0:00:02 > 0:00:04ENGINE THRUMMING
0:00:14 > 0:00:18This is the story of how a small band of committed enthusiasts
0:00:18 > 0:00:21saved one of Britain's greatest achievements -
0:00:21 > 0:00:23its network of canals...
0:00:27 > 0:00:30..a network that had been built by hand
0:00:30 > 0:00:32in the years after 1760.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Canals had been the life-blood of the early Industrial Revolution,
0:00:41 > 0:00:46in a golden age that lasted until the end of the 19th century.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51During the 20th century they declined,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54and after World War II, many became threatened with closure.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03But a campaign begun in the 1940s by just a few people
0:01:03 > 0:01:05grew into a spirited movement
0:01:05 > 0:01:09that fought and ultimately won the campaign
0:01:09 > 0:01:12to save the network.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Some of those campaigners filmed their exploits.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Their home movies show how they worked,
0:01:18 > 0:01:23sometimes with bare hands, to help rescue the inland waterways
0:01:23 > 0:01:27and deliver the canals into a second golden age.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Barry Argent's got canals in his blood.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53And one behind his house.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Morning, Barry!
0:02:06 > 0:02:08You want to take over?
0:02:08 > 0:02:11This morning he's on a boat with his mate Geoff.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14He can't use his own.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17It's in two halves at the bottom of his garden.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45'The amount of work I've done on this, it's phenomenal.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48'Virtually I've rebuilt the boat.'
0:02:52 > 0:02:55I got the chance of obviously buying one myself.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Well, I hadn't got the chance,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00because I hadn't got two pennies to rub together.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03I borrowed money from here, there and everywhere and bought a boat,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and that was when I learned to weld.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11'And I put a cabin on it, put the engine in it,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14'took the engine out, put another engine in it...
0:03:16 > 0:03:20'I just love doing it. I could work in here all night long
0:03:20 > 0:03:22'and not think nowt on it, but I don't,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24'because of the neighbours.'
0:03:25 > 0:03:28'Many a time the wife's coming out to tell me,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30'"It's time to go to bed, Barry,"
0:03:30 > 0:03:34'you know, because time means nothing to me
0:03:34 > 0:03:36'when I'm enjoying myself, and that's it.'
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Right!
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Barry comes from a long tradition of boating families.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51His father and mother worked on the canals before the war.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Coming out the church now.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57That's my mam there, just coming out.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59That's my dad.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03It's quite unusual to see my dad in these films, actually.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Obviously he got somebody else to shoot this,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10because normally he's taking the film.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14I don't even know why he got into films.
0:04:14 > 0:04:20He lived, slept, eat, drank everything canals and boats.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23What he didn't know weren't worth knowing.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46Barry's parents were part of tradition
0:04:46 > 0:04:49that stretched back to the middle of the 19th century.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Britain's first significant canal, the Bridgewater Canal,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07was built to take coal from Lancashire into Manchester.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10It was opened in 1761.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14Then, in a frenzy of building,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16canals spread across the country.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19By the middle of the 1830s,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23a network linking all of Britain's major industrial towns and cities
0:05:23 > 0:05:25had been largely completed.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Fed by rivers or reservoirs,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32canals became the life-blood of the Industrial Revolution.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36I don't think the Industrial Revolution could have happened without canals.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40I think one of the key things the canals did
0:05:40 > 0:05:43was actually make a route into a city,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47and if you think of a city that is running purely on horsepower,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52where everything is horse and cart, and how little a horse can carry...
0:05:52 > 0:05:54But when the canals were built,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58you'd get one horse bringing 25 or 50 tons in at a go.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02Suddenly the whole Industrial Revolution could take off.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18By the beginning of the 20th century,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21more than 50,000 people worked on the boats,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24carrying more than 36 million tons each year.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30In 1930, Barry Argent's father began working
0:06:30 > 0:06:32for one of the canal carrying companies,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Fellows, Morton & Clayton.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41Fellows, Morton & Clayton were one of the largest canal carrying companies of their time.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44They actually carried virtually everything.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Typically they carried a lot of tea for Typhoo for Birmingham,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50they carried tomato puree for HP Sauce,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and they brought finished goods back.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55They actually carried a lot of foodstuffs.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58They carried even things like ice for Boots.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02So, I mean, you name it, they carried it, really.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Like I say, they used to work the boats together.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15They worked for Fellows, Morton & Clayton's.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17Their week's work, they used to run from Langley Mill
0:07:17 > 0:07:20down to Wembley with coal,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23unload at Wembley, come back to Langley Mill,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26load again and go back to Watford Gap,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28and that was their week's work,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32and, er, my dad says it were bloody hard work.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Barry's parents were typical.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Many wives lived and worked alongside their husbands,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and home was the tiny cabin at the back of the boat.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48All canal boats needed two people to work them.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51In the early days there were horse-drawn boats.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53You needed somebody to drive the horse
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and somebody to steer the boat. When canals were profitable,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59that's fine. A man - usually a man - would be captain of the boat,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03and he'd employ a crew. It could be a lad or a couple of blokes.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05But when things got really tight,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and particularly, we think, in the 1840s
0:08:08 > 0:08:10when railway competition became much more extreme,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14rates were cut. Canals were no longer so profitable.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17And it made sense, with a little cabin on the back,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20for the man to take his wife along.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24And, of course, men, women, cabins...soon children,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28and a whole population is developing.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32This was how Joe Hollingshead lived as a child,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36on a working boat on the Birmingham Canal Navigation.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39In a little cabin like that,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42my dad had three of us. It was very cramped.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46When we got a load in the boat, like that boat's left up there,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49if you've got a load of flour on or a load of sugar on,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53we used to make our bed in there, and it used to be lovely.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58They used to take it in turns, Mam and Dad, sleeping on the boat
0:08:58 > 0:09:02while they was travelling along. They worked day and night.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Sometimes they never even stopped the engine,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07cos soon as they got there...
