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Alfred Southwood

The Last Lengthman on the Canal at Coates

By Norah Barnes

Lois Francis

Alfred Southwood

Whilst researching my family history I discovered that Alfred Southwood was my Great Uncle. I knew vaguely that he had some connection with Coates, as I can remember my father saying that his father had taken him to see his Uncle Alfred who lived by the canal at Coates, when he was a child. I often wonder how they got there from Wotton-under-Edge as there would have been no direct transport. My father was born in 1898 so this visit would have been sometime in the early 1900's.

The Lengthman at Coates

Siddington was 10 miles further up the canal from Coates and the lengthman at Coates looked after this stretch. Sometime after the 1901 census Alfred and his family must have moved to the Round House at Coates.

My great uncle's job as lengthman was particularly important, as he had to keep on eye on the water levels along the 10 mile length of the canal to Siddington. If the levels fell he had to drop planks specially fitted with narrow ends and iron handles into the appropriate slots across the narrowest part of the canal, and lift them out again if the water levels were too high. There was a place for the boats to wait in a side creek as only one could go along at a time. He worked on an eight hour shift system. I understand that the Round House closed in 1956.

Alfred and his family

In May 1995, before I had looked at the census, I set off to Coates to see if I could discover anything else about Alfred and his family and was lucky enough to meet a lady who was out delivering parish magazines. Her name was Mrs. Wheatley. Something prompted me to ask if she knew anyone called Southwood in the village. To my surprise she replied" old Mr. Southwood, yes I remember him well, he lived at the Round House on the canal when I was a child and would come up every evening with a yoke over his shoulders carrying two pails to collect drinking water from our cottage. He would come across the canal on a plank." Mrs Wheatley went on the tell me that Mr. Southwood was a tall good looking man and that he had two daughters, the elder of whom had gone away to service in London and married a Mr. Russell. They had returned to the village during the War. After delivering her magazine, she returned to tell me more. She said that old Mr Southwood had a beautiful garden down at the Round House and that his son in law Mr. Russell played the piano, as a result of which many pleasant social evenings were to be had down there. Unfortunately on one of these occasions, Mr. Russell had had a fall probably because he had a bit too much to drink and had broken his back. His mother in law had moved him when she shouldn't have done and after that he was confined to a wheelchair. When Mr. Southwood died in 1933 the family moved to a council house in the village where Mr. Russell was still an entertaining character and Mrs. Southwood had lived to be over 90. Mrs. Wheatley's next door neighbour who used to visit her, had only died the previous year.

Information in the Church Records

On a very hot day that summer, I visited the Whitley's again and they pointed me in the direction of Mr. Smith who kept the church records. He provided me with information on the family deaths.

Alfred had been buried in Coates churchyard on the 4th August 1933 and his younger daughter Ellen Amelia had died unmarried aged 31 in 1921. Florence Emily had died in 1969 aged 82 and her husband William Russell had died in 1969 aged 76. All were buried in the churchyard at Coates, but not surprisingly, old Mrs. Southwood. Unfortunately there were no descendants. Mr. Smith was also able to enlighten me about Great Uncle Alfred's sister Anna Maria Southwood who had married Charles Hitchings, then an under shepherd at Tartton, the next village.