0:00:07 > 0:00:12This is the story of how canals changed and shaped our modern world.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Carrying huge volumes of goods and fuel around the country,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22they were a stimulus of our great Industrial Revolution.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28But they also gave us much, much more and their legacy
0:00:28 > 0:00:30lives on today in surprising ways.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34My name's Liz McIvor.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38I've spent my life studying and talking about history
0:00:38 > 0:00:40and I believe it's time to take a different look
0:00:40 > 0:00:42at our inland waterways.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Strangely, the story of the people who actually
0:00:47 > 0:00:50worked on the canals is often overlooked.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Once the waterways were built, men, women and children toiled
0:00:54 > 0:00:59for long hours, often in dangerous conditions and at huge personal cost.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03So, who were these boat people?
0:01:03 > 0:01:06How did they live and how did a cast of campaigners work
0:01:06 > 0:01:09tirelessly to improve life on the canals?
0:01:29 > 0:01:32This is Foxton Locks in Leicestershire,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35part of the Grand Union Canal route,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37which takes you all the way to London.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Looks great today.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42It's a popular spot for tourists and day-trippers.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48But in the 19th century, the picture wasn't so pretty
0:01:48 > 0:01:51and work on the canal was anything but leisurely.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56It was a hive of activity during the 19th century.
0:01:56 > 0:01:5918,000 families were recorded living on canal boats,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02including 3,000 women on board.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09So, Wendy, can you paint a picture of how busy it was on this
0:02:09 > 0:02:13- stretch of canal?- It would have been very busy in its heyday.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16From about...
0:02:16 > 0:02:201800-ish up to 1840,
0:02:20 > 0:02:21this was the main route
0:02:21 > 0:02:24between the industrial Midlands and London,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28so you'd have coal coming down from the Midlands to London,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32goods from the London docks going the other way,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36there'd be flyboats - flyboats were the express boats of the canal,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39they went day and night nonstop -
0:02:39 > 0:02:43and then the slow boats carrying coal and stone and timber,
0:02:43 > 0:02:45and all drawn by horses, of course,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49no engines in any part of the 19th century.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00The transportation of goods was typically a family affair,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04with children growing up on the boats and learning to help.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06Boat families often came from farming,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08when family work was common.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12They diversified into working the water to make more money.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17So, obviously, families were working these boats
0:03:17 > 0:03:20and presumably the children, no matter what age they were,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22had some sort of role, some sort of job.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26As soon as they were old enough, obviously not very tiny children,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29but as soon as they were old enough to do something useful,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32then they would be expected to pull their weight.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36No passengers, basically, on a narrow boat.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40This was hard and heavy work.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Boatmen were paid by the weight of cargo they carried,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47so it was often cheaper for them to employ members of their own family.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52Children were expected to lead horses and operate locks like this one.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54It was tough going and a long day,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57the boat sometimes on the move for 17 hours or more.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04And, of course, the place of work for many boat people was also
0:04:04 > 0:04:06a place to live,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08a home - sometimes the only home.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Space was limited.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19A husband and wife and perhaps six children
0:04:19 > 0:04:21would live on a boat like this.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24It was customary to decorate them with lace and rag rugs
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and paint roses and castles on the outside of the boat.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32These people had their own culture and their own way of life.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39But you can easily see how overcrowding was a problem.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43They were often choky little boxes with poor ventilation.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47People were working, eating and sleeping in small spaces.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Hygiene was poor and back cabins could be boiling
0:04:50 > 0:04:54hot in the summer, freezing in the winter.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57But if life was tough indoors, it wasn't much fun outside either.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04It was here in Braunston, Northamptonshire, the boatmen's
0:05:04 > 0:05:09spiritual home and the village of choice for many baptisms and burials,
0:05:09 > 0:05:15a deadly disease struck in 1834, carried along the canal from London.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20This canal water looks pretty clean, but 150 years ago,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22filthy water was a real hazard.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Factories, mills and houses all discharged dirty water
0:05:26 > 0:05:28and sewage into the canal, and canal boat people
0:05:28 > 0:05:31emptied their chamber pots into it.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Diseases like typhoid were rife,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37but when cholera arrived in the 1830s, the results were catastrophic.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46The disease was widespread in Calcutta and Bombay,
0:05:46 > 0:05:51spreading along trade routes and brought back to England by boat.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54It had a devastating impact on boat families.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00The church known as the Cathedral of the Canals, in Braunston,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03holds some of the secrets about what happened here.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Some of the victims of that cholera outbreak were buried
0:06:07 > 0:06:10- here in the churchyard, weren't they?- They were.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13How was it thought that cholera arrived in Braunston
0:06:13 > 0:06:17- in the first place?- It arrived in Braunston on a narrow boat.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20The skipper of the narrow boat came up,
0:06:20 > 0:06:25dropped his laundry in to Mrs Luck, the washerwoman in Cross Lane,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29and she laundered it for him and she died of cholera,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31though I don't think anybody realised it at the time.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Yards, lanes and boats were all cleansed
0:06:38 > 0:06:42and five houses were used to isolate the sick.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45In all, there were 70 cases and 19 deaths.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52So, do you think that the outbreak of cholera here brought
0:06:52 > 0:06:54canal families and the settled people together?