0:09:07 > 0:09:10And that's when they used to send us to school.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Many a time we went in school at Birmingham.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15They used to tell us we got to go to school.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18We was only in an hour, and back out again.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21So we learnt nothing in that hour.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28My mother used to do all the cooking and all the baking,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32and the apple pies was beautiful, and the bread pudding.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36But I don't know how she done it, cos it was very hard work
0:09:36 > 0:09:38in a little place like that, and got to do the washing.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42There was no washing machines. It's all got to be done by hand.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46So it was a very hard job for her.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04But this world of Joe and Barry's parents
0:10:04 > 0:10:06was slowly disappearing.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11During the 1930s,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14canals faced stiff competition from the roads.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18As trade declined,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21the numbers of working boat families fell steadily,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24and many of the canals themselves were left neglected.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Then in 1938
0:10:30 > 0:10:35an engineer, Tom Rolt, bought a converted working narrowboat.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39He and his wife spent 18 months travelling on Cressy
0:10:39 > 0:10:42through the inland waterways in the Midlands.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45The lives of the working boat people that he witnessed
0:10:45 > 0:10:49became the spark that ignited a 30-year campaign
0:10:49 > 0:10:51to rescue Britain's ailing canals.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59He did think something major had been lost,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02and he saw, he felt he saw, when he saw people on narrowboats,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Midlands narrowboats in particular, that he was seeing something
0:11:06 > 0:11:07of a previous civilisation,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11cultures that had survived through the Industrial Revolution.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Tom Rolt spent the early years of the war
0:11:20 > 0:11:23writing an account of his time on the canals.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Narrow Boat was published in 1944.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30It captured the imagination of thousands,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33including a writer, Robert Aickman.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36An impetuous man by nature,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Aickman was concerned that the narrow canals
0:11:39 > 0:11:41could disappear altogether.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46He raced up from London to meet Tom Rolt
0:11:46 > 0:11:49at Tardebigge on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52They really liked each other a lot,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and agreed it would be a very good thing
0:11:55 > 0:11:58to form some sort of campaigning body
0:11:58 > 0:12:02to fight for the revival of the canals.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09The Inland Waterways Association was launched in February 1946,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12with the head office in Robert Aickman's London flat.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17They had little money, but needed an assistant.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22I had left my first husband,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26and I didn't approve of women, healthy women, taking money off men
0:12:26 > 0:12:29because they didn't want to live with them any more,
0:12:29 > 0:12:31so I didn't have any money.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35And I had to start earning some. I had a half-written novel.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38I had no idea whether anybody would publish it.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41So I did all kinds of jobs. I did modelling for Vogue,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43I did a certain amount of broadcasting.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47I'd done it all through the war, continuity announcing and things.
0:12:47 > 0:12:53And Robert and Ray offered me this job for £2.10 a week.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57I went three mornings a week - three days, really -
0:12:57 > 0:13:00and I worked very hard for my money.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10War and neglect had left Britain's canal network in a poor state.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14The campaigners had two goals -
0:13:14 > 0:13:17to stop the government closing canals
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and to persuade it to spend money
0:13:19 > 0:13:22to restore those that were being left to die.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34One of the chief ways in which the Inland Waterways Association
0:13:34 > 0:13:38saw that it could campaign for the improvement of the canals
0:13:38 > 0:13:43was by demonstrating that you could actually go along them in a boat.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46Many of them, of course, very run down at this time,
0:13:46 > 0:13:51virtually derelict, but nevertheless they were still supposed to be open
0:13:51 > 0:13:54for navigation. It was required statutorily
0:13:54 > 0:13:57that boats should be allowed to go along them.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Aickman chose one of the most run-down canals in the country
0:14:03 > 0:14:06to illustrate just how dilapidated the system had become.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15In the summer of 1948, he invited Tom Rolt to join him
0:14:15 > 0:14:18on an expedition to the Huddersfield Canal.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Rolt brought along his wife, Angela,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Aickman his secretary, Jane.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29She apparently was an extremely attractive woman in those days,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31outstandingly beautiful.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Robert Aickman said of her that, "When Jane walks in the room,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37"the whole world seems to come to a halt."
