I used to have the LP that accompanied this documentary which included songs from the waterways. My partner and I live on narrowboats and we frequently sing "keep yer hands off, that's mine" to each other! Great documentary....thanks for uploading!
That was a real pleasure to watch and to listen to. I live on a narrowboat today and have cruised the network for the last seven years so know many of the places mentioned. I am writing this at Thrupp, on the Oxford canal (mentioned by Joe Skinner at 11.28 as 'Thrupp Bridge'). I also recognised some of the names, Rose and Joe Skinner were mentioned in Tom Rolt's book, 'Narrowboat' as he met them in 1939 while he was fitting out his boat Cressy at Tooleys boatyard in Banbury. Tooleys is still there, the oldest dry dock on the network, though no family member is involved these days. They blacked the hull of my boat three years ago and recently I attended a music event in the (empty) dry dock during the Banbury festival. I guess Leslie Morton must have been the head of Fellowes, Morton, and Clayton, the biggest owner of working boats on the canals. You still many boats bearing the logo, they used to be called 'Joshers' after Joshua Fellowes. We came so close to losing this heritage in the years after the second world war. Many of the canals were owned by the railway companies and when they were nationalised the canals could have been forgotten. Many were closed for years, the Rochdale and the Kennet and Avon to name two, but an army of volunteers worked to bring them back persuade the British Waterways Board to take on the maintenance. With the imminent ending of a Government funding scheme money is still tight and we boaters and facing above inflation rises in our licence fees for the next five years. As a Continuous Cruiser, ie. with no home base, I also pay a surcharge on my licence starting this year but if it keeps the network open it will be worth it.
Cool this was back in the day when the BBC covered the lives of ordinary people, now every time you put the TV it's dancing celebrities, or celebrities cooking, or celebrities buying antiques. Shame.
Evidently, that's what people want. I agree it's pathetic, but it is what it is - you need only look at the views of videos like this, versus some kid throwing slime at the wall, for proof of that. Obviously we're watching this and think it worthwhile, but unfortunately we're in the minority.
I used to watch the working boats on the Leeds/Liverpool canal in the early 1980's. You would see the odd barge pulled by a horse but they were very rare by then. The BBC made good documentaries back then too.
What a shame that the BBC today will never again celebrate our wonderful culture and heritage (once the envy of the world) These are the men who built Britain, who made the lives of future generations more comfortable and we should be eternally grateful.
Lived on a boat in the early 80's, bloody hard winters without any heating & finding a place to have a crap was often difficult - lot's of folk about walking dogs. I was once having a crap in ditch, when a woman on a horse popped into view, all I could think to say was "Good morning" she stuck her nose in the air, tutted, and rode on. My life was hard, but these men & women had it a lot harder, you can see it in their faces. Great documentary, thanks.
What a brilliant documentary 😂 😢 😮 so many stories, so many memories. Hard work, but what a reward to be classed as a real person. I live on a canal boat and still wonder how did they manage all those years ago.
nearly 60 years ago, and we see back another 60 years. I often visit the broads and walk along the canals - walking along the old horse paths, etc. Now it's just big pleasure boats up and down, up and down.
Great to see the faces to these familiar voices. I have the original BBC recording on vinyl. I was fortunate enough to first travel the canals in 1967 on the Grand Union in the last years of commercial carrying with Willow Wren and Blue Line. I remember visiting Braunston in 1966 aged 6 and seeing much of the Willow Wren fleet laid up below the bottom lock, some with lines of washing hanging above the hold. That view still holds some magic for me, but the boats are all pleasure craft. Despite that, the spirit of the old boat families still lives on in my memory. My son and daughter-in-law now live on a narrowboat.
Fantastic Documentary. I've been living aboard my boat for over five years now; so wonderful to hear these reminicenses, especially the 'diities.' I've been known to write my own boating ditties, so while the waterways change some things still remain the same.
1969: MEMORIES of the NARROW BOAT MEN | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0836am 31.12.24 wow, you knew where you were with the taking down of car number plates. whereas, in these days of social mobility and wanderlust, those cars you are hit by or who speed past you as you wander to the local store, could be from anywhere.... such is life.
All these old boys and girls are long gone now, but because of this documentary, their stories and words will live forever. The old chap at 3.10 has a marvellous face: full with character, even at his age is still ruggedley handsome.
