 | AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE BOAT PEOPLE Bert and Betty were boat people, in Victorian times. They lived and worked on a narrowboat, carrying loads of coal, sand, iron, sugar, flour and anything else that needed to be transported along the canals between the South, the Midlands and the North of England. Their narrowboat was called Bella; she was seventy feet long, seven feet wide and very beautiful, with her name and brightly coloured roses and castles painted on her. Bella didn’t have an engine – instead, she was pulled along by a horse called Beauty, whose constant companion on the towpath was Bert and Betty’s dog, Ben. ~1~ |  Beauty was very strong and hauled the twenty-five ton laden boat over two hundred miles every week! She walked along the canal towpath, with the boat tied to her harness, for hours and hours every day and the only time she was free of her heavy load was when Bert had to take the boat through a tunnel and then Betty would lead Beauty up from the towpath and over the hill, to the other end of the grass-covered tunnel. At night, Bert would tie up Beauty by the towpath or in a nearby field, where she could graze and rest before her work began again the next morning.  Ben, the dog, would go with her, racing round the field chasing rabbits and squirrels and keeping Beauty company, before making his way back to the boat when they all went to sleep. ~2~
|  | Bella, the boat, was 70 feet long but not even 7 feet wide and all of her, except for a small cabin, was used for stowing the cargo. Bella’s cabin may have been small, but it had everything in it that Bert and Betty needed – an iron stove for cooking and keeping them warm, little drawers and cupboards for storing pots and pans, food and china and a table and bed that folded down from the walls when they were needed! The cabin was filled with Betty’s most precious possessions – some lace and ribbon plates, a needlework sampler and some horse brasses. There was a brass candle and paraffin lamp and a brown ‘Measham’ teapot that Bert’s mother had given Betty on their wedding day and, on the bed, there was a patchwork quilt that Betty’s mother had made. ~4~ |  The shelves and the doorway were edged with crochet and lace, that Betty had made, and the woodwork was painted in bright yellows, reds and dark green. The cabin was Betty’s pride and joy and despite the coal and cement dust, Bert’s muddy boots and Ben’s long black and white hairs, she kept it spotless and bright all the time. Bert and Betty had both been born on their parents’ boats and had never known any other life. ~5~
|  They were strong people, carrying tons of cargo as they emptied and refilled Bella’s hold every week, and they had to be tough to put up with the freezing ice and snow in winter and the scorching sun in summer. But, above all, they were proud – proud of their boating tradition and of owning their boat and horse. Both Bert’s and Betty’s families and all their friends were boat people and the only time any of them expected to stay on land was when their boating days were finally over and they went to sleep forever in the peaceful, hilltop cemetery, overlooking their beloved canal. ~6~
| There are lots of stories about Bert and Betty for you to read.  Find out about Betty’s special birthday treat and how they caught a thief hiding in Bella’s cargo! And, if you can’t understand some of the strange words used in the stories, then look them up in the “Waterways Words” picture dictionary and see if you can find examples in the story pictures. So join the boat people on their cargo carrying travels and share Bert and Betty’s adventures with them – and with Beauty and Ben as well, of course! ~7~ |
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