Narrow Boat

by L.T.C. Rolt, Denys Watkins-Pitchford (Illustrator)

First published in 1944, this book has been said by many to have started a revival of interest in the English waterways. It was on a spring day in 1939 that L.T.C. Rolt first stepped aboard Cressy. This is the story of how he and his wife adapted and fitted out the boat as a home and recreates the journey of some 400 miles that they made along the network of waterways in the Midlands. It recalls the boatmen and their craft, and celebrates the then seemingly timeless nature of the English countryside through which they passed.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, British Literature

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Lionel Thomas Caswall Rolt (usually abbreviated to Tom Rolt or L.T.C. Rolt) was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways, and as an enthusiast for both vintage cars and heritage railways.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was gifted this book because it reportedly inspired the preservation (and restoration) of the canal system in the UK. Published in 1944, this account of a 1939/40 cruise on 400 miles of canalways in the English midlands was inspirational for many. I became interested after discovering the videos on Amazon Prime posted by The Country Gent as he began his life afloat on a narrowboat - the footage of the countryside, scenery, and sites from the viewpoint of his tiller handle is positively therapeutic. Mr Rolt, however, is not so gentle a soul as The Country Gent, as the author regularly pauses in his exposition of his voyage to rail against the 20th Century, and often it seems the 19th and 18th as well! I finally realized that one reason this was so irritating was that while he rehearsed his grievances against the advance of technology, I was reading his book in semi-isolation during a pandemic some 80 years later. Knowing that he was just entering the Second World War, I tried to cut him some slack because even more dramatic change was coming his way and while I knew how it would come out, he could only guess. [Though given that his Wikipedia biography notes that he briefly worked on the Merlin engine assembly line, I hope he had enough sense to recognize that clue that the war would end with the right side winning.] Once I realized why his complaints were so annoying they were actually easier to endure as I continued to enjoy his voyaging.

[Jazza1971 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of a 400 mile journey on a canal boat in 1939 which is described on the blurb on the back as one that "celebrates the then seemingly timeless nature of the English countryside through which they passed" .

I was expecting a charming story of Rolt and his wife's adventures. What you actually get is this and page after page of Rolt moaning about things he doesn't like along the way. And he doesn't like lots of things - cars (even though he ran a garage himself, I since found out, and formed a vintage car club), universal education, cinemas, places which aren't Oxford, villages that are growing, villages that have seen better days, cities...the list goes on.
I appreciate he was trying to make a point, but his moaning is relentless.
Here are examples from three pages I have selected at random:-

Page 22 - "This is a typical instance of the way in which the craftsman is being compelled to...lose himself in the modern industrial system"
"One of the most damaging effects of modern mechanised industry..."

Page 77- "The culinary craft is yet another of the useful arts which have suffered eclipse in recent years...banished by the evil genius of the can-opener"

Page 117 - "...yet another tradition of the past that the modern industrial organisation has broken..."

On and on he moans. I assumed Rolt was some curmudgeonly old man complaining about how the world had changed around him...but he would have been 29 when this book was written!

So, in conclusion, there is some merit to the book, the tale of life on a narrow boat, but this is outweighed for me by the author's negativity. His writing can also be quite densely written.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rolt seeks solace in what is left of rural England, but dark clouds furrow his brow. An ostensibly sanguine drift through the English meadows is haunted by treacherous undercurrents.

Initial sanctuary in a wonderfully poetic turn of phrase is forever in jeopardy of the author’s bitter lament of rural destruction; by which curious quality the book found great utility as an affirmation – a manifesto – that launched a lot of good heritage work after its publication.

If it’s true that Rolt waxes lyrical in his urge to convey appreciation for a bygone era, he veritably strains every sinew to lambast the modern age. With monotonous inevitability, every uplifting sentiment is instantly dashed by a belligerent counterexample that is less to his taste.

Rolt cannot simply record his allegiance to the meek and fragile heron, but is compelled to contrast against another creation less to his taste; the brash and gaudy swan!

