Narrowboats-A link With The Past


One of the best vacations I`ve enjoyed was spent with a couple of friends boating on the Norfolk Broads, located in South East England. These inland waterways are ideal for navigating around some of the most beautiful parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, taken at a very leisurely pace.

                                                              
Generally there are two categories of boats in use-cruisers, with a cabin and traditional form of steering-and narrowboats, which as the name suggests are long, and narrow, normally no more than 70 feet long and 7 feet wide. Many narrowboats are a little shorter and narrower than that though, to ensure they can pass through the locks on canals. The majority are steered with a tiller at the stern of the boat, though rarely you might see a narrowboat with a center cabin with steering wheel.

On the broads, where the width of the rivers aren`t really an issue, nor are locks in many parts, either cruisers or narrowboats, (sometimes known as canal boats), can be used. One difference was that when mooring a cruiser the boat would either be moored bow to the quay, stern to the quay, or sideways on. Much depended on how other people were doing it. Due to the length of narrowboats, however, they would always be moored side on to the quay.

By the early 19th century, some 4,000 miles of canals crisscrossed England, Scotland, and Wales. The previous century`s industrial revolution required a means of transporting goods around the country which was both cheap, and relatively fast. And that`s where the narrowboats came in.

Goods were transported along the canals and rivers, loaded with all types of goods from coal to bricks, and some foodstuffs. At first they were pulled along a tow path by a young boy, or a horse.

On some canals they used teams of horses which pulled streamlined boats carrying up to 120 passengers at an average speed of ten miles an hour.

Over time, families began to live together on the narrowboats. This was good in some ways, it obviously kept them together as a unit. But, the children often had little education, and they became separated from the rest of society.

This narrowboat community developed a distinctive folk art. If you`ve ever seen a narrowboat you can`t help but admire the decorations of brightly colored landscape scenes, floral motifs, and  patterns, which covered the outside boat surfaces and continued into the cabin.

Nowadays most narrowboats are used for vacation cruising, or as permanent homes. Not much freight is carried, though there are some efforts underway to restore the method of transporting certain goods by waterways to take the pressure off Britains roads. It is now possible to explore more than 2,000 miles of canals, passing through some of Britain’s most beautiful and unspoiled scenery.  There are now more narrow boats on the canals than in the heyday of commercial traffic, and canals are being restored at the same rate as they were being built 200 years ago.
                                                         

In some ways narrowboats have come a long way since those used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many today have features such as greater internal headroom,  central heating, flush toilets, shower or even bath, decent cooking facilities, and refrigerator. Don`t be surprised to see some even boasting satellite television, and internet-connection using a mobile phone. The boats are powered with diesel engines, rather than being pulled along by a horse.

Yet, the traditional shape of the boats has remained the same. The sense of freedom, and leisure, with a slow pace of life has continued down till today. Locks still need navigating, and without doubt, there is a real sense of belonging when you are on a boat.

The building of Britain’s canals ushered in a dramatic era of change—but one with a curiously ironic twist. The same canals now provide a way of escape from the pressures of the modern-day world they helped to create.




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