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Yes, it did to a great degree.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Obviously, there's always a little bit of tension between one
0:07:00 > 0:07:03and the other, depending on what's going on at the time,
0:07:03 > 0:07:10but they all worked together to get cholera under control.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12It was a case of, "What do we do about it?
0:07:12 > 0:07:15"We've got a problem, let's fix it."
0:07:18 > 0:07:22Working the waterways meant many boat people rarely left the towpath.
0:07:22 > 0:07:27Victorian society grew suspicious of these outsiders.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Bargees, as they might be known,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31began to gain reputations for criminality,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33violence and drinking.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38So, in terms of society, people often viewed canal families
0:07:38 > 0:07:42as, perhaps, suspicious or as heavy drinkers,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44people who had bad behaviour.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50- Is that strictly true or is it a form of moral panic?- It's partly true.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54I think it's true that a lot of them were heavy drinkers,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56got into fights.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Fights were caused by things like somebody jumping
0:07:59 > 0:08:01the queue at the locks.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Swearing a lot, they had a reputation for that as well,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and I think that was pretty much justified.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10But they looked scruffy because of the living conditions that
0:08:10 > 0:08:13they had to put up with, and the fact that they moved around a lot
0:08:13 > 0:08:17caused suspicion and this business of not going to church, I mean,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19that was very much frowned upon.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29There were indeed some quite high-profile canal crimes that rocked
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Victorian society and attracted the attention of the newspapers,
0:08:33 > 0:08:39such as the murder of Christina Collins in June 1839 at Rugeley.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Christina was a paying passenger on the Staffordshire Knot,
0:08:42 > 0:08:44a working boat bound for London.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52It was reported at the time its crew blazed a trail of bad behaviour
0:08:52 > 0:08:53wherever they went
0:08:53 > 0:08:57and during the night, they broke open a cask of rum being
0:08:57 > 0:09:01carried on board and attacked, raped and murdered Christina.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06The men went on the run and it was over a month before they were caught.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11When they were eventually hanged, 10,000 people turned out to watch.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15"These wretched men have this day expiated their dreadful crime,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18"by the forfeiture of their lives on the gallows."
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Victorian Britain could be a hard and violent place.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Life on the canals was little different to that of other
0:09:26 > 0:09:29working-class communities.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32But one man was shocked at what he observed,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35a social reformer named George Smith.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Smith, a man motivated by religion,
0:09:40 > 0:09:46described the scene in his 1875 book Our Canal Population.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51"It has often and truly been said one half the world
0:09:51 > 0:09:54"doesn't know how the other half lives.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56"This has been my experience over and over again
0:09:56 > 0:09:59"in visiting the boat cabins on our canals.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03"Families are made miserable, health ruined, lives shortened
0:10:03 > 0:10:05"and souls lost.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10"There are in this country over 100,000 men, women and children
0:10:10 > 0:10:13"living and floating on our rivers and canals
0:10:13 > 0:10:16"in a state of wretchedness."
0:10:16 > 0:10:20The 1833 Factory Act banned children younger than nine
0:10:20 > 0:10:25working in textile mills and reduced working hours for those under 13.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29But canal boat children had no such safeguards.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32George was determined things had to change,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36but it was a mission which would become a lifelong struggle.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41Victorians were not convinced yet
0:10:41 > 0:10:46that childhood was a time period that should be protected
0:10:46 > 0:10:48and that children should go to school or play.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Historically, children had helped with family enterprises,
0:10:52 > 0:10:57they'd been involved in work and that tradition continued on and
0:10:57 > 0:11:02it wasn't clear that going to school and learning from books was going
0:11:02 > 0:11:06to give them the same advantages in the labour market when they grew up,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10so for all these reasons, there was a supply of working children.
