Waterways History Conference
UMIST, Saturday, October 11th 1997

We trailed the above event in both the Winter and the Spring Issues of CUTTINGS. Paul Sillitoe, formerly Archivist at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, was the main organiser, and was hoping that at least 35 people would respond and book for the event. The response was so great that he had to book a larger arena in the Manchester Conference Centre to hold the 120 who booked. Our Chairman was among them, and reports here.

As with all events planned well in advance, time and circumstances change - so we had a different line-up of speakers from those first advertised. The basic argument for holding the Conference, contained in the sub-title for it - "Defining a new research agenda for waterways history" - was that waterways research is simply not being done, and that writers on waterways subjects are simply recycling information which has already been published, rather than bringing forth new research findings. The aim of the speakers, therefore, was to prove that there is still plenty to be researched, and to encourage those present to get out and do it. As the revised Speakers' panel stuck to that brief fairly well, the changes did not materially affect the Conference.

The final Speakers' list was impressive - Joseph Boughey, of Liverpool University, waterways writers Nick Billingham, Mike Clarke, and Tony Lewery, British Waterways' recently appointed Archive Officer Gillian Moore, with a cameo from canals warehouse specialist David George, and an unknown, scuba diver Albert Fischer.

Without going into too much detail, the gist of the lectures of the first four was that there is plenty of material to be delved into - in unresearched archives at home and abroad, and in the oral testimony of the (literally, of course) dying breed of people who lived and worked on the canals when they were in traffic. Ms Moore told us where to go to find the archives (Gloucester, Preston, Liverpool, and Wakefield for the Sankey!) in BW's scattered collection, and Mr George showed that there are neglected areas of research which would reward the dedicated seeker. It was, however, Mr Fischer, who was a last-minute stand-in, who provided me with most food for thought.

He began by relating how he'd come from scuba diving to waterways research (as part of his diving qualifications he surveyed a wrecked ice-breaker in the Leeds and Liverpool near Skipton, where he lives, to save the long journey to the nearest coast!), but moved on to the question of broadcasting the information he'd amassed. The context of this was given to us in a hand-out we received later - a list of publications which would take articles on waterways related subjects. There are twenty such outlets. Only four, the "commercial" waterways monthlies, actually pay for articles they want. Most of the rest appear to have a fairly specialist and closed (i.e. for Members only) readership. Placing your research findings before the general public, therefore, is rather difficult. Mr Fischer therefore decided to post his findings, coloured photographs and all, onto the Internet. A computer was rigged up to demonstrate the contents of his site.

For myself, I think this is the way forward for us, and I wish there had been time to develop the subject further at the Conference. SCARS is already involved with the Internet - we were the first Canal Society to have a web site, which our newest Executive Member Dave Nilsson is currently revamping - and I have seen the Canals sites on the Internet grow phenomenally since I joined in with a group of about a dozen emailers in August 1995. The ownership of computers linked to the Internet is growing, and the Government has determined that every School should be linked into it. Over the next few years, therefore, the number of people who can gain access to this source of information is going to take off. Providing publications on the Sankey which would meet the needs of, say, all the age-groups in a school, or of the mildly curious to the specialist historian among the general public, is both time-consuming and expensive, with a slow return financially. Also, unlike the printed media, the revision and updating of the information on a web site can be carried out simply and instantly - and is inter-active, so that readers can add to or correct the data.

The scattered nature of the BW Archive, the need to cross-reference with other archives elsewhere, the expense and waste of time in travelling to places with limited facilities and opening hours, all point to the need for the raw material of research to be made more accessible. The Internet is the place to put it. However, the scanning-in of millions of items of data is both time-consuming (although not as bad as you might suppose) and expensive. But you only need to reflect on the fact that most researchers will expend both time and money in large amounts simply to copy out information from documents and maps for later study (SCARS has pages of such material - the Liverpool Boat Registers containing the Burtons' Sugar Boats, for instance, - painstakingly re-recorded by Peter Norton) to recognise that the savings will be vast in the long run. From your own computer, or one in your local library or cybercafe, you could read, and print out, masses of information, for the price, and within the time, of the return journey to our local Public Record Office. The cost of such an exercise is, I think, a suitable subject for funding from the National Lottery. The documents, once copied, will not disappear, and will still be available for the times it is necessary for them to be seen and handled directly. Books will not become superfluous, both for aesthetic and practical reasons - indeed the writing of a book may be stimulated and enabled by the availability of easily-accessible material. Wider knowledge of the existence of a particular book should even increase print runs (typically only 3,000 for most "specialist" books) and sales (and many of those end up as "remaindered"!).

If I seem to have strayed away from the Conference, I'm sorry... but the idea of it was to get the attendees all fired up.... Back at UMIST, however, the vote was that the sponsors of the conference, the Railway and Canal Historical Society, should carry the matter forward by establishing a Special Interest Group within its structure to match the existing Tramroad, Road Transport, Docks & Shipping, Air Transport and Railway Chronology Groups. It struck me as a bit odd that a Society with "To promote encourage and co-ordinate the study of the history of railways canals and transport..." as its first object, should appear to be placing canals among its minority interest groups, but perhaps it will prove to be the necessary antidote to the fragmentation of the RCHS membership into specialist groups, and rally those not absorbed thus back to first principles. The alternative of starting an entirely new organisation to promote waterways history would certainly have been a waste of time and energy. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

David Long

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