Canal arts and boat painting, as we identify them today, grew with the historic waterway trading and coal delivery networks during the 19th century industrial revolution. Canal infrastructure hubs included Birmingham and Dudley in the Black Country, along the route of the Grand Union Canal, which connected London waterways to the Midlands and the North. The Old Main Line Birmingham and Wolverhampton Canal (known regionally as ‘the cut’), connects with the Shropshire Union Canal, joining up with waterways into Wales and up to Liverpool and Manchester. Boaters and bargemen worked in the same way as today’s long distance lorry driver, with set routes, regular employment and steady wages. However, their isolating profession led to the people of the canals forming their own communities in the same way of the miners. This developed and solidified into a recognisable class of people as the social and economic status of the canals changed towards the later Victorian period.
The art of canal boat painting began with a need for the boat owners to advertise their services and have their vessels identifiable by authorities. The colours and styles were dictated by both the financial status of the boat owner and the fashions of the time. The decoration of cabin interior and ‘running gear’ were driven more by the aesthetic tastes of the boaters themselves, and are believed to be a slightly later development, but regularly in use by the 1830s.
Folk art historian and canal painter Tony Lewery describes the practice of canal art as ‘the result of a balanced relationship between the artists who did, the group it was done for and the underlying reasons for its existence’ (Lewery 1996, p7); the painters often being boatbuilders who did the work as part of their trade and the boatmen themselves, and the group being the population of canal boaters.
Lewery goes on to explain that the reasons behind the art itself are complex and difficult to encapsulate:
‘An outward display of domestic neatness was important, and advertising in a general sense, proclaiming one’s taste and prosperity within the boating society; but perhaps above all it was a statement of self-esteem, and a mark of membership of an exclusive trade elite’. (Lewery, 1996 p7)
Canal art shares many common themes with fairground arts and vardo painting, such as scroll work and floral motifs, as well as popular symbols and flourishes found within Victorian arts and crafts. The stylistic influences between traveller communities, those who built and painted waggons and the people who painted on the canals are evident, as are the influences of the fashions of the day. However, each of the communities retained their own distinct communities and cultural practices.
Canal art is famous for the ‘Roses & Castles’ imagery, plus bold patterns such as harlequin diamonds, hearts, crescent moons and brightly coloured sun-circle. These are expertly placed to enhance the cabin, hull, and the many objects found on working and living boats.
Lewery writes that part of the enduring appeal of the distinctive ‘Roses & Castles’ motifs are their mysterious origins:
‘Nobody really knows where it came from…It may be a leftover Victorian commercial art nurtured by the anachronistic culture of the canals to survive as an exotic species in the modern world, but it could equally possibly be a foreign implant. There are vaguely similar styles of folk art in Scandinavia and Germany, and surprisingly similar styles in Turkey and Bangladesh. In the eighteenth century the apparently related Hinderloopen paintwork of the Dutch was only a sailing barge journey away from the Thames, whilst many people recognise a connection with the Gypsies’ culture and their elaborate caravans. It is still a mystery. Whatever the origins this most delightful of British folk arts is surviving quite well, and still giving pleasure.’
Lewery, https://www.canaljunction.com/heritage/art/roses_castles.htm
Canal art was significantly more flamboyant prior to the first world war when many painters were lost and the canals themselves started to decline.
Canal artists of note who are no longer practising today include: Ron Hough, Frank Nurser, George Crowshaw, Percy Frost, George Baxter, Bill Hodgson and Alf Fennimore.
Cultural Significance
Although historically boaters and bargemen were separate from the Roma and Gyspy communities, in 2023, the collective term GRTSB is used to describe the communities of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showmen and Boaters, as those with distinct ethnic heritages and cultural traditions, as seen in the arts and crafts associated with their cultures. Regardless of the extent to which these communities actually interacted throughout history, they were all marginalised from mainstream society and many today find collaborating beneficial.
Based on consultation for this edition of The Red List (2023), there are approximately 11-21 (16 identified in the survey) craftspeople who can make new work in recognised traditional styles, restore bargeware objects in historic styles, and are working to a professional standard. These craftspeople also have experience with working and historic boats and hold the skills to work on a variety of boats and associated items. The heritage canal art styles today are also painted by other artists and enthusiasts. There is an informal teaching structure and short course model that has been sharing the authentic canal art style for around the past 20 years (via Phil Speight, Julie Tonkin and others), and the well-known practical books by AJ Lewery.