0:11:11 > 0:11:12Smith grew up here
0:11:12 > 0:11:16on the banks of the Trent and Mersey Canal, near to Stoke.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20He was set to work at seven in a brickyard and his early years were
0:11:20 > 0:11:25full of toil and drudgery, carrying clay for up to 13 hours a day.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29He soon realised his only escape was education.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34George was a strict Methodist and single-minded.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36By his 20s, he had come a long way
0:11:36 > 0:11:39and was managing his own brickyard in Leicestershire
0:11:39 > 0:11:43and he began to improve the lives of the children working for him,
0:11:43 > 0:11:45as well as lobby for new laws to protect
0:11:45 > 0:11:47the brutalised brickyard children.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52His speeches about the conditions in other brickyards caused
0:11:52 > 0:11:57public outrage and after years of protest, George won the fight.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03Brickyard children were finally covered by the factories act,
0:12:03 > 0:12:04offering them some protection.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Spurred on, he turned his attention to the canal children,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13but from the start, this new campaign caused controversy.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Well, the canal showed that child labour could take very
0:12:21 > 0:12:22different forms,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26not just the children minding the machines in textile factories, but
0:12:26 > 0:12:31these children working on the boats of those many navigable waterways.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36And George Smith, his own personal experience
0:12:36 > 0:12:41helped shine light into these nooks and crannies of the Victorian economy
0:12:41 > 0:12:45where children were still working in hazardous conditions
0:12:45 > 0:12:48for long hours and for very low rates of pay.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54George Smith was now in full flow, fighting for the rights
0:12:54 > 0:12:57of canal children and it was while speaking
0:12:57 > 0:13:00here at Moira, on the Ashby Canal, he was threatened with being thrown
0:13:00 > 0:13:05in the cut for causing boatmen to become dissatisfied with their lot.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Undeterred, he replied, "200 boats moored on this canal
0:13:08 > 0:13:10"and no provision for a Sunday school."
0:13:14 > 0:13:17National newspapers began to take up his cause
0:13:17 > 0:13:20and chastise Parliament for its inaction.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Remarkably, Denis Baker's great-grandfather was a friend
0:13:23 > 0:13:26to George and he still lives here in Leicestershire.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32So, Denis, you've got family connections to George Smith, haven't you?
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Yes, I have, through my great-grandfather.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37He was associated with the Baptist church,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40whereas George was associated with the Methodist church.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43And he supported him, I suppose,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45in every way that he could.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50So that if George was going down to London, for instance,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54he would actually give him, I don't know, the odd shilling,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57or maybe a pound, I don't know how much it was,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01but a lot of people would do the same. If he said he was going to
0:14:01 > 0:14:04London, then God would provide and surely enough he did.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12George was spurred on by his own unpleasant childhood,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16but also some of the horrific accidents involving boat children.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19One of them happened here, just outside Wolverhampton.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24"A child drowned in a canal boat.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27"On Thursday, at the Boat Inn, the borough coroner held
0:14:27 > 0:14:31"an inquest upon the body of Jane Ball, aged eight months.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34"The deceased was the infant daughter of Jacob Ball,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36"in charge of the Venus canal boat.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40"He had got his boat into number seven lock by the Cannock Road
0:14:40 > 0:14:44"and was assisted by his wife when his boat came into contact with
0:14:44 > 0:14:47"a piece of iron, which prevented one end of the boat
0:14:47 > 0:14:50"rising with the water. In a moment, the vessel sank.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52"Two children on the deck narrowly escaped,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56"but deceased, who was asleep in the cabin, was drowned.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00"The jury returned a verdict of accidental death."
0:15:00 > 0:15:03A sad story but one of many George would have read about.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15George proposed a remedy, a wish list of changes and improvements.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20No boys on boats under 13 to work or sleep.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25No girls under 18. A minimum space for sleeping in the cabin.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Cabin inspections to improve conditions.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32And all canal children to pass a basic standard of education.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Smith continued to press on with more speeches and lobbying,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42and after seven long years he won his fight.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45In 1877 the new Canal Boat Act was passed.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50It was watered down from his list of remedies,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54but there were minimum standards inside the boater's cabin.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58It controlled the number and age of children who slept there.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Smith wasn't giving up. Incensed, he took to the towpath once more.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10He set off during winter when the boats were iced in.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13What he found were vessels that were dirty and overcrowded.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16He urged the local authorities to step in and enforce the Act.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20George got his Act amended six years later,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24and inspectors began checks for overcrowding.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Canal children were also required to attend school
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and given passbooks recording their attendance.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36So, Denis, what do you think George achieved in his lifetime?
