it was discovered that registers for Hull, York, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Huddersfield, Doncaster and Wakefield have all survived to some extent. Reference to registrations was also found for Mirfield in local authority minutes allowing partial recreation of the Mirfield register.\u00a0Several archive visits later and the surviving registers had all been photographed. After many months of transcription, the known registration entries had been increased to just under 3,000. Further work is expected to add approximately 500 more registration records to the database which has been donated to the Society.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Observations on Yorkshire's Canal Boat Registers<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The typical registration entry for a Humber keel includes much information considered “meat and drink” to the curious genealogist. In particular the keel owners name and address is recorded although the master, if a different person, might only show a name. The keel’s name is recorded together with planned routes, likely cargoes, how she would propelled, how many cabins she had together with dimensions and the number of persons allowed to sleep onboard.\u00a0<\/p>

Sue Wilkes in Tracing your canal ancestors. A guide for family historians<\/em> had mentioned, almost as an aside, that the registers “if kept accurately” might contain changes of vessel ownership, master and boat name. From reading these registers for transcription it has been possible to gain an impression of how carefully they had been completed and how well they were kept up to date.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Registration for \"No 41\" a keel owned by Aire and Calder Navigation Company<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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