In Conclusion

I thought I would write a few short words to bring the blog to an end.

It’s been a fascinating journey into the late 1800s for me as I archive the James Smart material. When I first volunteered to do the job, it was predicted that there were a few hundred documents. But it’s nearly at 700 now and there’s no end in sight.

The letters are almost all approximately A5 in size but vary greatly in presentation. Some are written on blank pieces of paper, others are on letterheads and some are ostentatious.  For example; those from Jones of Chepstow have 7 different typefaces, including 3 types in the style of Helvetica, 2 types of Roman, 1 Gothic and 1 decorative (the font names are my best guess). A typesetter’s nightmare in those days of hot lead!

As it happens, I came into possession of a letter book not long after I started archiving the Smart material. It is only related to Smart in as much as it relates to a canal. It belonged to the Egyptian Dredging Company and of course the canal in question is the Suez. The letters in this book are carbon copies of letters dating from the late 1800s, so a similar time frame. They are from the Registered Office in London mostly to various company officials who are based in Cairo. It gave me cause to wonder if any of the letters written to James Smart might have come from a similar book.

A letter book (not part of the museum collection)

In the blogs I’ve only written about very few of the correspondences from the captains and customers. There are lots of others from individuals, businesses, official bodies, banks etc. and they make a fascinating account.

Then there are the postcards. There are hundreds of these too. Pre-printed with postage stamps and other details they are short missives mostly from captains telling Smart where they are, what cargo they have, where they’re going next and often as not asking for money.

But I’m going to end with the text of a short letter from Zaccheus Whiting who was a coal and salt merchant operating from Eastington. It was written on August 13th 1889 and marked “PRIVATE”.

“Dear Sir,

I tried again to see CCH Esq but I find he is out for his holidays. I will look for him as soon as he returns home & let you know all the particulars.

I should advise you to see that other Gentlemen on the first opportunity you have.

Yours truly ZWE”

Alas we do not know who CCH was or who the other mysterious gentleman mentioned might be or what the subject under discussion was, but doesn’t it make you a bit curious?

I hope you have enjoyed these journeys into the commercial world of James Smart as much as I have in their telling. Thank you.

Stoney Relationships

We know that the main source of trade for James Smart was coal. It’s the stuff on which his empire was founded and he seems to have continued trading this commodity throughout his business years. But as I’ve mentioned before, he wasn’t averse to trading in anything where there was a pound or two to be made. So the next cargo I thought we could have a look at is stone.

From the documents I have seen so far there seems to have been one main geographical source for stone and that was Chepstow. There were two stone merchants that Smart was dealing with. We’ve seen before how Smart’s trows would sail frequently across the Bristol Channel stopping at various ports before returning to the Junction at Saul or going on to Gloucester or elsewhere. This made the merchants very familiar with the captains and their vessels. The various missives indicate that they were quite used to issuing orders and instructions without any prior consultation with Smart. This is probably because not only was Smart ordering stone but his boats were being used to fulfil other orders for the merchants as well.

Wilf merrett colllection 2018.16/549

William Jones, Stone Merchant & Contractor, Tutshill, Chepstow was one such. The documents we have relate to one year only, being 1894. Or so I thought until I had a light bulb moment and checked the handwriting against other documents that I’d recorded some time back. Sure enough it turns out that William Jones had a previous address being Tidenham, Chepstow and those records begin in 1891. An additional cause for the confusion was that all the documents pre 1894 were in the form of letters but in 1894 they became memoranda.

The relationship between Smart and Jones seems to have been a little uneasy. I imagine this in part was from the fact that trade was in both directions. Smart would buy stone from Jones and in turn, Jones would buy services from Smart.

Although the two men must have been trading for some time the first letter we see is in November 1891 and is pretty typical. There is a disagreement about the quality of goods supplied by Jones who writes in a rather sarcastic manner “perhaps they were too dirty or not small enough.” He goes on to comment that he can’t understand how the trow ended up “side to” on the Stank (probably a section of the river near Hardwick).