Grandad told me a tale once about a boat man that he knew, how true it is I don't know. The man used to work the Rochdale Canal but did a stint on the Huddersfield Narrow. They found a body in the Huddersfield Narrow (1930s) and took it to the coroner in Stalybridge. At those times they got a shilling for their troubles from the coroner in Lancashire for bringing the body, but on delivering the body in Stalybridge they got 6/-. Grandad said the fellow said 'we only found one' but apparently in Cheshire the coroner paid six times the price, needless to say that once word got out the coroner in Lancashire was never as busy with drowning victims as his southern counterpart.
walked that E,port to LLangollen canal loads of times over the years,with different dogs, it was always my BOOSTER SHOT pick me up ,NATURE xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Used to fish Grantham canal disused, was abandoned in 1936 , but a woman living in the lock keepers cottage on a peppercorn rent to British waterways husband worked on the cut and she would tell stories about the boats. This was the late 80s early 90s probably the same distance in time what she was telling me 😬
I remember Mr Green he lived a few doors from us in a village called Rothersthorpe near Northampton, went to school with a few of his grand children in the 1960s.
"Joe never went to school. His wife was more fortunate". Having spent many dreadfully abusive years in the British comprehensive system, I beg to differ with that statement.
The canal network is still very much under threat there has been a massive breach on the bridwater canal , with the fundung cuts & the owners , i don't think it will ever open again
My Grandad grew up on a boat with my great grand parents. He was a Nixon or was it Slater- Nixon 🤔 i think they stopped working on the canal in the early 60s.
1969: MEMORIES of the NARROW BOAT MEN | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0839am 31.12.24 my mother and aunt etc recall writing on slate.. so these halcyon days aren't that antiquated a memory...
1969: MEMORIES of the NARROW BOAT MEN | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0833am 31.12.24 and like all aspects of the past - revived relived and revamped by nice craft-like folk who emerged from middle class hovels and misery to tell us how it is.... as for the old voices of the past - more than welcomed.
Pause the video, and look up at the top towards the right. There's a button that says "cc". Click that. It's not perfect, and you get some funny translations, but it helps.
Many people had very strong regional accents in those days. The people who were being interviewed grew up in the days before the influence of radio and TV.
Life on this planet is horrendous. Past present and future will be too. Glad it won't last forever. And that I didn't 'gift' it like so many of the shortsighted idiots surrounding me who just go through the motions.
I used to have the LP that accompanied this documentary which included songs from the waterways. My partner and I live on narrowboats and we frequently sing "keep yer hands off, that's mine" to each other! Great documentary....thanks for uploading!
What a marvellous documentary! An amazing piece of history.
isnt it x
That was a real pleasure to watch and to listen to. I live on a narrowboat today and have cruised the network for the last seven years so know many of the places mentioned. I am writing this at Thrupp, on the Oxford canal (mentioned by Joe Skinner at 11.28 as 'Thrupp Bridge'). I also recognised some of the names, Rose and Joe Skinner were mentioned in Tom Rolt's book, 'Narrowboat' as he met them in 1939 while he was fitting out his boat Cressy at Tooleys boatyard in Banbury. Tooleys is still there, the oldest dry dock on the network, though no family member is involved these days. They blacked the hull of my boat three years ago and recently I attended a music event in the (empty) dry dock during the Banbury festival.
I guess Leslie Morton must have been the head of Fellowes, Morton, and Clayton, the biggest owner of working boats on the canals. You still many boats bearing the logo, they used to be called 'Joshers' after Joshua Fellowes.
We came so close to losing this heritage in the years after the second world war. Many of the canals were owned by the railway companies and when they were nationalised the canals could have been forgotten. Many were closed for years, the Rochdale and the Kennet and Avon to name two, but an army of volunteers worked to bring them back persuade the British Waterways Board to take on the maintenance. With the imminent ending of a Government funding scheme money is still tight and we boaters and facing above inflation rises in our licence fees for the next five years. As a Continuous Cruiser, ie. with no home base, I also pay a surcharge on my licence starting this year but if it keeps the network open it will be worth it.
Loving these longer form docs being released.
Cool this was back in the day when the BBC covered the lives of ordinary people, now every time you put the TV it's dancing celebrities, or celebrities cooking, or celebrities buying antiques. Shame.
It's a disgrace. Don't pay
Haven’t watched BBC in long time 😊
Evidently, that's what people want. I agree it's pathetic, but it is what it is - you need only look at the views of videos like this, versus some kid throwing slime at the wall, for proof of that.
Obviously we're watching this and think it worthwhile, but unfortunately we're in the minority.
Gave up watching TV because of all you mentioned above. Prefer UA-cam.... Much more real life
Maybe there should be Celebrities go Boating on TV
I used to watch the working boats on the Leeds/Liverpool canal in the early 1980's.
