 Elizabeth
Bryant is an expert practitioner in the craft of traditional
canal crochet work. She sells examples through her website
www.englishcrafts.co.uk .
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Like
so much of the canal art traditions, the origin of Cabin crochet
is lost in the mists of time, but it probably originated
from the Victorian habit of adorning every conceivable surface
with some form of decoration, even to the extent of trimming
shelves and mantelpieces with edgings of cut paper or lace, and
after the middle of the 19 century when crochet was introduced
to this country, these styles could be emulated in the humblest
homes with the use of ‘poor man’s lace’, or crochet work.
As the tradition of enhancing the appearance of
canal narrowboats with painted designs grew up over the second
half of the Victorian era, so did the boatpeople’s pride in
their boats. When married boatmen began taking their wives to
live on board in the tiny cabins, the women must have wished to
make their homes as pleasant as possible, but the adornments had
to fit in, without taking up space that could be more usefully
utilised. |
 With
her crochet work, the boatwoman was able to create with her own
hands, beautiful articles to adorn her home. Originally, one
supposes, some of the wives brought their crocheting skills on
board from life on the bank, and, copying their land
counterparts, hung narrow strips of crochet lace around the edge
of the shelf above the stove, and the small shelves inside their
cupboard.This trimming usually had one
straight edge, by which it would be pinned to the wood, and one
edge of ‘Vandyke’ points, also sometimes called ‘the pointed
Rover’ by some boat women. Deeper lengths of lace would be
pinned up around the cabin, where the walls joined the roof, and
in any other available nook or cranny. |
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The bed ‘ole was screened from the rest of the
cabin by curtains which could also be edged with crochet, as
could aprons, hanging pockets, and the elaborate bonnets the
women wore in Victorian times and on into the twentieth century,
long after the fashion for such headgear had died out on the
bank. Shawls for the women and babies would also be crocheted.
Some boatwomen made brightly coloured embroidered
and crocheted belts and braces for their husbands, and sewed and
knitted the clothes for their children. |
Canal boats were originally horse-drawn, this
tradition lasting up until the middle of the twentieth century
for a diminishing number of boat people. A good horse or mule
was highly valued, and would be provided with crochet earcaps,
often decorated with a multitude of brightly coloured tassels,
which would help to protect the ‘hanimal’ from the clouds of
flies as he plodded along the towpaths.
Naturally, as many of the boats carried dirty cargoes, and
visited filthy wharves, the women had to work very hard to keep
their small homes clean and neat. The crochet lace must have
become grey quite quickly, but being made of cotton it could be
boiled white again, and pulled back into shape easily. |
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An insular group, boat people often married into
other boating families, and loaned older children out to help
crew other boats. To meet with family members and friends at
regular mooring places must have been a much-enjoyed but
infrequent pleasure. Whilst the women caught up with the news
they would haul their heavy wash tubs onto the towpath and boil
and pound their clothes into cleanliness, before hanging them to
dry along the boat.
At such times I imagine they would also have
passed on to each other new crochet patterns, demonstrating how
they were made, and maybe supplying a friend or relative with a
small sample of lace, which could then be kept in a pocket and
copied. Most of the women had no opportunity to attend school,
so were unable to read, but once the basic crochet stitches had
been learnt, a pattern could be copied from a sample without the
need of literacy skills. The local names of the patterns and
stitches would be handed on from one generation to the next,
along with the skill. |
Patterns may have had regional or family
traditions. There are many variations of daisy patterns for
example, which may have come about as each woman copied a piece
of crochet, but gave it her own touch, or made a mistake which
was then adapted into the design. The
patterns are constructed from filet crochet, which is a net of
square holes and filled blocks. The design is ‘drawn’ in filled
blocks, and usually consists of a repeat pattern which makes up
one ‘point’ of the net. Once the crocheter has mastered the
first ‘point’, she can then refer back to that as she works,
until she has completed the required length. Original old boat
lace is hard to find nowadays, but I have been lucky enough to
be given access to some samples of laces made by Rose Whitlock,
a notable crochet woman, from their old family boats. Rose
herself also handed on the advice to make a good firm top edge
to the lace, so it would be easier to hang or pin up. |
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Other designs used on boats varied from the very
simple, using geometric shapes such as diamonds, triangles, and
hearts, to more complex patterns, such as horseshoes, stars, and
flowers. I feel sure that many boat women had fun experimenting
and making up their own designs, with which to impress their
friends when they next met along the cut.
Although usually made from natural cotton
which could be boiled white, some women added finishing edges of
reds, pinks and blues, to enhance their work.
During those long days of relentless toil, it
must have been therapeutic for a woman to be able to tuck the
tiller of the boat she was steering in the crook of her arm, and
get out her latest piece of lace and crochet hook. Boats have
even been steered ‘by foot’, whilst the boatwoman sat on the
cabin roof and crocheted! |
 With
the demise of most of the trade on the canals, the old canal art
and crafts could have died. Thankfully, they haven’t been
allowed to, and craftsmen and women continue to use their skills
on restored working boats, and have expanded them to include the
holiday industry. In the same way, the tradition of using
crochet to decorate cabins ‘hung on by a thread’ through the sad
years of canal decline, and is now, with the resurgence of
boating as a leisure activity, happily being adapted for use on
leisure boats. Some of the last of the working boatwomen were
asked to make shelf edgings for the holiday trade, and as
examples for the restored boats and museums, and now, in
addition to seeing hand crocheted nets at some boat windows, one
can see them as porthole covers, and trimmings around the
interior woodwork, where the boaters enjoy feeling that they are
helping to carry on this small piece of the folk art of the
canals. |
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The Horse’s Earcaps (above left) are a copy of
those on display in the National Waterways Museum at Gloucester
and the Canal Museum at Stoke Bruerne. All the other nets have
been worked out by Sarah Chanin and Elizabeth Bryant from
patterns of genuine old working boat lace. |
Further
reading and patterns:
‘Canal Boat Cabin Crochet’ by Sarah Chanin & Ann Gardiner,
‘Cabin Crochet of the Inland Waterways’ by Janet M. Reeve, and
‘Canal Arts and Crafts’ by Avril Lansdell.
© Elizabeth Bryant. 2003 website
www.englishcrafts.co.uk |
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