Skip on to the only communication we have for 1892. It’s December and it seems Jones and Smart are once again at loggerheads.

Jones complains that he was expecting the Flora to put in for a load of stone but she sailed past and put in at the competition. He is not at all pleased as he then had to call and load a different vessel.  He writes “If this is being done with your permission I may say I am sorry you did not let me know she was not to load Lifts. If it is done without your knowledge or permission it is a pity such a man should sail a vessel.”

1893 opens in similar fashion. It’s February and Jones is once again requesting settlement of the account for 1892 as he doesn’t want to mix up the years. Jones also tells us about the Flora arriving from Bristol and that he has loaded her with “Lifts”. He goes on to list costs for the shipping of tonnage (presumably between Chepstow and Bristol). One of the costs he lists is Coastwise Dues. Like many other terms in the documents I’m archiving, being a landlubber I had not heard of this before and so of course, I had to go and look it up. It turns out that Coastwise Dues are a tax on goods transported between ports around the UK.

Then there’s a little flurry of correspondence in the first half of 1893 beginning with a dispute over the price Jones is prepared to pay for coal mainly because Jones buys from Newport and Smart is shipping by rail from Sharpness. But only a few days later Jones ungently request a delivery via Grand Union Railway at his expense. Just to keep up the game, at the same time he remarks that Richardson (a competitor) is quoting a questionable price for Gloucester saying; “He does not know the price to Elmore Beck for freight. When he has to send a vessel there he will find out that he has to pay.” As a goodwill gesture he rounds off asking for barges to be sent as he is blocked up.

For the rest of the year things seem reasonably cordial as the two men are regularly doing business over gravel and stone delivered mostly to Stroud & Bristol using the trows Flora and Excelsior.

And so we move into 1894.

On May 10th Jones writes “Excelsior left this morning.” He goes on to say that the captain is in need of money and “please send a donkey to the Junction on order.” The Junction of course refers to Saul but there is no indication of why a donkey might be needed.

Wilf merrett colllection 2018.16/548

The following day (May 11th) another missive is despatched by Jones. This time it seems he has received two urgent orders for stone to be delivered to Stroud and he writes “I have ordered the Excelsior and the Flora to discharge for them, kindly let them do so as it will not do for me to disappoint them.”

In an undated communication Jones says that Henry (captain of the Flora) has said that some broken stone will be needed for Chalford and goes on to say that he can have it ready by the time the Flora returns.

Our last recorded communiqué is typical of the two men. In July of that year there was a dispute over a delay in Jones settling his account. He in turn blames Smart for not sending vessels in time. This must also relate to stone bound for Stroud as Jones requests that Watkins comes down on the Perseverance to take a cargo of stone “so that they have some to go on breaking.”

Over the same period Smart was dealing with another Chepstow stone merchant; William Davis. From the letters it would seem that this relationship was somewhat less acrimonious. Either that or Davis scrupulously avoided anything that would damage his business.

Davis promotes himself as supplying the best stone at better prices than any other Chepstow merchant (I wonder who he meant ?) but he’s not averse to pointing out that Captain Watkins is trying to charge too much per ton.

One of the places Davis is shipping stone to on the Flora is “The Flat on the Severn”. I can only think this must refer to Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel which at the time had a sanatorium located on it. Perhaps there was a requirement for building material.  

Like Jones, Davis was familiar with the captains and the trows in the service of Smart. They are often referred to by name in the correspondence and it seems that Davis and Smart were in the habit of meeting in person.

In the last letter from Davis that we have he thanks Smart for the promise of trows and offers him best broken stone and clean gravel at 2/- per ton and in addition tells us that the cost of a voyage to “The Flat” (wherever it may be) is 30/- (shillings).

There are three other suppliers of stone mentioned in the documents that I have seen so far; G.V. Frazer, Siddington Stone Quarries, Cirencester - The Clee Hill Granite Company, Ludlow, Shropshire – W. Halling, Stone & Coal Merchant, Twyning, Nr. Tewkesbury.