His most scathing vitriol is reserved for the machinations of modern mankind, which he mercilessly lambasts as an immediate counterpoint to whatever sentimental relic he wishes to praise.

“We found the interior decoration a trifle bizarre for our taste, yet because it displayed a certain independence and originality of idea, attributes so sadly lacking today, we did not feel disposed to criticise — individual taste, however eccentric, being infinitely preferable to the pseudo or the modern super-cinema style of which the eye soon sickens to the point of nausea.”

It is otherwise an interesting travel log; fun to follow along using Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 mapping, and any relevant one-inch maps on the reader’s shelf will immediately be unfolded.

The author has notable expertise in architectural history, and it is irresistible to use Google StreetView to see the toll the intervening 90 years have taken on the landmarks, or to find photographs of church and pub interiors with their inevitable stone flagged floors.

The present reviewer shares Rolt's sorrow for the inexorable march of “progress” — I might have been liable to write such a treatise myself, had this example not made me realise the tedium in reading it! In this sense therefore, given the likely readership, it is destined to be "preaching to the converted".

I too, would love the countryside to revert to Rolt's 1930s (complete with his complaint of motor vehicles hurtling past at the breakneck speed of 50 mph), just as much as the author pined for it to revert to the 1800s.

[Alistair Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love sailing. I have also cruised some canals, so a friend and canal enthusiast lent me this book. (He also kindly lends me his narrow boat sometimes).

The book was written at a very interesting time (1940). The canals were in decline. They were still being used to some extent for commercial transport, but this was declining rapidly. At the same time their use for leisure was quite small. This meant they were falling into disrepair.

It was also a transition period in that the use of horses to pull barges had not died out completely, but engines were taking over.

The author is quite a curmudgeon and verges on the luddite. To him it seems that nothing new or modern is worthy, there is only value in the old and traditional. I can't help wondering what his attitude would have been had he been around in the era when the canals were being built. I suspect that he would have railed against this desecration of the countryside - for purely commercial purposes.

The point also gets across that the canals were a vital resource in their time. That they were built with the basic technology of the eighteenth century is quite amazing and then for over a hundred years they were the invaluable means of moving large amounts of materials around the country.

The book claims, in a 2014 addendum, to be partly responsible for the revival of the canals, to the current situation where they are a very popular leisure resource. I have no reason to doubt that claim, and am glad of it.

[Robert Ronsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful when describing the narrowboat Cressy and its travels. Tiresome when Rolt has one of his rants about the destruction of architecture, country crafts and artisanship wrought by 'modernism' – the arrival of the motor car being the main villain.

[Lisa of Hopewell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to blogger The Classics Club for hosting the #CCSpins. Want to know more? Click the linked text.


My Interest
“…it was a veritable Sargasso….’

“The countryman knows no unease in the elemental silence of lonely places; but when the people of the towns return to the land they have forsaken…it is to find its solitude intolerable, so complete is their estrangement. This is one of the tragic results of the drifts to towns.”

Since reading Narrowboat Summer (UK title: Three Women and a Boat) by Ann Youngson, I’ve been fascinated by the British canals and their amazing narrowboats–houseboats of a certain type. I was so enthused that I watched all the seasons of Timothy West and Prunella Scales’ t.v. show Our Great Canal Journeys, in which they journey on their own narrowboat. I’m now somewhat obsessed! I’ve been on a boat about 3 times in my life and one of those was an inflatable. But, like the new Tiny Houses, the narrowboats [canal boats] strongly appeal to me. In looking for ever more about them, I came across this book described as the “classic” of canal boat literature. I knew I had to read it. I didn’t even bother checking the library–I just bought it for my Kindle.

According to the Foreword of my edition (yes I at least skim those) these lines led to the saving and revising of the canal system in the UK.

“If the canals are left to the mercies of economists and scientific planners, before many years are past the last of them will become a weedy, stagnant ditch, and the bright boats will rot at the wharves, to live on only in old men’s memories. It is because I fear that this may happen that I have made this record of them.”

