BOATBUILDERS AT SHARDLOW
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written 1 December
2000
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written 1 December
2000
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The Sephton Family and other boatbuilders will follow!
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Robert (Bobby) Tingle,
Wood and Tingle
We believe that Robert Tingle was
born in Little Dean in the forest of Dean overlooking the Severn Estuary,
18 December 1763. We know that he was not from Shardlow as he was listed
as a non-parishioner and his 2 eldest children are Elizabeth and William
as are the parents of the Robert Tingle in Little Dean.
We surmise he may have come to the
village as an apprentice or worker to Benjamin Clifford boatbuilder of
Shardlow, as Robert married Rebecca Clifford 1 June 1794.
In 1798/9 in the assessment of duties
list Robert is a poor inhabitant not assessed, with a house of 4 windows.
By 1816 they had 8 children. Robert
died in 1832? The Tingle family lived at Wilne in part of the house now
known as Tudor Cottage, which was owned by the Burgin family.
Tudor Cottage
In the 1851 Census for Wilne the
oldest daughter Elizabeth is living in the family home with the youngest
daughter Maria and they are both lace runners. In the same Census for Trent
Lock on the Erewash Canal (3 miles downstream from Shardlow), the second
son James is listed as a boatwright as are his sons William, Robert, Joseph
and Enoch, all James's sons having been born at Castle Donington.
Some of the boats are described in
the boat tables as having been built by Robert Tingle, and some by Wood
and Tingle. We think that Wood may have been the Benjamin Wood listed as
paying 4/6d tax on a house with 6 windows 1798-9.
In George Gilbert's memoirs he describes
taking a walk round the village in 1879 and seeing the chimney of the steam
corn mill on Millfield, says "just behind here was a dock of which one
Robert Tingle was the proprietor and called 'old Bobby Tingle's dock'.
This has now entirely disappeared and all belonging to it."
In the 1816 map of the Trent and
Mersey Canal now in possession of British Waterways Fazeley office the
dock is marked on the end of a short arm now obliterated by the flood bank.
The arm ran parallel and to the north of the arm shown on the extreme right
of the 1852 plan (see 'Setting the scene' page).
As you approach the village from
Derwentmouth Lock, you would have gone straight ahead into the dock whereas
the main line veers left and through the modern floodgates.
The only records we have of his boats
are for those used on the Trent system and gauged by the Trent Navigation
Company.
TNCo
number |
Builder |
Year
Built |
Length X Beam |
Rigging |
First Owner |
Trade |
626 |
Robert Tingle, Shardlow |
1812 |
75' 4" X 14' 1" |
mast and sail |
Sutton and Co, Shardlow |
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough |
682 |
Robert Tingle, Shardlow |
1813 |
71' 2" X 13' 11" |
mast and sail |
James Sutton and Co, Shardlow |
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough |
729 |
Wood and Tingle, Shardlow |
1814 |
76' 5" X 14' 1" |
mast and sail |
James Sutton and Co, Shardlow |
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough |
842 |
Wood and Tingle, Shardlow |
1815 |
75' 9" X 14' |
mast and sail |
James Sutton and Co, Shardlow |
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough |
911 |
Wood and Tingle, Shardlow |
1815 |
76' 4" X 13' 9 1/2" |
mast and sail |
James Sutton and Co, Shardlow |
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough |
999 |
Robert Tingle, Shardlow |
1816 |
72' 6" X 13' 10" |
jury mast and line |
Thomas Smith, Loughborough |
Coal to Loughborough |
1011 |
Robert Tingle, Shardlow |
1817 |
72' X 13' 11 1/2" |
mast and sail |
Robert Dawson, Cavendish Bridge |
Coal to Cavendish Bridge |
1315 |
Robert Tingle, Shardlow |
1826 |
71' 7" X 13' 9" |
mast and sail |
Wm Baker, Loughborough |
Coal to Loughborough |
There is more information on the
later generations of Tingle boatbuilders in the Trent Navigation Company
Gauging Tables.
James Tingle of Trent Lock both built
and operated boats for example.
In 1866 he built a narrowboat which
from 1867 was being operated by Thomas Newton of Shardlow chiefly on the
coal trade on the Grand Junction Canal, and in the 1860's James Tingle's
boat No 1, Thomas Turner - master, was dredging gravel in the River Trent,
the boat originally built by William Marshall of Nottingham in 1821 but
rebuilt by James Tingle in 1864 - this was a wide boat with immovable cabin.