From the former there are just two letters, one in 1891 in which, seemingly true to form there is a dispute over money and another in 1893 where Frazer quotes the cost of Block Stone and River Valley Stone and asks for an order to secure.

Similarly there are only two memoranda from Thomas Roberts of Clee Hill Granite dated on consecutive days in April. In the first Roberts confirms he is in receipt of a cancellation of an order for stone but on the following day he advises that the stone was already on a truck and had left their siding and therefore they could not stop it. I think I can see another Smart dispute on the horizon and I’m hoping that more documentation might come to light that allows us to see the conclusion.

There is only one document from Halling. He requests a trow to ship 60 tons of Broak Stone along with 300 yards of Curb Stone from his quarry to Mr. R. Savage of Stonehouse.

Transporting stone seems to have been a bit of a rocky road for James Smart.

A Boat Load of Gardiners

It would be surprising not to find a Gardiner or two working for James Smart. After all, it’s a well-known name in these parts but even so, to find five of them, all spelt the same, might be considered more than a coincidence. Were they related? I don’t know, but you’d have to consider it a possibility.

The ones I’ve come across so far are Henry, Thomas, William, Joseph and Frank.

At the time of writing the bulk of letters are from Henry and Thomas with only one each from the others. We find Frank carrying timber from Cirencester, Joseph carrying stone from Cricklade to Lechlade and Kempsford and William carrying sacks of maize out of Sharpness.

wilf merrett collection 2007.183/1556

So what about Thomas and Henry?

Henry seems to be mostly working between Gloucester, Cirencester and Stroud except for one occasion when he was in Stourport. All of his letters are dated 1893 but he is not always clear about his location. We see that he and three other boats all got caught in the frost at Gloucester in January and could not unload. On another occasion he writes that he doesn’t have a key to the cabin and can Smart please send Gleed by train with it. He often asks for money, ten shillings, five pound etc. In only one letter does he give a clear indication of his cargo; wheat for Cirencester and barley for Brimscombe in the form of seventy two tons for Mr. Bowley and seventy one tons for Mr. Beckett. He tells us “We have done the best we could as we had a man took against us in both places.”   

Thomas is a different matter. There are a lot of letters concerning his doings.

The first letter we have in the archive from Thomas is dated September 5th 1885. It’s a Saturday and we find Thomas in Swindon where he has arrived with the help of a horse. Initially he tells Smart that he hopes to be in Chippenham the following Monday.

Then in a more serious tone he writes that the Register man has been round and has threatened him with a summons if he can’t produce the relevant document the next time he calls. “So you had better send me as quick as you can,” he urges. In addition he requests the sum of thirty shillings as he has no money.

Of course we only see one half of any communications so we don’t know if the paper was sent or if Thomas was fortunate enough to evade the “Register man” but the next missive is from October the same year and we see that Thomas has come to Upton-upon-Severn where he is expecting to load with timber and then come on down to Gloucester. Once again he is requesting money but only ten shillings this time.

There’s a big gap the before we pick Thomas up again back in the eastern side of the Smart empire. In November of 1886 Thomas writes that he has not yet got to Lechlade but should arrive at Inglesham the following day. Inglesham is where the Thames & Severn Canal meets the River Thames and Thomas writes that there “Is a big flood in the river” and even if they could go on, it’s unlikely that they could return for a couple of weeks. Thomas thinks it would be better to come back along the canal and asks if Smart knows of any cargo going anywhere and if there is, to let him know via Mr. Hicks at Lechlade Wharf.

Wilf merrett collection 2007.183/1557

An even longer gap then until we pick up Thomas again. Now it’s April 1891 and he is once again in Lechlade where he was expecting to collect a quantity of hurdles from Mr. Hicks but apparently they were all sold before his arrival. Now he has a dilemma because he does not have enough dunnage to secure the cargo of wheat destined for Walsall. In the end he decides to sail on to Basildon in the company of “Whiting”, presumably in search of more hurdles.