An important cross-community use of traditionally recognised canal art techniques can be found in horse-drawn Traveller communities of the post-war period, up until today. Traveller craftswoman Ella Mae Sueref learnt canal art techniques for bargeware and horseshoe painting whilst living horse-drawn, and was inspired by the Traveller people in her convoy and extended family to take up the craft. This cultural cross-over correlates with the loss of horse-drawn narrowboats and barges in the UK (c. 1950-1960), and the trading of former tow-horses into the roadside travelling communities of the era, along with their items of harness, tack and kit, and bargeware items like watercans and enamelled kettles. This shows another fascinating correlation with industrialisation and post-war economies, and the re-positioning of Traveller crafts intra-culturally.
Canal arts form a part of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of boater communities, folk and outsider arts, and, combined with the new Red List entries for vardo crafts and fairground arts, link three distinct travelling communities in the UK over almost 200 years, between the Victorian industrial revolution and today.
Regional historic styles from certain boat yards companies, and types of boat are identifiable by their logos, stylistic type of floral and pictorial imagery, and other details such as sign-writing typography. Contemporary makers are also improvising and creating new forms and combinations of these traditional styles.
Roses & Castles
Roses and Castles art is an umbrella description of the usual decoration of narrowboats, and the art, roses in particular, can be further divided down into three more categories: Braunston, Knobstick and Uxbridge.
On the lineage of the British canal rose, artist Kerri Williams says: ‘Down here in the Black Country we have Braunston, whereas up North you’d get knobstick and different styles. One of the main haulage companies in this area was Thomas Clayton, and their roses are known as ‘Clayton’s Cabbages’; they look nothing like a rose, they are very charming, they are very naïve, and you can tell them a mile off they’re a Clayton’s Cabbage.’
Braunston roses are the most common style and feature confident brush strokes to create a stylistic rose. Each boatyard had its own variation and could be recognised by the style.
Knobstick roses originated from the brush of Bill Hodgson, painter for the Anderton Canal Company (which was for some obscure reason known by the boaters as Knobsticks.) His roses were executed in a hyper-realistic fashion and highly prized among boaters. When boatmen painters took up their own brushes, they mimicked Hodgson’s work to the best of their ability but inadvertently regulated the brushstrokes into a much more formal style that is still replicated today.
Uxbridge roses are characteristically abstract roses, with the “claytons cabbage” being the extreme end of the scale. The Claytons Cabbage was the work of Fred Winnet, painter of Thomas Clayton, and some boaters were so fearful that he would paint his roses in their cabins that they would remove the cupboard doors before putting the boats in dock.
The style of roses and castles developed from artistic culture of the 1820s, when jappaning and decoupage were popular, and there are clear parallels between painted clock faces and roses and castles.
Brightwork
Another style of canal art is that of brightwork, a form of art exclusive to the boats on the Leeds and Liverpool canal in the North, and demonstrated to a much lesser extent by those on other canals of the area. It’s characterised by elaborate scrollwork and use of lining, with a fairly standardised colour range of yellow, green, red, blue and white.
Brightwork art is almost totally lost, with little to no use on the canals of today. These boats are true barges, or in some cases “Short Boats” and they are almost entirely extinct. The artwork is simultaneously more complex and more simplistic then that of the narrow canals and, much like the day boats, evolved in response to the space it was put on to.
Brightwork can be further split into 3 styles:
Day Boat Art
Day Boat art is from the short haul “day boats” that worked predominantly around Birmingham and developed in its style in response to the limited space and short usage of the boats. Day boats did not have large cabins, if they had a cabin at all, and artwork was correspondingly small and acted primarily as a means of identification.
It’s characterised by stylistic flower patterns and geometric patterns, with a colour range usually of red and green, or shades of grey.
It survives largely in the paint repertoire for customers looking for traditional art but without wanting the flamboyance of roses and castles.
Allied crafts:
There are no formal training opportunities or apprenticeship available in canal art and boat painting.
Short courses:
A list of canal artists, who practice bargeware object painting and canal crafts (including cabin lace and rope work): https://www.canaljunction.com/canal/crafts.htm
Boat painters and signwriters:
Consultants for this entry onto The Red List:
Thanks to all the participants of The GRTSB Crafts Makers Survey.
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