The Story
Just before World War II started, LTC Rolt acquired a narrowboat or canalboat called Cressy. He did the work, or hired specialists, to get the boat into good working order and then set out on Britain’s then neglected canal system–still partly in use for moving goods. He married and he and his wife had their leisurely honeymoon aboard Cressy–taking the canals, working the locks, stopping at inns and pubs for an occasional meal and seeing local landmarks.

Rolt’s observations on the environmental damage of the country’s rapid industrialization in the century just passed couple with his intuition of what all of this was doing to people are amazing. His writing is excellent, beautifully describing the countryside and describing all-to-well the nastiness of the polluting factories and motor vehicles.

“I find myself marveling at the mania of hurry which has infected our happy civilization.” [This quote reminded me of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters in which the devil tells his nephew to keep people too busy for what matters]

“…the meal proved that is was possible, by use of imagination, to escape from the inevitable roast- and two-veg, tinned soup and tinned fruit of the average country hotel dinner. Yet for all its excellence, I was disappointed to find that the meal was cosmopolitan in origin, and not, as I had hoped, a revival of genuine English cooking.”

“The average cook knows less of the value of herbs, spices and seasonings than did her forbear in the humblest farmhouse, and, what is more, she has lost the art of taking pains.”

This book anticipates so much of today’s world:

Local food
Unplugging
Slow productivity
Artisan crafts
Historic preservation
Pollution
Sustainability
Authenticity
Inability of modern people to be alone or in total quiet
“The Saturday market is very different. Here come the wives of the men from the factories with contents of Friday night’s pay envelopes….The crowd around the vendors of shoddy clothing [fast fashion] and gawdy ornaments [Dollar Tree home decor]….”

“[the] ugliness and squalor which underlie the superficial pomp and circumstance of all great cites. We saw the reeking gas-works, mountainous refuses dumps, the power-station with its gigantic steam capped cooling towers….above all, the countless mean streets where dwelt the servants of these monsters.”

My Thoughts
There were strong echoes of Scott and Helen Nearing’s [Living] The Good Life, but that is natural since both came about in the 1930s when people were experimenting with radical solutions to problems in the world and beginning to understand that industrialization had a huge downside.

“…is besieged on all sides by semi-detached monstrosities whose growth has recently received fresh impetus from new industrial expansion.”

Rolt hated the cookie-cutter houses now selling for millions as classic 1920’s 1930’s semi’s or dethatched on the British house shows I love like Location, Location, Location–-they were the McMansions of their day. Disgust at urbanization, industrial waste, terrible urban manners, lack of grace, lack of what we today call green spaces, the destruction of local food culture–it’s all so vivid in Rolt’s writing.

The peace and tranquility that he and his wife enjoy on their floating home showed the people of their era, and every era since, of the necessity for “unplugging” and being in peace and quiet and out in nature.

Just as nice as the writing were the illustrations which may have been new to my edition. On my kindle they look like woodcut prints. My artist great-uncle did a lot of these as well as color lithography. I loved them.

Note: As with all books of a different age, there is a word used once that would never be used today. Not the N-word but the C–n one that means the same.

This book was incredibly rich in language and so wonderful to read. I read it slowly for that is what it demands. This a book to savor whether you love canals and narrowboats or not.

My Verdict
4.25
Narrow Boat by L.T.C. Rolt

I read the Kindle version of this book.

[Cel Jel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having watched the TV program with Timothy West and Prunella Scales travelling various canals in the UK and other parts of the world, I decided to borrow one of the books that they had mentioned called Narrow Boat.
A man and his new wife took a honeymoon just as the war was beginning on a Narrow boat that he had purchased and refitted. Descriptions of towns, country side, in a previous era provide a feeling of a past left behind, and allow an understanding of the changes that farm machinery brought to rural life, and to the way certain villages disappeared.
Gave me insight into the way that the march of progress affects the style that life had, and the importance to consider the worth of changes.