Whether he made the journey to Walsall with the wheat we don’t know but days later we find he is still out east at Abingdon. Yet another problem besets him at this point as he is bound for Swindon and thence homeward. But he has to deal with the summit of the Thames & Severn Canal. In spite of the best efforts of its designers the summit could not keep its water level up and this was a constant issue for loaded barges. Thomas writes to ask if there is enough water in the summit as they are drawing two feet seven. He also asks if a lighter can be sent to help get his cargo through the summit.

Moving on, it’s 1893 and Thomas writes from Banbury that he should be in Birmingham on Wednesday morning but he has another problem; this time his “lad” has left the boat last night leaving him without help. He asks if Smart can send Richard Peglar as a replacement and gives detailed instructions as to how this should be done; “Tell him to come to Warwick as we shall get there tomorrow afternoon Tuesday and if he can’t come send me someone else as quick as they can come and let them have some money to come with and tell them to ride to Warwick and enquire if we have gone through there at the Canal Office as we think of getting to the bottom of the Hatton locks on Tuesday night.”

Hatton Locks, colloquially known as the “Stairway to Heaven” is a series of 21 locks on the Grand Union Canal but at the time Thomas was going through them, they were part of the Warwick & Birmingham Canal.

A fortnight later and Thomas is back east at Reading. He has called at Pangbourne to see Mr. Flowers (occasionally referred to as “Old Flowers”) who has told him that he may have no one to help with loading and so Thomas looks to sail empty for Wroughton Wharf where he hopes to find cargo. However, four days later he is still in Pangbourne as Mr. Flowers has asked him to wait but in the end is told that it will be after Easter before anything is hauled. He goes back to his original plan of going to Wroughton for poles.

So there we have it. Just some of the trials and tribulations of five Gardiners working in the James Smart empire.

John Webb

John Webb was one of the longest serving Masters who worked for James Smart. In the archive we have documents dating between 1885 and 1893.

In the years 1885 - 1887 we find him trading between Birmingham, Walsall, Hednesford and Newhall, carrying mostly coal and occasionally timber. But on 7th September 1887 he returned to Gloucester and writes a postcard to James Smart saying “we are part loaded so let Roberts know we shall be there on Monday”.  Sure enough there is another postcard from him on 12th (Monday), this time a little ironic: “Thanks to your brother there is nothing for us to load.”

From 1887 to 1891 John Webb seems to have been working the eastern region of Smart’s empire. There are letters and postcards from Reading, Goring, Lechlade and even London.

Wilf merrett collection 2007.183/1560

In one such from Goring dated 9th of April 1891 he writes that he bought something (the writing is illegible) that “Jerris” spoke of at Longcut and tried it on the boat down to Uffington. He also says that “He took the donkeys in exchange at 30 Shillings but one was middling and one was lame so I was glad to see the back of them.”

Longcut is almost certainly the Longcutt Wharf on the Wilts and Berks Canal.

In December of 1891 we find him on a journey back to the Midlands working between Hednesford and Birmingham.  In January 1892 he is in Stourport from where he writes: “I sent my man out yesterday but have not seen him or the horse since. I will look for him again but do not expect to find him. Please send another.” I wonder what happened to the man? As I’ve said before, it was a tough life being a boatman in winter. Did he disappear on purpose? Was he waylaid and murdered?

The following spring we find him once again out East. A postcard on 7th March 1893 from Swindon says that he will go to Cricklade with wheat and bulls small but will then have stoppage for a week. After this he returns to Gloucester where he is held until Easter (no explanation as to why).