You would see the odd barge pulled by a horse but they were very rare by then. The BBC made good documentaries back then too.
What a shame that the BBC today will never again celebrate our wonderful culture and heritage (once the envy of the world) These are the men who built Britain, who made the lives of future generations more comfortable and we should be eternally grateful.
"once the envy of the world" ... trust me, the rest of world doesn't remember it that way! but a vivid imagination is a good thing to have
@@BernardProfitendieu Germans were never envious of us?
British citizens
Lived on a boat in the early 80's, bloody hard winters without any heating & finding a place to have a crap was often difficult - lot's of folk about walking dogs. I was once having a crap in ditch, when a woman on a horse popped into view, all I could think to say was "Good morning" she stuck her nose in the air, tutted, and rode on. My life was hard, but these men & women had it a lot harder, you can see it in their faces. Great documentary, thanks.
No heating in a boat ?? Well you know something about cold and damp, don't ya ? ;)
What a brilliant documentary 😂 😢 😮 so many stories, so many memories. Hard work, but what a reward to be classed as a real person. I live on a canal boat and still wonder how did they manage all those years ago.
Lovely little documentary thank you. I spent many a day on a canal boat when I was younger
A fascinating film giving these people their 15 minutes of fame, enabling them to tell their stories in the 21st century.
Great documentary. Thank you for sharing ❤
nearly 60 years ago, and we see back another 60 years. I often visit the broads and walk along the canals - walking along the old horse paths, etc. Now it's just big pleasure boats up and down, up and down.
This is a treasury of canal boat history!
Ellesmere Port has a wonderful canal museum full of more lore and history about these lives.
Great to see the faces to these familiar voices. I have the original BBC recording on vinyl. I was fortunate enough to first travel the canals in 1967 on the Grand Union in the last years of commercial carrying with Willow Wren and Blue Line. I remember visiting Braunston in 1966 aged 6 and seeing much of the Willow Wren fleet laid up below the bottom lock, some with lines of washing hanging above the hold. That view still holds some magic for me, but the boats are all pleasure craft. Despite that, the spirit of the old boat families still lives on in my memory. My son and daughter-in-law now live on a narrowboat.
This originally aired 55 years ago. To put that into perspective, 55 years before its debut was 1914, the year WW1 began.
i dont remember that 55 years ago, maybe coz i was only 5 lol xxx
@bobmiller7502 He said 55 years before this, so 110 years ago. Don't suppose you remember 110 years ago either :)
Marvellous piece of history........................
Aye we are a country of boat men now. Those wonderful men and their floating boats.
My grandfather worked for fellows,Morton and Clayton.His boats were the Clee and the perch,my mum and aunt were both born on the canals
my grandfather however....had nothing to do whatsoever with any of this.
Been in the pub
@urbanrider429 Perch is still around, but I don't know about Clee. Clee was the last of the wooden boats built for FMC.
Fantastic Documentary. I've been living aboard my boat for over five years now; so wonderful to hear these reminicenses, especially the 'diities.' I've been known to write my own boating ditties, so while the waterways change some things still remain the same.
Great little documentary 👍
1969: MEMORIES of the NARROW BOAT MEN | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0836am 31.12.24 wow, you knew where you were with the taking down of car number plates. whereas, in these days of social mobility and wanderlust, those cars you are hit by or who speed past you as you wander to the local store, could be from anywhere.... such is life.
my husbands grandad was a barge worker in the 50s i believe, he was also a Romany❤
All these old boys and girls are long gone now, but because of this documentary, their stories and words will live forever. The old chap at 3.10 has a marvellous face: full with character, even at his age is still ruggedley handsome.
Chocolate Charlie, I met him when he used to be moored on his narrowboat, Mendip, on the Trent & Mersey Canal near Anderton Lift.
Nice to see something normal
and the inland waterways network remains under threat today
Absolutely fantastic ❤
Thank you for posting this! If only we could have modernized.