[Reed Munson]

Really interesting book - the fellow has some strong opinions about English society - he seems to be opposed to "progress" and believes the old ways were better. He prefers Romanism, the Cavaliers and is opposed to Protestantism and Cromwell - he seems to believe that an England that would have remained pre Civil War to be better than industrialism - so kind of a throwback agrarian, back to the manor type attitude -

I do agree with him on some of these points - He saw where modern globalism was going to take society - he saw the problems of industrial capitalism without the moral guides that protect communities and workers.

[Brent Jatko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book but the author seems to have a problem with "modern" life (or at least as modern as it was in England in 1940-41).

It's a slice of life from a bygone time and worth a read, IMO.

[Lucy Mackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book 3 stars because the author, Rolt is a great big whinger and snob about popular and modern things. It has 4 stars from me, however, as he does redeem himself with his descriptions of the things he does like and enjoy. He also adds a unique view of the canals at the time of writing.
A lot of if is very intriguing and interesting historically, especially if you like to ponder industrial revolution, migration and other great changes in the lives of humans. It offers a unique view of the canals in 1939, just at the start of WW11. The author hardly mentions the war. I guess this is a combination of him being away from the popular press and the people of the UK underestimating the terribleness of the war. Living on a narrow boat presently, I myself, this particular reader, enjoyed the authors descriptions of places, peoples, boats, crafts and traditional skills. What I didn't enjoy was the authors pomposity and snobbery. He spends a lot of time in criticism of the move off the land, brick houses and the cinema. Seriously, what was the problem with the cinema? He was before his time in lamenting the move away from life on the land, local shops, local produce and the loss of craftsmen skilled in stone, wood and metal work. He would have 50 fits if he could see the plastics in the world nowadays. He's an advocate for the natural and wild and yet he travels in a boat with an engine on cut waterways that are not natural. So, he himself enjoyed the fruits of the industrial revolution. It seems as though romanticism of the past clouds his judgement somewhat. However it is a lovely snapshot of a life on the water. Something few have experienced. The book itself is said to have led to a revival of interest in the British Waterways and we are lucky that we still have them. Some of them only operated commercially for about 30 years before being bought up by the railway companies that put them out of business. At the time of writing this review the last government severely cut funds to the Canal and River Trust. I only hope that the new government will put money back into the pot before more canals drift into decline especially as many people are looking for a houseboat because they can't afford high rents and are priced out of the housing market.

[Mad Medico · Rating 2 out of 5]

An undeniably historically important work, credited with the creation of the Inland Waterways Association and renewed interest and drive to preserve the canals of Britain; unfortunately it leans far too heavily into the authors’ deeply conservative worldview, and reads more like a political tract at points rather than the travelogue I was expecting/hoping for. A lot of the travel passages are well written and enjoyable (if a bit repetitive after a while, not really offering at particularly deep or contemplative points) but the sections on politics, architecture and mechanics were overwrought and dull. Rolt has an ill-thought-out, nostalgic and naïve standpoint, valorising England’s feudal past as a desirable and, indeed, ‘natural’ form of social organisation, never considering the privation, destitution and disenfranchisement that plagued the era which he is so reverent of, and also never resisting the temptation to criticise the modern Industrial Age (and absolutely everything that goes with it, with no exceptions) in the most repetitive and tedious way. Some of the interactions with the real users of the canal system were interesting, as were the opening chapters on the culture of the waterways and the task of setting up a narrowboat; I felt the same about the brief histories of the individual canals that are presented (like the creation of the two separate Harecastle Tunnels and the scale of the labour expended on the projects, which would follow circuitous or direct paths depending on the finance available and the necessity of quick travel for developing industry), but as they come in the order of Rolt’s journey rather than chronologically they can be difficult to follow as a whole. Overall, some good sections but largely uninteresting and reactionary (the author uses a racial slur in one of the later chapters, which is, I feel, important to note).

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this book from Robbie Cumming's Canal Boat Diaries (a show I cannot recommend enough). I have the version published by Canal And Water Trust.