0:14:37 > 0:14:40And it did for him, certainly.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44He obviously fell very much under her spell.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49I think HG Wells is quite right about men.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52It doesn't matter what a man looks like, as long as he can talk.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54And he was very good at talking.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10The group couldn't have chosen a more difficult waterway.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14The Huddersfield Canal had not been used since 1939.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17With most of its locks out of action,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20it was almost un-navigable.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Aickman hired a cruiser, Ailsa Craig, for the adventure.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28The journey in Ailsa Craig
0:15:28 > 0:15:32had many ups and downs, I have to say.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Our plan was to go across the Pennines
0:15:39 > 0:15:41in the Huddersfield Narrow Canal,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45which had 72 locks in 19 miles, I think.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47Rather a lot of them.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53It was a real struggle, there's no question.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55This wasn't a picnic at all,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58going out on a nice leisure-boating holiday.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And after they had struggled through the locks,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04they confronted the entrance to the Standedge Tunnel.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08At more than three miles,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11it was once the longest canal tunnel in the world.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17No pleasure boat had been through it since 1939.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22The party was cruising into the unknown.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39It was a real struggle getting through.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Um, completely dark, of course.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45No lighting at all.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Several times the boat got stuck.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57The railway line ran alongside it.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00That meant that when you were in the tunnel,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03every now and then an express roared through,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05and the tunnel was full of smoke,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09and that was...you know, it didn't clear very quickly.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18Various times when they were completely stuck,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21Tom Rolt went crawling along the roof
0:17:21 > 0:17:23and tore off bits of the side of the boat
0:17:23 > 0:17:26in order to ease its passage through.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29On other occasions, put the engine full steam ahead
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and simply charged and managed to crash through.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36It was a really hazardous journey, and it took about five hours
0:17:36 > 0:17:39instead of what should have been just over an hour
0:17:39 > 0:17:41to pass through in the normal way.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50But they did finally make it.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56We were the last people to go through it for a very long time -
0:17:56 > 0:17:58until very recently, really.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01So I enjoyed that enormously.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06While Jane and Robert Aickman enjoyed the adventure,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Tom Rolt thought it had been reckless.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14The escapade saw the beginnings of a rift between the two men -
0:18:14 > 0:18:17a rift that became irreparable when the two fell out
0:18:17 > 0:18:21over Rolt's idea for a national rally of boats.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25The rally was planned for August 1950,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27here in Market Harborough.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Yes. This would have been the view we saw when we first arrived here.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Coming in through the narrows to a basin
0:18:46 > 0:18:49that was absolutely packed with boats.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53There was only just room to turn our full-length boat round.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10We went back to the first available slot we could tie into,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14which was, um, almost half a mile out of the town,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17and more boats came after us,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21so that there was this long line of boats along the towpath.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26And the other thing that amazed us was the crowds of people
0:19:26 > 0:19:29all through the day. It was almost impossible
0:19:29 > 0:19:32to try and get in a hurry along the towpath,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34because it was solid people.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37It really created a stir in the town.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48All seemed to be going well.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52But the planning for it had exposed the increasing tensions
0:19:52 > 0:19:55between Rolt and Aickman.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Well, he wasn't like anybody else.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Er, he was very clever,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05very neurotic -
0:20:05 > 0:20:07paranoid, really,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10very manipulative...
0:20:10 > 0:20:13He got his own way one way or another
0:20:13 > 0:20:15pretty well all the time,
0:20:15 > 0:20:22and, of course, wanted to be the centre of the scene, and Tom,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25who I don't think particularly wanted to be the centre,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28but he wanted to be a partner,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31and they didn't agree on methods.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35They argued bitterly about the purpose of the rally.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Tom felt that it should be about the boats and the canal,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43and Robert felt this was a chance to demonstrate, if you like,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45that the canal was part of a centre
0:20:45 > 0:20:47where a different sort of cultural life -
0:20:47 > 0:20:49very elitist, by the way.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52This was not some sort of idea of a plebeian, popular culture
0:20:52 > 0:20:55for one moment. It was a chance to create something,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58recreate something he thought was disappearing, really,
0:20:58 > 0:21:03in what they saw as a rather gaunt, flat, state-dominated post-war era.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07Aickman wanted a festival.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10He'd planned performances, film shows and even a pageant -
0:21:10 > 0:21:13not at all what Rolt had envisaged.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Tom protested about the Market Harborough rally
0:21:18 > 0:21:21because, he said, "You've taken up my idea," in effect,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25and Robert wrote to say, "I don't think you should come at all."
0:21:27 > 0:21:31But Rolt went anyway, as did 50,000 visitors.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38The event took place over several days,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43um, and on almost every day,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46they were running public trips.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51The grand finale was a parade of the boats,
0:21:51 > 0:21:57led by this slipper launch
0:21:57 > 0:22:00with the carnival queen and a few dignitaries on board.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05The festival was a huge success.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09It showed there was a public appetite for canals.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12But it also exposed fundamental differences
0:22:12 > 0:22:15between Tom Rolt, who was interested mainly in working boats,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20and Robert Aickman, who wanted to save every mile of canal.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Aickman won the day.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28In 1952, Tom Rolt was expelled from the IWA.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34After the success of Market Harborough,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37membership of the association grew quickly.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41But the 1950s were difficult years.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Canals were seen as essentially working waterways,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and working traffic was falling sharply.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54The IWA policy, "Save every mile",
0:22:54 > 0:22:57was rejected by the government body that owned most canals.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01The remit of the British Transport Commission
0:23:01 > 0:23:06was about transport. It was nothing to do with amenities,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08nothing to do with developing tourism,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11except in very minor ways, so as far as they were concerned,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14rather like Beeching later on,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18if it didn't have a long-term future, you got rid of it.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24But getting rid of a canal was difficult.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28They had been set up by individual Acts of Parliament.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31So when the British Transport Commission tried to abandon one,
0:23:31 > 0:23:36campaigners would descend on it in a mass-protest cruise,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39and insist on their legal right of navigation.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43It led to a decade of conflict.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50Tom Chaplin remembers how he got involved in his teens.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56Back in the mid-'60s, a friend of mine was editor of the IWA bulletin.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59And I remember one time I was with him and he said,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03"We've just heard the Leeds and Liverpool might be under threat."
