Living on a narrow boat at Saul Junction

Stories of everyday life on a narrow boat.

By Joan Tucker

Sir Lionel Darell Bt

Sir Lionel Edward Hamilton Marmaduke Darell Bt.  who died May 27th 1954 was better known in these parts as Rat catcher Baronet.  He was a larger than life character in every respect and took part in many ways in the life of the area. He gained his nickname, also the title of his memoirs, when he worked for the Warag. during WWII. As the family seat was demolished he lived at Saul Lodge, once the home of the engineers of the Gloucester and Berkeley (G and B) close to the canal.   When we arrived to live on a converted narrow boat in 1962, he was still being talked about. It was almost feudal down here then, but not as bad as Hardwick!

The Glossor

We came to live on Glossor, renamed 'Sarah' by us, which had been built on the Grand Union, and worked there. Mrs. Perret had lived on her before. Ours was the second boat down from Walk Bridge, the first was a converted landing pontoon called Isle of Bryher owned by Mr. Leonard Proctor and his wife. He was a retired businessman from Birmingham, who had been in the gas trade. They were very kind to us, and we used to do shopping etc. for them. In return they slung an electricity cable from their boat to ours so we had a light when we came home from work in the dark.  Dr. Boultbee from Frampton was their special friend, and would often pop in for a cup of tea.

Rice pudding and tinned pears

Dr. Boultbee was also our doctor, and would always come out to see our son William who was just three when we first went to live there. He often had tonsillitis, and the doctor would prescribe tinned rice pudding and tinned pears. It always worked. I still try to get him to take the same treatment now, at 43!

Swans, peacocks and donkeys

It was a lovely place to live, and I often feel nostalgic when we come down here for a visit. One of the things we remember is lying in the bath and watching the swans outside. However, it wasn't all peace and tranquillity. First thing in the morning were the peacocks at Whitminster House on one side, and the donkeys on the other at Walk Farm. Not to mention what went on at night. Cars would drive along the lane, and stop by the stile at the end of the towpath, where the dustbins were kept. 'It's men and women you know' said Mrs. Proctor.

Ice on the Canal

The winters of 1962/3 and 1963/4 were very bad and we survived them. Snow lay on the ground for weeks, and the canals iced up. I had to get to Gloucester each day with our son, where I was teaching. Normally the bus from Frampton would stop by the stile, but as always with Bristol Omnibus, they stopped running very early on. Thank goodness for dear old Silvey's. They kept going all the time, on their route from Saul to Epney and Longney and Quedgeley to Gloucester. It was a hard tramp through thick snow for a 3 year-old to Saul each day. One day, I think a Sunday, we were lying in bed, when there was a terrific rumbling noise, and suddenly the boat subsided about 18 inches! We were hemmed in by the ice (although Alan had to keep freeing it from the hull in case the sharp ice cut into the wood) and the icebreaker which was going along the G and B had sucked the water out from under the ice It was a frightening experience.  The next year floods were the problem. That is not such a worry when you live on a boat.

Our neighbours

We had several neighbours, also living on the boats. Tony and Helen Newman and their 2 small sons lived on a superior converted narrow boat. He was one of the Newman Hender family, engineers, and she was an artist. Once when their boat went in Bob Davis' dry dock at the Junction, the locals gathered to have a look. Tony was busy brushing her down, turned to them and said 'Come on chaps, lend a hand' Where did they all disappear to? Perhaps the 'Drum & Monkey', otherwise known as the ' Junction Inn'. I don't know much about the history of it, except it may have started as canal workers cottages, and if 'Gallows Bridge' was here, then it seems the cottages belonged to the Company. (Could anyone confirm where the bridge was, I have numerous references to it in old documents?) The inn would have been registered as a beer-house, of which there were a lot round here. There was an off-licence in Saul, which we used to walk to after the D and M closed. One cannot recognise it as such now.

On another boat lived John and Ann Benn and their small family. Afterwards, they took over the mill and house at Ayliffe's Mill at Lower Framilode, and did it up. Ann now lives in Chepstow, John died, and I believe their son Kevin still lives in Frampton. The river gets into your blood, doesn't it?

In between the Newman's and us was a tiny converted landing craft where Paddy the Irishman lived. No one knew anything about him, and he wasn't very clean. Helen would sometimes cook a meal for him, and once when he was ill she actually went on his boat. She said it was filthy, except for the several mirrors, which were all spotless!

Time to change

When Mr. Proctor died and Mrs. P. went to live in California with their son, their boat was sold to Mrs. Fredericks from Frampton. Straight away she disconnected our electricity line and would not accept payment for it. Life was not so pleasant after that, and as our business had 'gambolled' as Mr. P. said it would, we bought a house in Stroud. It was not easy to sell the boat without an engine. Bob Davis always said it would not take one. However, after lying dormant for a whole winter, it was bought for less that we paid for it by some men from Bristol who did get an engine in and took it to Llangollen Canal. Alan remembers when our boat was in dry dock and we had to stay aboard, and walk the plank to get on her, then pulling it up for safety. We were awakened one morning by a call of 'Ahoy there Sarah' Alan had to replace the plank in his pyjamas.

The Boatyard

RW Davis & Son boatyard is still in existence, but not run by Bob, who retired some time ago. I believe he took it over from his father, and was following in the tradition of boatbuilding in Saul and Framilode, either on the banks of the Severn, or the G and B.