Webb got about a lot. We know from the various documents he was in the Midlands and to the East but he was also known to come down the Severn to Bullo Pill. This was in December but there is no year evident. But as usual the winter weather is causing difficulties. He writes: ”There is plenty of Patent Fuel Co.. Joe Mabbutt thought we might get away in the morning with a lot of strength but the wind is blowing hard.” The Severn could be treacherous sailing at the best of times and so I wonder if indeed he made the attempt.

wilf merrett collection 2007.183/1528

I find it amazing how the Masters of James Smart made their ways about the country, picking up loads of diverse cargoes and transporting them to many and varied destinations. How was all this industry orchestrated. Was it really all controlled from a building in Chalford with James Smart at its centre like a spider in the middle of its web, receiving missives from all across the country and issuing resulting orders to his lieutenants? In this day and age it would be a relatively easy achievement but in the late 1800s? I find it remarkable.

Repairs

I’ve written before about Meadows and the trow Flora and how he was operating in the Bristol Channel. It seems that most of his cargoes were coal and that the most frequent customer was the Shirehampton Coal Co. in the shape of Thomas Sharpe. There are a lot of communications from both Meadows and Sharpe and in the case of the latter it becomes clear that the relationship could sometimes be a little strained.

However in July of 1894 Thomas Sharpe writes to James Smart; “I see from the Bristol paper the Flora shunted the bridge and is a total wreck for which I am sorry.” He also encloses a cheque in payment of account and asks if another boat can be sent.

So we might conclude that the Flora has come to the end of its working life against the piers of the Severn Railway Bridge, like others had and would. But her story is to continue, for we discover in the account ledger of 1894 between Matthew Gardiner - based in Bourne and the go to guy for all thing boat related - and James Smart that the Flora is in dock for a rebuild.

2018.16/538 - Wilf merrett collection

In the account ledgers for the years of 1891, 1892 and 1894 and it’s not uncommon to see the various boats belonging to Smart return to dock for refurbishment, but as a general rule this is only for three of four days at a time. But we can see how severely the Flora was damaged by the fact that she was in dock for seventeen days.

Besides the materials Matthew Gardiner lists days in dock where the Flora is worked on by specific people or possible companies. These are abbreviated to J.G., W.W. and E. Law. Not knowing who these people were or what they did I’ve assumed that they were working concurrently. There are also one or two items where the spelling is unclear and, not being familiar with the terms I’ve made a “best guess”.

All items are listed in pounds, shillings and old pence.

August 13th 1894 Flora

J.G. 16 days                                                  £3-16-0

W.W. 17 days & ½                                         £4-3-1.1/2

E. Law 17 days & ½                                      £2-12-6

56 feet of 2 inch oak                                    £1-17-4

2 new gunwales                                           £2-3-0

44 feet of 3 inch pitch pine                          £1-2-0

100 feet of 1 inch elm                                   £1-5-0

182 feet of 2 inch pitch pine                        £2-14-0

Piece of oak for scarfing stern                    £0-5-6

8 elm welts for saul windlass                       £0-4-0

New hawser pipe                                          £0-3-0

New oak hanging knee                                 £0-2-6

4 studdle heads                                             £0-4-0

116 feet of 1.1/2 plank                                  £1-9-0

24 feet of ½ inch board                                  £0-2-6

40 feet of 1 inch board                                   £0-7-10

Dock 17 days                                                 £0-17-0

55 lbs of oakum                                             £0-16-0.1/2

53 lbs of nails                                                £0-13-3

13 quarts of linseed oil                                   £0-8-1.1/2

4 gallons of best tar                                        £0-2-8

Captains allowance                                         £0-6-0

New side spar                                                 £0-1-9

120 feet of batting                                           £0-3-0

30 gallons of tar                                              £0-7-6

Long severn shaft                                            £0-3-0

This amounts to just under £27 which seems like quite a lot for the time but it was still much cheaper than the £250 which the new Excelsior had cost in 1891.

I’ve yet to discover anything about the life of the Flora and its crew after this date but if I do, I’ll let you know.