0:24:03 > 0:24:08So the next weekend we jumped in his little Hillman Husky with a tent,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and we camped on the moors overnight,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13and we went and looked at the Leeds and Liverpool
0:24:13 > 0:24:15and took lots of photos and wrote up about it.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18And the following summer, they held a rally there.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Boats came from north, south, east and west,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28and that was publicity, showed British Waterways
0:24:28 > 0:24:32that people wanted it, and it was a way of changing public opinion.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Because what is difficult to remember now
0:24:38 > 0:24:41is that, if you said to somebody in the '50s or the '60s,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45"I'm going on a canal holiday," they'd say, "A stinking ditch?"
0:24:45 > 0:24:47"Dead dogs?" That's how they looked at it.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50And a lot of people wanted local canals shut
0:24:50 > 0:24:53because they felt it was somewhere where the kids drowned.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58These protest cruises went on through the 1950s,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01until matters came to a head in 1962.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06A national protest rally was planned in Stourbridge.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Don Grey was there.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Well, in the late '50s, the traffic had ceased.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15At least that's the commercial traffic.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Looking towards Stourbridge,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21this was largely overgrown.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23You couldn't get any further.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26The whole place just looked a mess.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Further along the canal, perhaps half a mile from here,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34you could walk across the canal.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37It was literally completely silted up,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41which was why the national rally organisers
0:25:41 > 0:25:44decided to have the event here,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48and force the issue for keeping it open to navigation.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53The only way they could hold the protest rally
0:25:53 > 0:25:58was by dredging the canal, but the British Transport Commission refused permission,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02and threatened to prosecute anyone who even touched the water.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Neither side was prepared to back down.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09The person who really got most heavily involved
0:26:09 > 0:26:13was from the Midlands branch of the Inland Waterways Association,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16and that was David Hutchings.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18David Hutchings went out and took action.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22There was direct action. And he was very keen on publicity,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24and also very keen on doing something
0:26:24 > 0:26:26which we'd associate with the '60s,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29which actually was about really breaking the law
0:26:29 > 0:26:32when you know you're on the right side.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35You couldn't get up this canal because it was full of silt,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39and David Hutchings hired a little drag line,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41and he put the drag line on the towpath,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and he scooped up enough mud so the boats could get to Stourbridge,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49the Stourbridge Arm. And he was told he wasn't meant to,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51and he just did it. HE LAUGHS
0:26:51 > 0:26:54And a hundred or so boats turned up at Stourbridge.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03The atmosphere here was electric.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07David had taken on Goliath and won.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12We'd achieved national press. All the London dailies
0:27:12 > 0:27:15were carrying this on the front pages,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and people came to see what it was all about.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22We thought it was an absolutely wonderful weekend.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27The 1962 victory at Stourbridge duly took its place
0:27:27 > 0:27:30in the roll-call of the IWA successes.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35But one of the long-term aims - bringing back working traffic -
0:27:35 > 0:27:37wasn't so successful.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Put the ignition on. That's the ignition key there.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46Put it on "heat" for about ten seconds.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49- Right. - That yellow light will come on.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52- BEEPING - And you can turn the engine over.
0:27:52 > 0:27:53ENGINE ROARS
0:27:53 > 0:27:56- And then it'll click back to the ignition...- Right.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59..position. And then you're ready to go.
0:27:59 > 0:28:00Right! OK.
0:28:00 > 0:28:06And the steering, if you push the tiller bar this way...
0:28:06 > 0:28:08That's a familiar one,
0:28:08 > 0:28:13but I haven't stood on the back of a boat for a long time, actually.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17As I recall, it was the same summer that Elvis died.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25Joseph Boughey's returning to the place he came first
0:28:25 > 0:28:27with his parents in the early 1960s.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32Well, it's a long time ago.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Obviously very, very nervous. I wasn't very mechanically minded.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39I'm not now. And I can see I'm holding on to this thing,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41thinking, "What am I supposed to do?"
0:28:41 > 0:28:44I hadn't been allowed to be at the tiller,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47and Father, I can see, is holding on, really.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49"If you start messing it up, I'm there.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53"I'm there to pick it all up if things start to go wrong."
