Life in a British Canal Boat, 1960s - Film 1007542

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Canal Life 1960's
Loading a narrowboat and butty with coal from a tipper truck. An elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Whitlock and Laura Carter, talk about their life on the cut. They have worked for thirty eight years in canal carrying. The track carries a nice canal traditional song. The woman says that there were two hundred pairs carrying coal in 1938 but there is just a few now. The narrowboats are beautifully painted in bright colours and shiny brass, they cruise though swing bridges and though locks. The boat with its butty towed by the method of the rope across the top of the boat rather than the usual way of at the gunwale level. This method was stopped as too dangerous as it can take your fingers off as it tightens. The man is on his bike and goes ahead to set the lock. Alverston Top Lock and Nuneaton.
John Hale of Kurley and Tongue Co., Bull's Bridge, Southall, Middlesex.
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