Boats and Bradshaws

In my last blog I wrote about the different captains and where they were working. This got me thinking about canals in general.  Being born and bred in Stroud it was years before I realised there were canals other that the local “cut” (Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames Severn Canal which as far as I was concerned ended at the Sapperton tunnel) and the  “big one” being the Sharpness canal. But even then my knowledge only extended as far as other major water arteries such as the Manchester Ship, Leeds and Liverpool canals, and the Shropshire Union.  I didn’t even realise that there were canals in London until my wife and I decided to walk from to Camden Market one day whilst staying in “the smoke”.  In my defence, I just never had a reason to consider them.

Anyway, looking at the captains gave me pause to consider how those that mainly worked the Midlands waterways came to occasionally go to Reading, Oxford and London. Yes, the Severn and the Thames rivers were navigable but how did they get between the two?

Now I can hear the canal aficionados shouting at the screen; “The canal network!”. But being ignorant of such things I turned to the place I thought I might find the answers; Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales.

Like many others I have watched the adventures of Michael Portillo as, with a copy of Bradshaw’s in his hand, he has made many and varied journeys around the world following as closely as he could  the seemingly omnipotent information contained within. Now, having acquired the version related to waterways in our country, I understand why he finds the publication so fascinating.

Its relevance here is that it gives just about every detail of every waterway in the country. If you want to get from London to Liverpool or Manchester or Bristol to Birmingham by water or anywhere else to anywhere else, Bradshaw’s tells you what route to take what obstacles might be encountered, who owns and manages the many and various waterways, what locks there are, where they are, what distance they are and what capacity they are. It also tells us of the vessels that use the waterways and all the variants. Frankly I’m surprised that the book doesn’t tell you the names of the individual lock keepers, it’s that comprehensive!

Watercolour by Edith Ferrabee - the last severn trow built

Smart was working several different types of boats and although I have not yet found information to identify each one, we do know that there were trows and we can be reasonably sure that there were also both barges and narrowboats. Bradshaw’s says this: The ordinary type of narrow boat is generally between 70ft and 72ft long with a between 6ft 9in and 7ft 2in beam. They have round bilges and carry between twenty five and thirty tons but some of those used on the Severn and a few other localities have square bilges and can carry up to forty tons.

The information about other barges and their variants is too extensive to list but it also talks about the Severn Trow which it says were about 70ft long with a 17ft beam and they could carry up to 120 tons of cargo on a draught of up to 9ft 6in. This surprised me as we see pictures of trows passing through Stroud (notably the one on display in Room 4 of our own Museum in the Park). How deep was our canal? Refer to listing 100 in the proverbial Bradshaw’s and we find that the Stroudwater has a maximum draught of only 5ft. However, a limited amount of research suggests that during the 1800s there was a variant called an “upstream trow” which was smaller than its “downstream” cousin. Perhaps that’s the answers and Bradshaw’s is not infallible after all. Or maybe, since Bradshaw’s wasn’t published until 1904, the upstream trow was no longer in use. No doubt there will be someone out there who knows the answer to this little conundrum but sadly it is not I.

Captains and Cargoes (Part 2)

The records that I’m working with have so far revealed that Smart had at least eight Captains (or Masters) either working for him or contracted by him on a regular basis. These were George Crook, James Davis, A. Meadows, Walter Pearce, Henry Stephens, Henry Tenty, Henry Watkins and John Webb.

These Captains mostly kept to their own geographical areas. No doubt this was due to the type of vessels they were operating. Trows for example, mainly kept to the Bristol Channel. Barges could only use certain canals and rivers and Narrowboats would go where the wider and deeper boats could not. Also they tended to keep to certain cargoes but were not averse to carrying anything that presented itself.

The trow Flora, captained first by Watkins (as we have seen) and then by Meadows, carrying mostly coal, plied its trade across the Bristol Channel from Bristol to Cardiff, up to Bullo, Framilode and Saul and occasionally putting into port in Gloucester.

Crook on the Charity by contrast mainly seems to have worked the canal system around Birmingham and Cannock whilst making occasional journeys down the network to Worcester. Most of the time carrying bricks.

