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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Surrey Lookup Requests => Surrey => England => Surrey Completed Look up Requests => Topic started by: terrygaskell on Thursday 08 February 07 16:58 GMT (UK)

Title: Barge Builders
Post by: terrygaskell on Thursday 08 February 07 16:58 GMT (UK)

How do you find out about Barge Builders On the Thames Between Rotherhithe and Shadwell, London.
My Ancestors were Barge Builders.
Theresa Gaskell

Title: Re: Barge Builders
Post by: Necromancer on Thursday 08 February 07 17:18 GMT (UK)

Its always worth 'having a google' or whichever search engine you use on the Internet ..

One hit which caught my eye ..

http://www.sunrisewoodcrafts.ns.ca/fh/waterways.htm


also Cyndi's list has some resources .


www.cyndislist.com/canals.htm

Title: Re: Barge Builders
Post by: TheFoxCovert on Thursday 19 April 07 13:03 BST (UK)

I have three generations of barge builders in my family tree, the Ayles family of Rotherhithe.

A Thames barge is a completely different beast from the familiar narrow canal barge. The Thames barge was much wider and was used to ferry goods from ships not tied up to the dock side to the docks. They were latterly diesel powered, but with less labour intensive handling method and increasing mechanisation, they disappeared from the 1950s.

I believe barge builders had to serve an apprenticeship and records are kept in the Guildhall library in London.

I live quite a long way from London so I have not used this resource yet but I understand this library is open to the general public.