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There are three major waterway museums in
England, at Gloucester, Ellesmere Port and Stoke Bruerne near
Towcester, and they have the biggest collections of canal art on
permanent display, but an increasing number of smaller
exhibitions and interpretation centres are opening throughout
the canal network. Most of them have a few folk art items, and
some general local museums have specific canal displays. Blakes
Lock museum in Reading has an especially good collection of
painted ware, but much of the best work is still to be
discovered by exploration, on display in canalside shops and
pubs, or floating by on the boats. |
Perhaps the ultimate way to the deepest
appreciation is to do it yourself, and all three museums and a
number of individuals offer training courses on various aspects
of canal arts and crafts at different times during the year.
See their websites linked from the
Museums
pages for up to the minute news of their courses
and the availability of places (and please mention CANAL
JUNCTION).
The Waterways Craft Guild
also run a wide range of courses. |
Lewery, Tony., Flowers Afloat, David and
Charles 1996.
This book is a lavishly illustrated history and description of
the art of the narrow boat, and explores the traditional way of
life of the men and women who developed it to its present form.
ISBN 0 7153 0145 4
Hill, John M., From Stem to Stern, The
Belmont Press, Harrow 1989.
A thorough, practical, ring-bound working handbook to all
aspects of narrow boat signwriting and decoration illustrated
throughout with clear diagrammatic line illustrations by the
author. ISBN 0 905366 27 1
Rolt, Sonia., A Canal People - the
photographs of Robert Longden -Sutton Publishing Ltd. 1997.
For the best atmospheric photographs of the narrowboat world
when it was working, perfectly illustrating how the arts of the
narrow boats intermeshed with the life of the boat people.
Simply perfect. ISBN 0 7509 1048 8. |
Wilson, Robert J., Roses and Castles, Stoke
Bruerne Museum, 1976.
A slim 50 page thoroughly illustrated booklet, about the arts of
the narrow boats including diamond designs, ropework, Birmingham
boats as well as painted flowers. Several crisp diagrams by
Robert Wilson, and 8 pages of colour pictures.
For an introduction to canal boat crochet work,
try:
Channin, Sara and Ann Gardiner. Canal Boat Cabin Crochet,
pub. by the Boat Museum Society, Ellesmere Port, 1994.
For a good description of the whole field of
folk art, and how the canal work fits into it, see:
Ayres, James. British Folk Art, Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. 1977.
ISBN 0 214 20269 0
For a description of clothing traditions of
the boat people see:
Lansdell, Avril., The Clothes of the Cut, British Waterways
Board, 1976. |
Learning
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