Grandad told me a tale once about a boat man that he knew, how true it is I don't know. The man used to work the Rochdale Canal but did a stint on the Huddersfield Narrow. They found a body in the Huddersfield Narrow (1930s) and took it to the coroner in Stalybridge. At those times they got a shilling for their troubles from the coroner in Lancashire for bringing the body, but on delivering the body in Stalybridge they got 6/-. Grandad said the fellow said 'we only found one' but apparently in Cheshire the coroner paid six times the price, needless to say that once word got out the coroner in Lancashire was never as busy with drowning victims as his southern counterpart.
walked that E,port to LLangollen canal loads of times over the years,with different dogs, it was always my BOOSTER SHOT pick me up ,NATURE xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Used to fish Grantham canal disused, was abandoned in 1936 , but a woman living in the lock keepers cottage on a peppercorn rent to British waterways husband worked on the cut and she would tell stories about the boats. This was the late 80s early 90s probably the same distance in time what she was telling me 😬
Canals would still be better for non perishable goods than lorries, imagine how much road space could be freed up 😊
not much at all. given we now have a population of probably 80million
this is such a slice of a forgotten age, the past truly is another country
Especially when we have smartphones now. The past has become an alien world. So foreign
ah... fighting for absolutely no good reason, at every opportunity. the good old days
They're the lads that stopped the Nazis.
Twenty one kids!!!!
No TVs back then of course.😜
No oestrogen in the drinking water and food that was nutritious
Nice to see actual British people as that's a rare sight these days.
Did you fall for brexit because you are clearly gullible enough
Back when the BBC weren't trying to destroy our cultural past
Marvellous documentary, we live aboard CCing and have been to the majority of the place mentioned
Fascinating history of lives on the waterways. First bargee seems a bit off
Hard times and hard men . When Britain was still a nation .
Really enjoyed that documentary I have the book the last number ones about the lives of rosecand joe skinner so nice to see them too thank you
Funny how I recently discovered a film called, "The Bargee" (1964).
The Bollywood version of the film is called The Onion Bhaji.
@@EdwardianTeaChest Does it have song and dance numbers for no apparent reason?
Sam Lomas was the poster boy for high-SPF sun block.
Rose and Joe Skinner were very stylish, weren't they?
Can anyone tell me what accent Joe Green with his 21 children speaks with?
I remember Mr Green he lived a few doors from us in a village called Rothersthorpe near Northampton, went to school with a few of his grand children in the 1960s.
Wonderful look at a quieter, more simpler - but nevertheless more financially-hard - life on the river canals.
Just a quick point -Rivers aren't canals and canals aren't rivers! The mixture of the two is called a Navigation.
"Joe never went to school. His wife was more fortunate".
Having spent many dreadfully abusive years in the British comprehensive system, I beg to differ with that statement.
Yes, it seems to me that going to school takes 'the education ' out of you. Leaving you drained.
Great guys true traditions.
The canal network is still very much under threat there has been a massive breach on the bridwater canal , with the fundung cuts & the owners , i don't think it will ever open again
If these could see The UK now ,
I'm amazed the BBC haven't burnt this film, what with Chocolate Charlie appearing in Black face...
Twenty one kids...wow. i bet he did some damage to the canal bank
My Grandad grew up on a boat with my great grand parents. He was a Nixon or was it Slater- Nixon 🤔 i think they stopped working on the canal in the early 60s.
Love these old BBC archives. Of course the current big wigs at the BBC would say differently - if they had their way they'd erase all of them..
doubt they're some cartoon villains
BBC regularly erased their tapes, so we've been told
1969: MEMORIES of the NARROW BOAT MEN | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0839am 31.12.24 my mother and aunt etc recall writing on slate.. so these halcyon days aren't that antiquated a memory...
Not that long ago mate ! Better summers in those days 👍
1969: MEMORIES of the NARROW BOAT MEN | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0833am 31.12.24 and like all aspects of the past - revived relived and revamped by nice craft-like folk who emerged from middle class hovels and misery to tell us how it is.... as for the old voices of the past - more than welcomed.
Inland Pirates 🤣
Bargees.
If possible, pls upload with caption. We cannot understand the words for some accent
Pause the video, and look up at the top towards the right. There's a button that says "cc". Click that. It's not perfect, and you get some funny translations, but it helps.
@Denidrakes69 it's auto generated one
It's not recognising the word sometime correctly.
@@AHAMETHAATHIL oh well
Many people had very strong regional accents in those days. The people who were being interviewed grew up in the days before the influence of radio and TV.
Man in the thumbnail is only 32 yo.
Looking at him, I'm fairly sure his liver is about to fail. Wonder what happened to him and when...
wonderful documentary :)
10:50 I could listen to him rattle off made up horse names for hours.
Life on this planet is horrendous. Past present and future will be too. Glad it won't last forever. And that I didn't 'gift' it like so many of the shortsighted idiots surrounding me who just go through the motions.
Sorry mate, but that's not life on this planet which is horrendous, but yours !
So, what you're gonna do about it ? ;)
what, like sitting on youtube making stupid comments?
And women.