Mike G Webb Photos

OLE & POYLE, CLENT & TENCH, STOUR & STARLING – such are the names which to me, personify the ‘Shroppie’ of twenty or thirty years ago. These, and other simple yet magical appellations were my baptismal names of ”Shroppie Boats”. Born within earshot of the Shropshire Canal at Brewood, 8 miles north of Wolverhampton, and spending my childhood in that sleepy village, it was easy to become addicted to the busy waterway. The canal linked the industrial Midlands with the North-western ports and, in those early post war years, traffic was of a frequency to compare with the comings and goings of pleasure craft today. Inhabitants of Brewood were accustomed to the sounds of the canal going about its workday business: from the heavy resonance of the slow revving 15hp Bolinder to the more urgent, higher pitched 9hp version; the sharp rifle-like cracking of the long whips favoured by the captains of Clayton’s horse boats; the rhythm of steel-clad clogs on the pavement as a boatman or his wife made their way into the village to shop or bus into Wolverhampton.

The two main carriers of the Shroppie up until nationalisation were Fellows, Morton & Clayton and Thomas Clayton. The former were general carriers, whilst the latter specialised in the carriage of bulk liquid cargoes – mainly fuel oil and gas oil – from the Stanlow oil refinery at Ellesmere Port to a chemical woks at Oldbury on the Birmingham Canal Navigations. From my recollections, dating from the middle 1940’s several smaller concerns also plied this ‘M6’ of the waterways. Perhaps the most noteworthy of these was W.H. Cowburn & Cowpar of Manchester whose sole cargo on the SUC was liquid carbon disulphide carried in specially constructed cylindrical tanks. This obnoxious and highly inflammable chemical was loaded at Trafford Park, Manchester and delivered to Courtaulds factory near Wolverhampton. I was always impressed by the beautifully decorated cratches of these craft and their regular as clockwork appearance at Brewood.

Ernest Thomas of Walsall and George & Matthews of Wolverhampton were two more regular users of the Shroppie. They delivered coal from the collieries of Cannock Chase to Cadbury’s at Knighton, who had a modern milk processing factory somewhat at odds with the rolling farmland of Staffordshire and Shropshire border. Additionally, it was not unusual to see boats from the London based Grand Union Canal Carrying Co and the Severn & Canal Co carrying cargoes along the Shropshire Union on sub-contract to Fellows, Morton & Clayton, at times when the latter needed extra boats to cope with a particularly large consignment.

Over the years I naturally became acquainted with many of the people who earned a living on the canal. Autherley Junction was always a busy spot, and here I met the jovial and knowledgeable Sam Lomas, toll clerk and confidant of many boating families. At Autherley the boat captains would hand in or receive gauge chits after their boat had been checked in the stop lock. A boat’s tonnage could be calculated by the process of measuring the amount of freeboard at four points along the hull with a dip stick. From Sam I learnt so much about the Shroppie boat families, their customs and way of life.

In time I ventured further along the canal. At various lock flights I entered into conversation with the boat people and became fascinated by their boat handling techniques. By now, FMC had been absorbed into the nationalised British Waterways, and one watched sadly as the distinctive red, green and white livery became swamped by the austere yellow and blue of the new nationalised undertaking. However, the tanker boats of Thomas Clayton remained firmly in the realms of private enterprise and, although tonnage began to drop, up to eight pairs were still regularly employed on the run until the contract ceased in the autumn of 1955. Moreover, it was not until 1953 that the final horsedrawn boats disappeared – OKA and KAMA, crewed by the indomitable Steve Dulson and family.

I acquired my first camera in 1958 and immediately began to take photographs of any working boat I was lucky enough to spot on the Shroppie. The next decade witnessed a rather rapid demise in commercial carrying along the Shropshire Union, although the remnants of the British Waterways Northwest fleet were firstly taken over by Willow Wren Canal Transport Services and latterly by the newly formed Anderton Canal Carrying Co. However, by the end of the Sixties, the canal had become increasingly the haunt of pleasure boaters. During this period one or two small outfits bravely carried out a rearguard action notably the Birmingham & Midland Canal Carrying Company and F.B. Lycett of Willenhall. The former Gas Street based organisation carried such commodities as aluminium (Walsall to Liverpool), pitch (Liverpool to Oldbury) and motor oil (Ellesmere Port to Aldridge on the BCN). The photogenic pair, BILSTER and ANGEL, of the Lycett company were often to be seen carrying aluminium from Weston Point Docks to Wolverhampton, sometimes carrying loads of up to 52 tons per pair under the shrewd captaincy of George ‘Jumbo’ Harris who is reputed to have worked for every canal carrying company since the last war!.

Many of those legendary boat captains have now passed on, but some of them were there to witness the end of ‘Shroppie Boats’: Charlie Atkins Snr – known as Chocolate Charlie because he worked regularly between the Cadbury depots at Bourneville and Knighton; Joe Hollinshead Snr; Ken Nixon; Jack Tolley; Freddy Gibbs and Ike Brace. They remembered the busy days – steel pipes, gunmetal ingots and copper sludge going south.

Today, to all intents and purposes, commercial carrying on the Shropshire Union Canal has gone. But on occasions, one may still be fortunate enough to see a small convoy of resplendent craft gliding their way through the deep Shroppie cuttings and along the high, windswept embankments. In the Spring of 1982, three narrowboats under the flag of Midland Canal Transport – SEAFORD, TENCH and LYNX – travelled from Middlewich to Northampton via the Sroppie with a special cargo of road salt, catching many an eye and stirring many a memory as they passed along this once mighty waterway.

Mike Webb, Littleover 1985

I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to all dear Mike’s friends. This has been a very difficult task for me. I understand now the importance of passing this part of history to future generations. – Maria Webb 2025