0:28:53 > 0:28:55There's a lot in that shot.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01When he came here as a child in 1963,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05his father filmed a moment that captured the changing character
0:29:05 > 0:29:07of the canal network.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14As it happened, he managed to film something
0:29:14 > 0:29:17which was a piece of history.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21While he was here, a working boat came by.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25At the time, actually, there were quite a lot of boats on this canal,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28but it's the only one that he filmed in detail.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33But it is a different world.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37There, standing on the back of the boat, with his expensive camera,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41is my father, a fairly well off professional,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44and there on the boat is somebody
0:29:44 > 0:29:47who had been born on a boat,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50who would have expected to spend most of their life on a boat,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54and at that time, living in on boats -
0:29:54 > 0:29:57not actually people using narrowboats,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59living in on boats as part of your lifestyle -
0:29:59 > 0:30:01was coming to an end.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25But just as that life was drawing to a close,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29a new way of using the waterways was replacing it.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41- It is a long time since we were down here.- It is.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45- When do you reckon it was? '60s? - September '61,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48that we brought them over across and made the film.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Harry Arnold and his long-time friend Eddie Frangleton
0:30:52 > 0:30:56are retracing a journey on the canal to Llangollen.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59When they came here half a century ago,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02they were pioneers, taking part in a new,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05and in those days highly unusual holiday -
0:31:05 > 0:31:08a boat-hostel holiday.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12Eddie thought it so unusual, he brought his film camera with him.
0:31:14 > 0:31:20'Of all the trips, I think it was probably the icing on the cake.'
0:31:40 > 0:31:44I just tried to convey to other people
0:31:44 > 0:31:48the sense of comradeship and togetherness,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52and the whole atmosphere which surrounded the canals.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00I know I let Harry on odd occasion film,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04doing a little bit Alfred Hitchcock appearance on my film.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Well, the whole ethos of the company
0:32:13 > 0:32:17was that the boat itself would be horse-drawn,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20perpetuate the old ways.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22Nothing to do with diesel engines.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29The first hotel boats really started on the canals
0:32:29 > 0:32:33just after the war. People who had been trying to carry cargo
0:32:33 > 0:32:36on their own, for their own company as it were,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39decided they just couldn't make a living at it.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42There wasn't enough money to be made and there still isn't,
0:32:42 > 0:32:44carrying on the canals.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48But they were enthusiasts, so they wanted to be on the boats
0:32:48 > 0:32:52and carry on the canals. So they decided if they couldn't carry cargo
0:32:52 > 0:32:56they'd carry people. And that was a very strange idea to do,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59because people weren't allowed on the canals.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01It wasn't a place where the public could be.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05It was like walking along a railway nowadays. You don't do it.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08So they were offering them these holidays in a strange environment,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12an adventure-type holiday, and people lapped it up.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32The make of the hostel boat, in crew terms,
0:33:32 > 0:33:37it had a skipper and an assistant, who was generally a student,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41and a cook, and it ran exactly as a youth hostel did,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45only afloat, and you helped with the peeling of the potatoes
0:33:45 > 0:33:48and washing up and so on, and you got a very cheap holiday.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53And because they were heading for Llangollen,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57they got to see perhaps the most impressive piece of architecture
0:33:57 > 0:33:59on the whole network -
0:33:59 > 0:34:02the aqueduct at Pontcysyllte.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06They weren't disappointed.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13The aqueduct is one of the seven wonders of the world,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15right, of the canal world,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19and so one of my ambitions was to cross this aqueduct.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21And it didn't let us down.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24It was absolutely staggering.
0:34:26 > 0:34:32I was totally unprepared for the fact that, on the off side,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35there was no railing. It was a sheer drop down.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38I thought it was magical.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49People loved it because it was a holiday you couldn't get anywhere else.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53It was totally new to them. People did come in large numbers.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57They could fill as many boats as people could get.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33For a few years, this new generation of pleasure boaters
0:35:33 > 0:35:35shared the canals with working boats.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40They were able to catch a glimpse of the culture that was disappearing.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45And many wanted to capture part of that culture for themselves.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50'Part of the attraction of canal boating,
0:35:50 > 0:35:52'definitely an important part of the attraction,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56'was the traditional painting and the Roses and Castles.'
0:35:57 > 0:36:01It's a tradition that Tony Lewery is keen to maintain.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Well, I suppose my whole approach to canal-boat painting
0:36:06 > 0:36:09has been to do it as well as I can,
0:36:09 > 0:36:13but within the...within the tradition as I understand it,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16within the tradition of the old work that I've seen,
0:36:16 > 0:36:20and try not to let it get carried away with modern...
0:36:20 > 0:36:22- HE CHUCKLES - ..alterations or improvements.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25I do think it's an important survivor.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32It's believed the tradition began when women came onto the canals in the 1840s.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Artisan painters decorated boats and cabin interiors elaborately,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40and the distinctive style became known as Roses and Castles.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Roses are not a big problem in the sense of looking for origins.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52Flowers generally are the most commonly used decorative device
0:36:52 > 0:36:56on anything you want to sell, any commercial thing.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Castle pictures are a bit different.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04I think it makes more sense to think of it as roses and landscapes,
0:37:04 > 0:37:08because although a lot of the buildings are quite castle-like,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11some of them are really quite domestic as well.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15If you think about it just as a decorative, pretty landscape,
0:37:15 > 0:37:17that's far more understandable, really.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20Here's a... Here's a typical piece of...