At the turn of the 19th/20th centuries,
James's son Enoch is also building boats.
Benjamin Clifford
We don't know exactly where or when
Benjamin was born but according to the records of his boatbuilding in the
Trent Navigation Company Boat Cargo Gauging Tables he flourished from 1768.
He died without leaving a Will on 22 October 1808, leaving Goods and Chattels
etc not above £150 in value. His death was attested to by his Widow
Ann, James Soresby – wharfinger, and William Charles Flack - wharfinger.
We do not know for certain which
boatyard he worked from, but his close connection with the Soresbys and
the later use by Samuel Clifford of Soresby's boatyard points to his occupation
of Soresby's boatyard (No 21 on the 1852 plan).
Soresby's Dockyard, the low building on the right
Benjamin Clifford was Shardlow's most
prolific boatbuilder. So far the only records we have of his boats are
the Trent Navigation Company's Gauging Tables, and these list 55 wide boats
for use on the River Trent and related waterways. These were about 72ft
by 14ft, the longest being 76ft and the widest 14ft 7ins. There were
a few small wide boats of about 60ft by 12ft 6ins. However the same records
include 9 narrowboats, several of which were weighed by the TNCo for the
first time many years after being built - the indication being that these
boats had previously traded on the canal system. We expect there will have
been many other canal boats built by Benjamin Clifford for which we don't
have any records.
The first owners and their cargoes
for boats built by Benjamin Clifford as listed in the TNCo tables were
as follows. The Trade of the first owner is not indicated if the boat had
been sold on before the first weighing by the TNCo. Where the boat had
a sail at the time of gauging, it should be remembered that if the boat
had been sold on, then the sail was not necessarily part of the original
equipment.
Owner |
TNCo
number |
Date
built |
Wide
boats |
Narrow
boats |
Trade (where defined) |
John Adderley of Mountsorrel
(see also Kirk and Adderley) |
175
633 |
1795
1795 |
1
1 |
|
Coal - Loughborough and Leicester
? (boat sold on) |
Richard Barrows, Nottingham |
76 |
1787 |
1 (sail) |
|
Trade between Gainsborough and Nottingham |
James Bell, Castle Donington |
199
304 |
1793
1797 |
1 (sail)
1 |
|
Coal on the Trent
Coal to Shardlow |
Robert Birkinshaw, Cavendish Bridge |
216
268
114 |
1785
1786
1789 |
3 |
|
? (boats sold on) |
Robert Birkinshaw, Cavendish Bridge |
NB12
NB16 |
1791
<1799 |
|
2 |
? (boats sold on) |
R Birkinshaw, Nottingham |
247 |
1788 |
1 (sail) |
|
Timber, Cavendish Bridge etc to Gainsborough etc |
Thomas Bradshaw, Barrow |
88
89 |
1794
1794 |
1 (sail)
1 |
|
? (boat sold on)
lime and stone to sundry places |
Broughton and Sutton |
398
411
451 |
1804 |
3 (sail) |
|
Salt, Shardlow to Gainsborough |
Aaron Bull, Mountsorrel |
184 |
1796 |
1 |
|
Coal, Loughborough and Leicester |
Thomas Clifford, Long Eaton |
449
80 |
1793
1797 |
1
1 (sail) |
|
Coal to Newark and Leicester
Coal on Trent, malt to Shardlow |
William Crosby, Shardlow |
340 |
? |
1 |
|
? (boat sold on) |
Douglas and Co, Loughborough |
234
326 |
1777 |
2 |
|
? (boats sold on) |
Gainsborough Boat Company |
233 |
1768 |
1 |
|
? (boat sold on) |
John Hall, Wollaton |
92 |
1798 |
1 (sail) |
|
Coal and lime down Trent, timber up Trent |
The Harborough Canal Company |
285 |
1796 |
1 |
|
? (boat sold on) |
J Heathcote, Barton (on Trent) |
387 |
1804 |
1 |
|
Coal, Nottingham |
Robert Hunter, Wollaton |
281 |
1800 |
1 (sail) |
|
Coal or lime trade on the Trent |
William Jelly, Zouch Mills - Sutton
William Jelly, Loughborough |
159
22 |
1785
1788 |
1
1 |
|
Coal from Trent to Sutton (Bonington) and Leicester
? (boat sold on) |
Charles Johnson, Cromford |
986 |
1796 |
|
1 |
? (boat sold on) |
John Kirk, Cossington |
158 |
1797 |
1 |
|
Coal to Leicester |
Kirk and Adderley, Mountsorrel |
178 |
1795 |
1 |
|
Coal to Loughborough and Leicester |
Messrs Nutt and Co, ? |
160 |
1779 |
1 |
|
? (boat sold on) |
Thomas Oldnow, Lea-Wood (Cromford) |
956 |
1802 |
|
1 |
? (boat sold on) |
Mr Shelton, Brinsley |
271 |
1795 |
1 |
|
? (boat sold on) |
Francis Shenton, Mountsorrel |
NB4 |
1799 |
|
1 |
Slate to Shardlow |
James Soresby, Soresby & Co, Shardow |
30
97
352 |
?