Tenty on the other hand worked the canal though Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Berkshire calling at Devizes, Swindon, Cricklade, Cirencester,  Abingdon with occasional visits to both Gloucester and Worcester. His cargoes tended to be timber and bricks. (More about Tenty to come).

Pearce and Stephens were a bit different. As captains they overlap, Pearce being 1880 – 1894 and Stephens being 1891-1899 (again, I should mention that this is only from the records I have seen). But they both seem to have been working roughly the same routes and had a variety of cargoes.

Carrying coal, salt, stone, timber and grain they would sail anywhere from Stourport, Wolverhampton and Birmingham to Worcester and Gloucester but also head east to Lechlade, Pangbourne and Reading. Then there was the adventurous Webb who covered the same territory but would sail as far afield as London.

One of the things you notice looking at all these postcards and letters is how often the captains were asking for money. The amounts could be anything from ten shillings to twelve pounds or more. The sums were for locks, donkeys, horses, loads, unloading and loading etc. and the costs seem to depend on the captains and where they were. Working into the Midlands seems quite cheap but heading east the costs go up significantly.

And all the time the little missives kept on coming……

A narrow boat at wallbridge, wilf merrett collection (2007.183/1490)

Ps. I can’t help but get interested in the individuals that come up in the narrative of James Smart. With that in mind, here’s something extra about Tenty.

In the 1891 census Henry William Tenty is living in Chalford Hill with his wife Louisa and his occupation is listed as Bargeman. But ten years earlier he can be found in HM Navy serving aboard HMS Terror. Of course I couldn’t know this without wanting to know more and it didn’t take much to find an image documenting his service history.

The things that this document tells us about Tenty are that he was born 18th January 1846 and he enlisted on 18th January 1864. He was 5’6.3/4” tall, had light brown hair and grey eyes. He was eventually invalided out after suffering a back sprain during gun drill in July 1884. But during his time in the Navy he served on the Megaera, the Black Prince, the Royal Adelaide (twice), the Raccoon, the Impregnable (twice) and of course, the Terror. He was said to be of “Very Good” character at his time of discharge.

Of course, all of this information opens yet another rabbit hole for those so inclined but I gave myself a slap on the wrist and stopped there!

Captains and Cargoes (Part 1)

The early 1880s to the early 1900s is a snapshot of time in the commercial life of James Smart. From relatively small beginnings moving coal along the Stroudwater Navigation and supplying local businesses, his trade developed in those years to the point where he was trading in all sorts of different cargoes from Cardiff to London and Bristol to Birmingham and all points in between.

Communication from the captains of the various boats tended to take the form of small postcards with short messages. These were often frequent and were sent from ports or locks requesting instructions or money. But sometimes they were letters with extensive details of loads, journeys, issues and general information that the captains felt might be useful.

Let’s take a look at one such captain; Henry Watkins.

Using a minimal amount of research on a well-known online genealogy site, it’s possible to discover some details about Henry Watkins. For example; we can see that he was born in 1843 in Frampton-on-Severn and that he was married for a second time in 1885 in Framilode to Elizabeth Dangerfield who was also to pen the occasional letter to Smart. But perhaps the most relevant fact from our point of view is that on the 1881 census he is listed as Master of the Severn trow Flora at Sharpness. The census also lists Fredrick Miles (or Milard) (born Bowbridge) as Mate and Selwyn Franking (born Chalford) as Crew.

2018.16/541 - Postcard of sharpness docks, postmarked 1919

The earliest records I have seen so far for Watkins are from 1887. By 1891 Alfred Meadows was Captain of the Flora and Watkins had a different vessel. This was most probably the Excelsior but I have not yet seen documentation to confirm this. He was still moving goods for Smart in 1894. He wrote both postcards and letters but where the postcards are franked, the letters give only the day and month.

Between January and May of 1893 Watkins visited the ports of Bristol, Avonmouth, Sea Mills, Newport, Cardiff, Chepstow, Bullo and Saul Junction. He put into port 15 times in that period. That strikes me as being no mean feat considering the weather in the Bristol Channel early in the year.