0:37:21 > 0:37:24..canal-boat art, I mean, really one of the classics.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28This is a block that rests on the cabin roof
0:37:28 > 0:37:30to support the end of the gangplank,
0:37:30 > 0:37:32and faces back down so you see it all day -
0:37:32 > 0:37:34a classy piece of work by Frank Nurser,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38who was one of the very best known painters from the Midlands.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40But it's got all the regular ingredients.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Yes, it's a castle in the sense that it's got round towers,
0:37:43 > 0:37:48but it's also got these really quite domestic roofs and highlights.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51But more important than that, it is the fact that it is a landscape.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55It is a picture of a relaxed, gentle place,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57and I think the idea of the landscape
0:37:57 > 0:38:02is as of as much importance as being the castle.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11'It's sometimes been said that it's the Roses and Castles tradition
0:38:11 > 0:38:14'of the narrowboats that saved the canals,
0:38:14 > 0:38:19'and I do sometimes wonder. It's such an attractive tradition,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22'and it had an enormous impact, really,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25'on the new people coming into the canals,
0:38:25 > 0:38:28'and without it, I wonder if they would have been so interested,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32'if the boats hadn't been so attractive in themselves.'
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Whatever the attraction, by the middle of the '60s
0:38:42 > 0:38:45there were thousands of people using the waterways...
0:38:47 > 0:38:50..though a policy of neglect and disablement
0:38:50 > 0:38:53had left many of the canals themselves unusable.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Until now, the campaign had focussed on keeping canals open,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02but local societies began to demand the right
0:39:02 > 0:39:05to restore derelict canals.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12For years they met firm opposition from British Waterways.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22But in 1964, here at Stourbridge,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26where just two years before there had been a total standoff,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28there was now a change of heart,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32a result of a local grassroots initiative.
0:39:33 > 0:39:39Well, before this started and became a success,
0:39:39 > 0:39:42it was a bit like, um, trench warfare.
0:39:42 > 0:39:49The enthusiasts would throw verbal brickbats at British Waterways,
0:39:49 > 0:39:51who would neatly deflect them,
0:39:51 > 0:39:56and this got people, in a way, out of their slip trenches
0:39:56 > 0:39:58and onto common ground.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03David Tomlinson was a member of the local canal society
0:40:03 > 0:40:06that approached British Waterways
0:40:06 > 0:40:08and persuaded it to change its attitude
0:40:08 > 0:40:13and for the very first time, work alongside volunteers.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18The agreement, forged by people on the ground,
0:40:18 > 0:40:22was a huge step forward, and would, over the next 30 years,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24help transform the network.
0:40:27 > 0:40:28When we first started,
0:40:28 > 0:40:33we cleared a certain amount of brushwood and scrub, etc, etc,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37cleaned out the by-wash channel
0:40:37 > 0:40:40so that bricks and rubbish were removed,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43and then we started on cleaning out the locks.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47Of course the principal obstacle to navigation,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50apart from the decrepit lock gates, was the amount of rubbish
0:40:50 > 0:40:53that had been deposited in the bottom of the locks,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57and we found... I think we found some ammunition from World War II
0:40:57 > 0:41:02in lock three, and which we took up to the local police station
0:41:02 > 0:41:06for their collection, and we found all sorts of other things -
0:41:06 > 0:41:09bicycle wheels and general household rubbish,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12oil drums... Anything that could be chucked in
0:41:12 > 0:41:15generally seemed to have been chucked in,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17apart from we didn't find a body.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20We always sort of lived in hope we might find a body,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24which would be quite interesting. Well, might be -
0:41:24 > 0:41:27you know, "Murder mystery on the Stourbridge Canal",
0:41:27 > 0:41:29but that never happened.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35David even filmed some of the work of the volunteers
0:41:35 > 0:41:39during the three years it took to restore the canal.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44That's him laying bricks in a weir.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52The process was, I suppose, really,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55depending what was on,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58because obviously you couldn't film everything,
0:41:58 > 0:42:03but I concentrated on the locks,
0:42:03 > 0:42:10because the fitting of lock gates was quite interesting to me,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13and of course it was a golden opportunity
0:42:13 > 0:42:15for the volunteers to do something
0:42:15 > 0:42:20that they could go away and feel, "I've really made my mark there."
0:42:22 > 0:42:26Not that the volunteers needed much motivation.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30I haven't myself met very many people
0:42:30 > 0:42:33who said, "I got involved in restoration
0:42:33 > 0:42:35so I could take my own personal boat through."
0:42:35 > 0:42:39It was caring about some aspect of the environment,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43of feeling, "If that is lost, something of me is lost."
0:42:43 > 0:42:46And they came from all walks of life.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Lot of people were from professional backgrounds.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Quite a few people I've met came from clerical jobs,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57which were pen-pushing, as it were - that's their sort of feeling -
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and didn't provide the satisfaction of working with your hands,
0:43:00 > 0:43:05almost like a sort of dignity of manual labour.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08You're doing something real.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11During the day, you're pushing paper round.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15At the end of your career, you're not quite sure what you've achieved.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18But you can go past that lock and see the brickwork
0:43:18 > 0:43:22you helped to set, or something you cleared, something you worked on.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24I think that's a big motivator.