Rolt is the pioneer behind the establishment of the Inland Waterways Association. I was already in love with the English countryside, so this book, about leisurely travelling across canals at 3 miles per hour, made me love it so much.

The book, written in the 1940s, discusses Towns and rivers that Cummings covers, like the River Soar or the town of Market Harborough. I am sold on this idea of a slow life. This hamster on a wheel, ultra-capitalist consumerist society is vomit-worthy. I am sure Rolt would have recoiled at our modern world. He was already talking about the "mania of hurry."

The Tooley family was immortalized as master craftsmen who made their book Cressy. He talks about the versatility of craftsman against the rigidity of specialists (fox and hedgehog).

Angela, Rolt's companion and wife, took fantastic photographs and sketched brilliantly.

[Dave Hartley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time and again in this book I had to remind myself when it was written because his commentary on the country, its people and the changes occurring all around apply as equally today as they do in 1939.

OK, I am biased I am living on a narrowboat cruising the waterways but let me say this with certainty. If you think we, society, are moving too far, too fast, at a pace that is unrelenting. If you think the world around you has lost something. If you would like, just for a minute to stop and stare, slow the pace, reconnect with what has been seemingly lost, then get yourself down to a canal or river.

Rolt paints a picture from the 1930's that has NOT been wiped out completely; Yes it's a little smudged and some bits are hard to make out, but stand back and you can still see it, but only from or near an Inland waterway.

This book is beautifully written, full of detail, and makes me want to visit the places he describes to see what has changed...I hope not much.

[Kurt Ronn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I trip back in time. Occasionally annoyed with the rant against industrialization, machines and the acceptance of illiteracy as a badge of honor. But the unique diary of traveling the midland canals in 1939-40 as the war breaks out is a worthy read. Plus Rolt basically launched pleasure narrow boating as an industry and helped save and restore the canal system.

My favorite part was googling the locations and places mentioned to see if they still exist. Many do and it is likely in great part to Rolt’s book.

So read it as a historical account by a man wishing the world would go backwards. BTW. Sounds familiar considering brexit and MAGA.

Regardless, I’m renting a narrow boat and appreciate his work along with his wife Angela who left him to join the circus.

[Guy Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have owned this book for a donkey’s age and admit I was slightly reluctant to commit to reading it, I expected something dated, dry and frankly hard work. But it was none of those things. Well, maybe dated in the fact it is now an 80 year old book. But the writing style is beautiful and Rolt’s passion for the canals and his country shines through.
I would say it is not even solely for Canal enthusiasts as the book focuses on the areas the Rolt’s and their boat “Cressy” travel through and the characters they meet, not just the canals and canal-folk. I will certainly be reading some of his other books and recommend Narrowboat to any fan of social history in the 20th century.

[Jeff Sibley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic but not my cup of tea

While this is a classic in the Narrowboat world, I found it slow and hard to digest. The author, who helped save the canal network for the future wrote his book for those who were closer to the canals.
Being from The States and 50+ years later, I didn’t have the background to get the most out of it but did get a glimpse into the end of the commercial Narrowboat life.
Glad I finished it but once was enough!

[Claire ALLISON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great historical insight

Anyone who has become hooked or not about the future of British canals needs to read this book. We are now at a tipping point about the future of our canals (again) and this reminds us why they are important to invest in.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the language used is very much of its age, Rolt beautifully described the canals of the time, bringing to life the people and experiences.

[John Bohnert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about this book from the UK TV series "Great Canal Journeys".

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful writing and interesting book on England’s canals; great photos.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all I live on a narrow boat & have travelled these very waters so reading Tom's account of his travels in early 1940s was fascinating. However this book is of its time & Tom holds some rather old fashioned views &I found him rather snobbish & patronising in his manner. Was still a very interesting read.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first & best book written about the english canal system. written by the man who has done more for our canals than any other. the cornerstone of any canal book collection.

[Peter Pool · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all time favourite book. A classic and essential reading for anyone with an interest in England's canals.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a bbc tv programme about the history of canals