Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

There's an odd word next to the entry for my great great grandfather, John Bramhill, who spent 1881, the final year of his life, in what must have been a none too salubrious court called Lancelots Hey in Liverpool. The word is next to "River boatman" and looks like "Barp", but I cannot think what it would mean, though it was written after the original compiler had completed his work. Does anyone have any ideas, please?



Incidentally, Moby-dick writer Herman Melville wrote about the poverty he found in Lancelot's Hey in the 1840s. See http://www.angelfire.com/ma2/danimal/p&w&q/write5.html (it's one of those sites that fires up a page of nonsense first, but you only need to click back to the other tab to be able to read on).

Will

I think, Barge.

Could be, Bert. I hadn't thought of that. Cheers, W

Bertieone wrote:I think, Barge.

I second Bert's proposal.

I think barge too. Lancelot's Hey was off Chapel Street (opposite St Nick's) and would have been convenient for the canal.

Thanks all. John's son, William James, was also a water boatman at the same time, though he worked for Mersey Docks and Harbour Board; he was a lifeboatman but may have had other duties.

Would there have been barges out on the river (ie, Mersey flats), or were barges restricted to the Leeds-Liverpool canal?

Off to work now after a family-orientated Easter Monday.

Cheers

W

Yes, barges did take to the Mersey, sail, steam and under tow, Mersey Flats amongst them. Those who navigated the barges on the River I assume had an extra skill than those who navigated the canals only.
Perhaps this is why descriptions are sometimes, River Boatmen and Boatman, the River Boatman having that bit of extra pride in his abilities to navigate dangerous rivers compared to the calmness of canals.

Thanks. At some stage I must come up to Liverpool (from Essex). One of the museums or the library has the records of the Liverpool Society of Watermen. W

You may find this site interesting, it's a project of the Ormskirk FHS http://www.boatfamilies.org.uk/