There was Frederick Evans of Saul, who in 1878 contracted to build for the Company a  replacement boat for workmen to do repairs on the Stroudwater Canal and deliver over to COPS furnished and fit for use in all respects by Nov. 30th for £70. The contract had been made at the end of August.

I think Mrs. Fredericks the new neighbour was probably the daughter-in-law of Mr. W. Fredericks, the lock keeper at the Junction. In 1897 he was referred to in correspondence by the Company with G and B as 'our joint agent'. Sir. L. Darell pays tribute to him in 'Ratcatcher Baronet' as a fellow parish councillor, as being the only man who would stand up and argue with Sir L., who alleges he admired him for it. He is said to have been a Rip-Van-Winkle look-alike.

The Company Agent

The first agent at the Junction when the G and B opened was Robert Miles. On August 1st. 1820 the Company Committee ordered that they would not allow any fixed salary to be paid to him for examining tickets of vessels passing out of G and B into Stroudwater or consider him as their servant. But they are willing to make him remuneration for his canal services. Meaning G and B had to take responsibility. In our day the Junction keeper was Mr. Bill Spiers, who was helped by a black and white dog.

The servants as they were called were not just lock keepers. They were multi-functional, and were paid quite decently for the time, but there weren't many of them. Leonard Pocket, the last of the Company's employees was not only lock-keeper and wharfinger and clerk at Framilode but tidesman as well, although it seems that latterly the office work was done at the Junction, because in preparation for the 1954 Act of Abandonment he was told to apply to Mr. Walker of the Junction for the date of the last cargo boat to go up the Stroudwater. (It was May 1941). One of Lenny's predecessors, William Purcell, was appointed to Framilode in June 1814.  Two months later he was instructed to attend to putting in floodgates at Whitminster Mill every Sunday morning early so that the levels below Bristol Road were properly supplied with water. (The canal didn't operate on Sundays)  It was also his duty to walk up the levels as far as Stonehouse every day between tides to see no fraud be committed by persons navigating the canal. He worked for the COPS for a considerable time, but I am informed by a descendant that he ended up in Stroud workhouse.

Houses for the Lock Keepers

Houses were provided by the Company for their servants. They had to be for it was a 24-hour job, and often they were needed far away from the villages or hamlets. Even today there is no vehicular access to Double Lock cottage at Ryeford. If it weren't for the hum of the traffic on the Ebley bypass, you would think you were miles away from anywhere. After 1954 Act the Company sold off all their property gradually, mostly to sitting tenants like the Pocketts.
I do not know who the nice man was who called to me one day across the canal at Bristol Road when I was out for a walk. It was about this time of year, and he said something to pass the time of day, as it were. I could not understand what he said, he tried again, and again, so patient with me, a Nottingham girl who couldn't understand the Gloucestershire idiom. At last I got it, and have never forgotten it, although I cannot get the twang. 'It's a cold blow'. I guess that Mr. Beard one of his predecessors at Bristol Road was hard working, for he asked the Company to provide him with a mackintosh. They allowed him 20/-. I haven't checked properly on the dates yet, but it was probably one of the first of that garment to be sold.

Richard Owen Cambridge

This area has not produced any persons of fame or notoriety. I am open to be corrected! The only person mentioned in history books, well, literature anyway, is Richard Owen Cambridge, of Whitminster House. You realise I am concerned only with people after the coming of the Stroudwater canal. He was a minor eighteenth century poet and essayist, and succeeded to the estate in 1725. His importance to our story is that he built the first canal in the area by straightening the River Frome or Stroudwater through his grounds from the Severn to the Bristol Road. He set about reconstructing his house, and developing the surrounding land into the picturesque, which was the fashion of the day. A wharf was made near the house for unloading building materials. The adjacent church of St. Andrew of which he was churchwarden was also looked after by him, to quote 'A loftie Tower rears its tremendous height'. One of his other pastimes was naval architecture, and he designed and had built a Venetian barge, and a double-hulled boat, (i.e. 2 keels side by side) which we would call a catamaran. In 1750 Frederick, Prince of Wales was brought to see these wonders and was very impressed. After that Cambridge left Whitminster to seek the brighter life in Twickenham, but he continued to manage the estate, which was then taken on by his son Charles Owen Cambridge. Both of them seem to have been somewhat of a thorn in the flesh of COPS, continually complaining of water leakage from the canal, fences needing to be put up etc. although Hugh tells me he was very helpful to the G&B Company when they were having trouble with another landowner family.  Another son, Rev. George Owen Cambridge was a friend of Fanny Burney the courtier who became a novelist and diarist.

Other landowner families

It is quite easy to research the histories of the landowner families, the Cambridges, Wiltons, and Teesdales of Whitminster House;  the Cliffords of Frampton; the Martins of Parkfields, which later became Parklands, owned by GCC. Perhaps more recently even the Kirkwoods of Kidnams, and the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol, all of whom owned land alongside the Stroudwater canal. But when it comes to such people as Alec Pratt who delivered milk by day and dispensed beer at the Darell Arms by night, and Frank Cookley the parish councillor from Moor Street wharf who delivered coal around the district by horse & cart and then by motor lorry, and the Beesley Brothers from Frampton who did the same later on. They never complained about carrying sacks of coal up our gangplank, through the boat, and depositing it in the little original cabin at the back.

At one time the lives of such people would not have been regarded as important, but today we know that to get an overall picture of what life was like and to help us understand the present and the future of a community, it is necessary to realise how the different strands fitted together, and still do, with, in this case, the Gloucester and Berkeley and Stroudwater canals providing the connecting link.