1780
1785 |
1
1
1 |
|
? (boat sold on)
? (boat sold on)
? (boat sold on) |
James Soresby, Soresby & Co, Shardow |
227 |
1785 |
1 |
|
Coal to Shardlow |
James Soresby, Soresby & Co, Shardow |
293
296
295 |
1793
1796
1799 |
1 (sail)
1 (sail)
1 (sail) |
|
Trade between Gainsborough and Shardlow
Trade between Gainsborough and Shardlow
Trade between Gainsborough and Shardlow |
Soresby and Flack |
913
NB53
912
1259 |
?
1797
1804
1807 |
|
1
1
1
1 |
? (boat sold on)
Trade between Shardlow and Derby
? (boat sold on)
? (boat sold on) |
Soresby and Flack |
415
457
574 |
1793
1796
1796 |
1
1 (sail)
1 (sail) |
|
? (boat sold on)
? (boat sold on)
? (boat sold on) |
Soresby and Flack |
478 |
1799 |
1 (sail) |
|
Trade between Gainsboro' Shardlow Leicester |
Soresby and Flack |
431 |
1801 |
1 (small) |
|
Trade between Shardlow and Nottingham |
Soresby and Flack |
379
445 |
1803
1807 |
1 (sail)
1 (sail) |
|
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough
Trade between Shardlow and Gainsborough |
Soresby and Flack |
446 |
1807 |
1 (sm, sail) |
|
Trade between Shardlow and Leicester |
R Stenson, Bramcote |
215 |
1794 |
1 |
|
Coal to Loughborough and Leicester |
William Stretton, Derby |
276
375 |
1786
1786 |
1 (sail)
1 |
|
? (boats sold on) |
John Sutton, Heanor |
291
226
244 |
1775
1780
1782 |
1
1
1 |
|
? (boat sold on)
Coal to Loughborough and Leicester
? (boat sold on) |
John Sutton, Loughborough |
236 |
1786 |
1 |
|
Coal to Loughborough and Leicester |
John Varley, Shardlow |
350
366 |
1801
1802 |
1
1 |
|
Coal to Leicester
? (boat sold on) |
From the TNCo records, we know that
at least 4 wide boats per year could be built, with 5 being built in 1796.
Busy periods of building of wide boats in 1785-6 and 1793-7 seem to have
been associated with improvements to the Trent and Soar navigations.
For example boats built 1785-6 follow
the Act of Parliament of 1783 that allowed the building of a towpath on
the river Trent and change from manpower to horsepower for towing or 'higging'.
Jessop began to make the path and improve the river from the Shardlow end
in June 1783 and it was completed to Nottingham in January 1784, Newark
- May 1784 and Gainsborough September 1784.
The boats built for use on the River
Soar are concentrated in the years 1793-7, the Leicester Navigation
being completed to Leicester in 1794.
Some interesting points can be made
about his customers - for example 2 of the boats 1786 were for W Stretton
of Derby who had taken over the warehouses of the Derby Boat Company who
had sold up because of competition from the Trent and Mersey Canal (advertisements
in the Derby Mercury).
The boat built for the Harborough
Canal Company in 1796 is of particular interest because the Leicestershire
and Northamptonshire Union Canal did not reach Market Harborough until
1809. The boat could only ever have reached Debdale Wharf (one mile short
of Foxton) which was opened 7 April 1797. The line from Leicester terminated
there as the Union Canal Company had run out of funds.
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