0:43:24 > 0:43:30And I think for many people, this was a serious way
0:43:30 > 0:43:32of having an awful lot of fun.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38After three years of serious fun,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41the canal was reopened in May 1967.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46The political driving force that enabled it to happen
0:43:46 > 0:43:50was Barbara Castle, herself something of a canal enthusiast.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55When Barbara Castle was Minister of Transport,
0:43:55 > 0:44:00she automatically had the canals in her department.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03But she saw them a bit differently.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06She saw that they were not just a transport artery.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09There was a big future for leisure and tourism,
0:44:09 > 0:44:15and because of that, the 1968 Transport Act came into being,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18and that divided the canals into those that were for transport,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22like the Aire and Calder, the River Weaver and so on,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25and the rest of the canals, the smaller canals,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28were seen as cruiseways. This new word appeared, cruiseways.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31So they were to be developed for leisure and tourism.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Barbara Castle came in at the right time,
0:44:36 > 0:44:40at the start of 1966. What made it so important
0:44:40 > 0:44:44that SHE was Minister of Transport rather than someone else
0:44:44 > 0:44:47was not that she initiated policy
0:44:47 > 0:44:50but that at the crucial moment, she said,
0:44:50 > 0:44:55"No, we're not having major cutbacks in expenditure on this,"
0:44:55 > 0:44:58when the Treasury wanted to basically close the whole system down.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05Barbara Castle's 1968 Transport Act gave the canals,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07for the first time in more than a century,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09a secure future.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Local canal groups became increasingly bold,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18and launched ambitious programmes of restoration.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24They were encouraged by a growing interest in the environment
0:45:24 > 0:45:27and Britain's industrial heritage.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37One element of that heritage, the working boat, was almost dead.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39In 1970,
0:45:39 > 0:45:43Willow Wren, the last remaining narrowboat coal carrier,
0:45:43 > 0:45:45ended trading.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55But a group of canal enthusiasts in the Midlands
0:45:55 > 0:45:58was determined to keep the tradition alive.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05'Although canal carrying on a grand scale finished in the early '60s
0:46:05 > 0:46:08'and petered off into the 1970s,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10'there've always been a crowd of nutters like us
0:46:10 > 0:46:12'that have kept old boats alive.'
0:46:14 > 0:46:17'We liked to think that we were doing things properly
0:46:17 > 0:46:22'and preserving a little bit of the past for the future, I suppose.'
0:46:23 > 0:46:27They went about preserving the past by doing it themselves -
0:46:27 > 0:46:29carrying cargo.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35They were called Midland Canal Transport.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41We used to boat together, and we were interested in the same subject,
0:46:41 > 0:46:47and we decided, "Well, let's use the name Midland Canal Transport,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51"and, er, if we can carry, we'll carry."
0:46:51 > 0:46:54And we were reasonably successful.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01We all painted our three boats up in the same style,
0:47:01 > 0:47:05with nicely lettered cabins, and got the boats in the best of order,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08and then went off looking for people who wanted things carrying
0:47:08 > 0:47:10from here to there.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12And they filmed it all.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18It was just a way of recording the odd little method
0:47:18 > 0:47:21for getting along that little bit quicker,
0:47:21 > 0:47:24or, again, preserving a little bit of history for the future.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33Our first traffic was to a group of houses
0:47:33 > 0:47:35at Kinver near Kidderminster,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and these three houses had got no road access,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41but they'd all got coal-fired central heating,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44so they all needed about three tons of coal each.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57There was a lot of shovelling to do, a lot of weighing and bagging and humping off,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00so it took all three of us, and on a very hot summer's day,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03humping 19 tons of coal, it's hard work.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16So we were happy to load one of our boats
0:48:16 > 0:48:22on a Friday, boat it over the weekend,
0:48:22 > 0:48:24and deliver it to these people.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33On the way down we used to start bagging up, you see,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35get in the boat's bottom with a shovel,
0:48:35 > 0:48:39and have the scales on the beam,
0:48:39 > 0:48:44and we bagged and weighed, you see, as we went down.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55And then take off the boat and put them on the bank,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58and from there on it was the customer's responsibility
0:48:58 > 0:49:00to do the rest.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03And we had a very good party with them.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06They would help us get the coal off, and give us tea and cakes,
0:49:06 > 0:49:10and a bit of money changed hands. It was a very good arrangement.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12And that went on for many years.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28When you see the film, it reminds you, 25, 30 years ago,
0:49:28 > 0:49:30how much younger we all were.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34It brings back, I suppose, some very pleasant memories,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38odd little moments when, perhaps, you forget how we toiled,
0:49:38 > 0:49:40how we struggled at times.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45What drove them, like so many volunteers,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48was a passion to keep a tradition alive.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55We'd like to think that we did it in a proper manner,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58as the way it would have been, the way it had evolved
0:49:58 > 0:50:00over the last two centuries, really.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08This was our way of using the canals for which they were designed
0:50:08 > 0:50:10and keeping the channel clear,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13and putting something back into the canal system,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16which seemed the right thing for us to do.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31I'm afraid Midland Canal Transport suffered from old age, really.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35Um, one by one we became...
0:50:36 > 0:50:40..slightly unsound. Keith had a back problem,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42Bob had an operation and I had an operation,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45and we did find other interests, I have to say.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48Bob found Morgan cars, I found horses,
0:50:48 > 0:50:52Keith had perhaps got a bit too old to jump on and off boats.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54So we kept our boats for a while,
0:50:54 > 0:50:57but then we realised that things had to change.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02It wasn't that we'd had enough,
0:51:02 > 0:51:05but I think, you know, you're getting a bit older,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08there are other things to do.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13Well, that photograph was taken in 1979.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16We were all looking rather youthful in those days, weren't we?