0:16:36 > 0:16:39I think he achieved great things, because he managed to get
0:16:39 > 0:16:43two Acts of Parliament passed as a private individual rather
0:16:43 > 0:16:46than an MP, which takes some doing even today, I think.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50And, of course, what he did was to improve the lot of people
0:16:50 > 0:16:53enormously, particularly in the working classes.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02He would never give up. Just so dedicated to it, I think.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09George's successful campaigns had come at a heavy personal cost.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Much had been funded from his own pocket.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14He had lost everything, even his family home.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22There is little doubt that George Smith helped to implement new
0:17:22 > 0:17:25laws that would improve the lives of thousands of children
0:17:25 > 0:17:28before his death aged 64 in 1895.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Almost a century and a half since his achievements,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39George has been fondly remembered in his home town
0:17:39 > 0:17:43of Coalville, Leicestershire, where this new road now bears his name.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51The 19th century was drawing to a close.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55This was a time in which society had become uneasy with the hardships
0:17:55 > 0:17:59and what they saw as immoral behaviour of the boat people.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03Mission halls, floating chapels and boat schools had all appeared
0:18:03 > 0:18:07along the canals in an effort to spread the word of God
0:18:07 > 0:18:08and educate boat families.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13This is Walsall Top Lock on the Birmingham Canal Navigations,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16where a boatman's mission still stands.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22So, how did canal children take to the classroom environment?
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Well, at places like this they were made welcome
0:18:24 > 0:18:29and they only had to mix with their own kind, which they liked.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Unlike ordinary children who get fed up with going to school
0:18:32 > 0:18:36every day, for a boat child it was a novelty.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41They were supposed to go to a mainstream school whenever the boat tied up.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46But, of course, then they would be bullied by regular children,
0:18:46 > 0:18:47the local children would pick on them.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50I do think they probably gave as good as they got,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52but it wasn't a pleasant experience.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59As the 20th century got into gear,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03education became compulsory for all up to 14.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07But canal boat children often got around this by clocking into
0:19:07 > 0:19:12the classroom to record attendance then moving on with the family boat.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16But places like this also served the canal in other ways.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19It wasn't just education.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23They offered other facilities to boat people - coffee rooms,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25recreation rooms, and some of them
0:19:25 > 0:19:30even offered washing facilities, perhaps even a bakehouse.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34So they were offering real, practical help to boat people.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Technology was advancing.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Horsepower was sometimes being replaced by steam and then diesel,
0:19:43 > 0:19:49but living conditions on board boats at the start of the 1900s remained harsh.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Canal inspectors were now checking for overcrowding,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56and many families were sleeping in two cabins,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59with the girls at the front and the boys at the rear.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01Both had their hazards.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05The fore cabin could get wet from splashing water at the locks,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08and the rear cabin was by the stove and sometimes the engine,
0:20:08 > 0:20:09which meant fumes.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Just as George Smith led his moral crusade in the 1800s,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22another reformer, Harry Gosling, picked up the baton.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26This time the motivation was socialist ideals rather than religion.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Harry was a Labour politician, a union leader,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33and came from a family of watermen who worked the Thames.
0:20:37 > 0:20:43So in 1929, Harry demanded new laws which would ban children under 14
0:20:43 > 0:20:45from living or travelling on canal boats.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Outraged by the proposed changes, which could split up families,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54boat people wanted their voices heard, so they went to the House of Commons.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58But, frustrated by the questioning, they answered the MPs with scorn.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01When a group of women were asked
0:21:01 > 0:21:05whether life on the barge was really healthy, one of them replied,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08"Well, I have ten children on the barge,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11"and they're all alive, so I ought to know."
0:21:15 > 0:21:20A thousand people signed a petition against Harry's Private Member's Bill,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22and it began to lose momentum.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Now in ill health, he was too weak to put up much of a fight.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32Parliament refused to pass the bill, and soon after, Harry died.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37With this letdown, as some people saw it,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41the canals started to enter an era of social stagnation.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46This was an industry in gradual decline,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49the beginning of the end for cargo carrying on our canals,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52with faster forms of transport available.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57Although some official assistance was given to families left working the waterways,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00help also came from volunteers like this lady.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04- NEWSREEL:- 'Nothing is allowed to delay the cargoes,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07'but old and young know there's always care, a pill,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09'or a word of advice to be had from Sister Mary.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13'They call her the angel of the waterways,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16'and if a waterman ever swears, he swears by Sister Mary.'
0:22:18 > 0:22:21At the time Harry Gosling was fighting for new laws,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Sister Mary was fighting to provide basic medical care on the canal.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33From the 1930s right up to the 1960s, she nursed canal boat families
0:22:33 > 0:22:38here at the locks at Stoke Bruerne on the Grand Union.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42For canal children who fell ill many miles from a hospital,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Sister Mary was salvation.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Dr Della Sadler-Moore has just written a book about her.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52So, Della, we're here outside what was Sister Mary's surgery,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54which is now an Indian restaurant.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Yes, that was Sister Mary's home, it was the family home.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04So, what kind of problems would she have been dealing with on a day-to-day basis?
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Well, in the 1930s she'd get two types of cases, really.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10She started to pick up people that
0:23:10 > 0:23:13really hadn't looked after themselves.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17They hadn't had any health care, so they got quite long-standing
0:23:17 > 0:23:22problems - leg ulcers, respiratory problems.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25But her second type of cases would be emergencies.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30- Would these be from injuries received on the boats?- They would, absolutely.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35With some help from the canal owners,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38but financing much of the work herself, Sister Mary was
0:23:38 > 0:23:43recognised when she received the British Empire Medal in 1951.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Was there anybody else on the canal network like Sister Mary?
0:23:48 > 0:23:51No, she was very, very unique.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53The Grand Union Canal Carrying Company were
0:23:53 > 0:23:56concerned about the welfare of their boaters,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00and they actually appointed her as a consultant sister, and the
0:24:00 > 0:24:03boaters travelled many, many miles to be able to come and see her.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06You can see it written in stories by them,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10and they have published them, about how iconic she was.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16By the time of her death in 1972,
0:24:16 > 0:24:22long-distance canal carrying had ended, superseded by road and rail.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Canals were now used for leisure, or simply neglected.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Barry Argent's parents spent their lives working the water,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31and were among the last to leave.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37My mam were born on a boat, at Ellesmere Port, in the bottom basin.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42My dad actually came from a fairground family.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46From when he first went on the boats, eight, nine years old,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49he was doing the job of, you know, a full-grown man.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Barry's father's films show a time of decline on the canals.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02The films that my dad took, it was from when the working boats packed up.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05It was, like, heartbreaking for him because, like I say,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07he'd worked on the Erewash Canal,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10and he had seen it right from the beginning.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14In his day, it was in very good condition, and, like I say,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18he had just seen it go downhill and downhill and downhill.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21Out of all of his films, one of my favourites is, like,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24when we went down to London in 1967.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29It was one of the first really big trips I did with my mam and dad.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32I can remember it just like it was yesterday.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36I can watch the films and I can tell you exactly where it is,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39and I haven't been to London since 1967.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Barry's dad refused to leave the cut.
0:25:44 > 0:25:50He lived out his retirement years on a house on the banks of the Erewash Canal.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53But this wasn't the case for all boat families.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Many moved away.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Some canal boat children were even told to keep quiet by families
0:25:59 > 0:26:01embarrassed about their past.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Some historians are rewriting,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10and perhaps reclaiming the history of boat families.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Lorna York once kept quiet about her father's past.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17So, Lorna, you're proud of your canal boat heritage, aren't you?
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Oh, yes, very much so.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24Now - when I was a child, I was told never to tell anybody
0:26:24 > 0:26:28that we came from a boat family, because of the stigma.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33They were ostracised quite a lot. But now everybody wants to know.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37"Oh, you come from a boat family!" I've been researching for 20 years.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42I now have a database of over 9,000 boat people,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44and I get e-mails from all over the world.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51People have romantic notions of the gaily painted boats
0:26:51 > 0:26:55moving along the canal at a slow pace of life.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59That is a very romanticised idea,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02but the truth is, they were working.
0:27:02 > 0:27:08They were like the long-distance lorry drivers of their day.
0:27:08 > 0:27:09They had got a job to do.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17There's now an appetite amongst historians to discover this
0:27:17 > 0:27:20overlooked part of our social history, and rightly so.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30Britain's canals, they shaped our landscape and shaped our lives,
0:27:30 > 0:27:31and their legacy lives on.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35In the factories, fields and mines,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37child labour attracted attention,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41but it seems canal boat children got lost along the way,
0:27:41 > 0:27:46last on the list to be offered safeguards in the grand plan to protect childhood.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52Here, children laboured in often hazardous conditions
0:27:52 > 0:27:54for very long hours for very low pay.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58But there were campaigners who battled for better living conditions on boats,
0:27:58 > 0:28:05activists who pressed government for compulsory education, long after it was due.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10George Smith, his biography is called The Story Of An Enthusiast.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14And thank goodness some people were enthusiastic about reform.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Living apart from society, boat families were
0:28:19 > 0:28:23part of a subculture, a community avoided and overlooked.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29And what was once a place of hard graft and industry
0:28:29 > 0:28:32now attracts and inspires people from everywhere.