He carried various cargoes being mainly coal but also wheat, flax, sticks and just about anything else he could pick up at the various locations and seems to have been pretty much in control of what cargoes he took.

Here are notes from his postcards of March 1893:

March 6th. I am leaving Bristol for Cardiff then back to Avonmouth for grain.

March 13th. At Chepstow and partly loaded for return to Bristol.

March 22nd. Went to Newport but there was no water in the berth so came back to Avonmouth. Have seen Sharpe so we go to Cardiff for coal.

March 23rd. Are at Cardiff. Hope to be at Avonmouth on Saturday.

March 25th. We are going to Bullo empty.

It was a busy month for this captain.

Winter on the Water

It seems appropriate at this time of year to see what was happening in the James Smart empire. Trade went on. Whether it be coal, timber, sawdust or bricks Smart’s business continued. There was no time off for Christmas or New Year in the life of his captains and the weather often wasn’t kind either.

In December  1881, Captain William Pearce writes from Wolverhampton “’tis thick and freezing hard. I hope it will not last long”. And then ten days later from Bar Lock, Birmingham on behalf of himself and another Captain, J. Davis: both boats have good loads of coal but both boats have suffered damage in the fog, a smashed helm and a broken gunhole.

And of course, ice was an issue too, especially on the canal. Here’s an account from Captain H. Stephens in January 1893 from Gloucester Docks. “Still stuck with fifty other boats and ten trows. Ran the tug at it but it would not break.”.

And that wasn’t all. Captain John Webb writes from Stourport; “I sent a man out yesterday but I have not seen him since. I will  look for him again tomorrow but I don’t expect to find him. Please send another.”  Where and wither the man had gone, or why for that matter we know not. Was he the only other crew member? It does seem odd to request that James Smart supply another man all the way to Stourport from Chalford.

Freight and boats weren’t the only worry for James Smart at this time of year. At some point he had diversified into land and in 1894 was being pursued for both late payment of rent and violation of the Covenant. Charles Heaton writes to James Smart: That all hay, straw etc. shall be consumed on the land from which it issues. I visited two weeks ago and found no stock except two beasts and the straw lying in trusses as if for removal. This is in violation of our agreement.

On Candlemas day of 1893, Meadows, Captain of the Flora, a boat which regularly travelled between Bullo, Gloucester, Bristol, Newport and Cardiff, writes to James Smart from Saul Junction: “We have blown the main sail to pieces”.  “Newman will go to Stroud to collect another.” The Flora’s journeys must often have been perilous as only a year later we learn that she was wrecked against one of the piers of the Severn Railway Bridge.

A tough time for the water folk by all accounts.

COULDREY'S WHARF, CHALFORD (ABOVE CHAPEL LOCK), 1903 (CM.2315/28)

Introducing James Smart

A volunteer has been working on listing hundreds of documents from the late 19th century, relating to the business of James Smart. In this blog, they will keep us updated on what they’ve discovered. 

Introduction

Early in 2022 a quantity of documents relating to Chalford business man, James Smart came in to the Museum collection. There were all sorts of things from all sorts of people. There were letters, memos, postcards, bills and statements from Smart’s captains, customers, authorities and others. It was truly a cornucopia of ephemera.

So, who was James Smart?

James Smart was a business man based in Chalford. Initially it seems he set up as a coal merchant bringing coal from the Forest of Dean by way of barges, along the Chalford valley. He owned several barges himself and as his business grew he acquired trows and trucks and land.

He shipped goods from Cardiff to London, Bristol to the Midlands and all points in between. There were a wide range of cargoes too. Coal seems to have remained a mainstay but he also shipped stone, sawdust, timber and anything else that needed transportation.

Over the course of these posts I’m going to try and give you an idea of the life of James Smart and the people who worked with him and for him.

I hope you will find it as interesting as I have.

BARGE ON THE THAMES AND SEVERN CANAL (CM.2315/5)