0:51:16 > 0:51:20But that picture appeared in the local magazine,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23and it's a reminder, perhaps, of the happy days
0:51:23 > 0:51:25when we were boating and carrying cargo
0:51:25 > 0:51:27up and down the Stourbridge Canal.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40At the time Tony and his friends were working the Midlands waterways,
0:51:40 > 0:51:44another group were planning perhaps the most ambitious restoration campaign to date -
0:51:44 > 0:51:47to restore the Huddersfield Canal,
0:51:47 > 0:51:49"the impossible restoration".
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Trevor Ellis was a member of the canal society at the time.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59This was the canal that Robert Aickman and his friends
0:51:59 > 0:52:01had just about negotiated in 1948.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04To stop pleasure-boaters using it after them,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08British Waterways had effectively destroyed it.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11For myself, I was a local,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14and, you know, ever since I was a child
0:52:14 > 0:52:16I'd seen the canal derelict
0:52:16 > 0:52:19and, you know, wondered about it
0:52:19 > 0:52:22and what it had been like when it was working,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26and really wanted to do something about it from that angle.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33That's Trevor in red, in a film about the restoration
0:52:33 > 0:52:36made by one of the canal-society members.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42On the films, I obviously look considerably younger than I do now.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45I look certainly a lot less grey.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49It was probably the restoration that turned him grey.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52It took a lot longer than anyone imagined.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58The initial hope was that we would clear the first lock in six weeks,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01but with the equipment we had,
0:53:01 > 0:53:04that was really not a remote possibility.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07It took well over a year in the end.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14The locks had been infilled up to the top water level
0:53:14 > 0:53:17with quarry debris, and then concreted over -
0:53:17 > 0:53:20with reinforced concrete, not just concrete.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24We had to break this. You cut all the reinforcing bars
0:53:24 > 0:53:26with bolt-cutters
0:53:26 > 0:53:29and then move that, slowly work our way down
0:53:29 > 0:53:34through something like, er, 14, 15 feet
0:53:34 > 0:53:36of quarry debris,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40which, using hand tools, was a major undertaking.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47They worked on it for more than 20 years.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53'The group we had were fairly close-knit.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56'We used to have social meetings at the time,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59'and we used to get pretty much the same core group
0:53:59 > 0:54:03'coming to those as to the working parties.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07'We were all good friends, you know, all pulling in the same direction.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09'A team, really.'
0:54:09 > 0:54:13A restoration project that began in 1974
0:54:13 > 0:54:17ended finally with the official opening in 2001.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23To go from closure in 1944, no-one interested in navigating it,
0:54:23 > 0:54:25no pleasure-boat industry or anything like that -
0:54:25 > 0:54:29to go from that to seeing the waterway reopen from end to end
0:54:29 > 0:54:33in 2001 was a massive achievement.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44Reopening the Huddersfield Canal, "the impossible restoration",
0:54:44 > 0:54:47was a significant achievement.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50But it was by no means the end of the story.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02These days, every weekend, up and down the country,
0:55:02 > 0:55:04hundreds of committed volunteers turn out,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08just like they've done at countless restoration projects
0:55:08 > 0:55:10since the 1960s.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14They're bringing many more canals to life.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19But there's still a lot to do.
0:55:33 > 0:55:39Nowadays, there are more narrowboats than there were in the 19th-century heyday,
0:55:39 > 0:55:44and upwards of 200,000 people spend their holiday on a canal...
0:55:45 > 0:55:48..figures that were unimaginable
0:55:48 > 0:55:51when the campaign to rescue the canals first began.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57More than 60 years on from when the canal campaigner Tom Rolt
0:55:57 > 0:55:59published Narrow Boat,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02Britain's canals are still enjoying a second golden age.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07Britain's waterways are one area of the environment
0:56:07 > 0:56:12where a great deal is owed to a small number of significant people,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16many of whom are completely unknown today.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26Today, there are more than 20,000 people living on narrowboats.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32Jo and Keith Lodge are working to keep some of them warm in winter.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36It's a final twist that would really make Tom Rolt smile.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43Once again, a few people are making a living out of working the canals.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48'Myself and my husband run the coal boat Hadar.'
0:56:49 > 0:56:53Generally we do from the beginning of October
0:56:53 > 0:56:55till the 31st of March,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58and it's usually about a two-week turnaround.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01We supply coal to houses,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05and we do the wharfing up at Welford,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09and all the boaters that need coal over the winter.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19'For me, it's relatively new.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23'My husband Keith has been round the water for over 40 years,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26'but me, I didn't start till 2000.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35'I love it. I absolutely adore doing this job.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38'It's great fun. You meet lots of wonderful people.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42'But we've all got a common theme - we all love the waterways.'
0:57:44 > 0:57:46Jo Lodge embodies the twin forces
0:57:46 > 0:57:49that have shaped many people's love of the canals -
0:57:49 > 0:57:53a respect for the traditions and skills
0:57:53 > 0:57:57that first created a stunning network of inland waterways,
0:57:57 > 0:58:02and a passion for a simple life that moves at the pace of a horse.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09I just love the whole lifestyle.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14We're not in the fast pace of life any more, which is what I enjoy.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19And I feel like I've come home. It's like I've come home.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:33 > 0:58:36E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk