Barge Woman

[m3838]

Hi.

Not necessarily concertina related, but close geographically.

In the "Wind of the Willows" there's a Barge Woman. On the barge. What is a barge woman? Is it just a woman on the barge?

My little one is asking.

[Dirge]

Hi.

Not necessarily concertina related, but close geographically.

In the "Wind of the Willows" there's a Barge Woman. On the barge. What is a barge woman? Is it just a woman on the barge?

My little one is asking.

Well yes but you'd expect her to be living on it and working it and it would have implied 'working class and rather rough with it' to Graham's readers. (How does G spell his name?)

 

Commendable choice of reading matter in a world which values Harry Potter in my opinion.

[AnnC]

In the UK the boat described would also be called a Narrowboat or Canal boat and whole families lived and worked on them. The boats were used to transport vast quantities of goods across country (before the advent of good roads and motorised transport ) on the network of canals, the boats were originally horse drawn

 

http://www.canaljunc.../horsedrawn.htm,

 

 

then later powered by steam or diesel engines.

 

http://www.canaljunc...nal/history.htm

 

The canal women were very house proud and would try to keep the small living cabins clean, also decorating surfaces with painted 'Roses and Castles' everything from the doors on the cupboards to the buckets used to hold water

 

http://www.canaljunc...ses_castles.htm

 

There was also a 'Boatwomans bonnet' designed to protect the head/hair and back of the neck as the women worked alongside their husbands on the boats.

 

http://www.lhcrt.org.uk/bonnetkit.htm

 

 

Cheers Ann

Edited September 23, 2010 by anlej

[spindizzy]

Here's a real live barge woman, Anne-Marie on the coalboat Alton which runs a fuel and coal and wood delivery service on the Macclesfield Canal.

She is about to run us down (I learnt later from friends that the boat need to stay in the centre to get enough depth of water.)