Episode 12 - Idle Women... heroines of the waterways
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- čas přidán 21. 10. 2019
- Whilst cruising my narrowboat between Penkridge and Tixall Wide Water on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, I recount the tale of “Idle Women.” There follows a quite unreal coincidence…
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Links:
Tench carrying coal and towing the butty Ilford on the Coventry Canal
• Historic Narrowboat Pa...
www.britishpathe.com/video/be...
• Another Job For Women
Idle Women
womenshistorynetwork.org/wome...
canalrivertrust.org.uk/specia...
www.telegraph.co.uk/women/lif...
www.independent.co.uk/life-st...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...
www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/...
Music:
Sleepy Jake by Silent Partner
Hurts So Good Blues by Unicorn Heads
Campfire Song by Chris Haugen
Excellent stuff. Loving it. Funny, informative and simply, escapism. Thank you.
...and thank you. And we share the same surname...
"Boater's sock" is cured by keeping your toe nails trimmed right back. Soldiers get the same issue whe they go on runs in boots. BTW, really diggin' those Blues!
Love that...the lock is a good place for a bit of banter and chat and no one said a word!!!......
love the blues music soooooooo good
Happened upon your channel, subscribed and just binge watched the first 12 episodes. Marvelous! Dave & Helen
Haha thanks very much
Tha KS for the story and the trip..XOX
I've just found your channel, and I'm really enjoying your vlogs. Lee
Thanks Lee
Great video,
Thanks Sylvia
A tip for your socks, keep your claws short, lol!!
...I knew I should have cut my toenails before filming that clip!
You"ll have trouble cutting Wolverines Ralph ( laff)
@@ralhmcc47 Well I don't know... in the space of a week I've been compared to Bill Oddie and Wolverine!
Love the blues music
I am partial to a bit of the blues!
Tales From The Swan's Neck me too let’s have more please....
@@michaelhibbert4393 Do you mean more blues music or more videos!!!
Tales From The Swan's Neck well if your asking....more of both
@@michaelhibbert4393Cheers, I'll see what I can do...
Brilliant as ever. What a coincidence! I also teach photography at the University Centre, Blackburn, UK. Coming up to retirement, my wife and I are having a narrowboat built ready for a spot of cruising. Keep up the good work.
It was an amazing coincidence, like it was meant to be. Hope you can get on the waterways soon Martyn
thanks for the history lesson it was well told from one photographer to another you have a great eye keep it up finding your channel is reminding me why I fell in love with photography in the first place and I should make some time to do it again other than the occasional paid job
Yeah I guess i fell out of love with it for a while, but this lifestyle has rekindled the passion. Check out Nev Cartledge's channel, it's awesome!
Love your channel and photographer's eye. Fantastic!
Thanks, I appreciate that. I put a lot of effort in and it's great when that is recognised. Cheers
Hi Skip, good to see you up and vloging again. In the RN Or Andrew as it was known, a bit of kit called a Housewife would sort your socks out with a bit of make and mend! I’m glad that a fellow boater has you in tow! Enjoyed Idle Women and watched your recommended link excellent. Take care.
Admiral Hutchinson
Just checked out the references you gave for the ‘Idle Women’....
Wow, what a fascinating history, and what a fascinating group of women.
Yeah, and I love the fact that one of their instructors was a female ballet dancer! But despite their small frame I guess they have a lot of strength
While on the subject of Idle women, I recently read a book titled "Maidens' Trip" by Emma Smith. A very enjoyable read, all about 3 of those girls working a narrow boat during the second world war and what they got up to.
I came across the title during my research, and yes I bet it's a good read. I'll try to get hold of a copy, thanks
Thanks for info for Idle Women, fascinating. Will have to try and read the Maidens Trip mentioned by Lorraine Richardson
I see you've got a Morso Squirrel. I had one in my kitchen. I used to wrap a baked spud in foil when the fire had died down. Lovely baked spuds.
Great video.
Hi John, actually it's a Morso Swift which doesn't give out quite so much heat as the squirrel, so is better for smaller spaces. And yes, sometimes I've put potatoes in whilst cruising so have something ready for lunch, or the end of the day
Interesting story about the women who worked the canals in wartime. Especially in the dark. That’s for he info on that.
It must have been immensely exhausting, 3 weeks to Birmingham, Coventry and return to London. That's an awful lot of locks and mileage and loading and unloading.
I'm reading a series by Milly Adams about the waterway girls it sounds tiring and dirty. It sounds interesting though
I don't think they did very much work at night. And whilst they did do a great job it's also worth remembering that there were also many more women working on the same routes - but they had been born to it, grew up doing it, went on doing it after the war (for as long as they could) but they didn't write books and no one thought they were doing anything remarkable!
Hi Andrew, Good to see and hear you again: tech issues all resolved. Fascinating topic: ''Idle Women''. Actually, another take on the headline, would be: Idle, Bradford, West Yorkshire, I did think you may have been up t'mill there! Anyhow, lovely as always to see another part of the world that I haven't as yet visited. As for the 'boater's sock!' - Yes, indeed, I'm with Dulcie: clip your claws!!! Ugh! Heading to Shropshire on the 4th - 11th - will be in touch soon as ... Jo :o)) PS Luverly FIRE!
Thanks Jo, and yes it is a lurverly fire! More coming soon on Tixall Wide. Have a good trip to Shroppie
Thank you so much for that piece of history. Those women were real unsung heroes they worked incredibly hard and dangerous work . I read a novel by Rosie Archer called The Narrow Boat Girls that was exactly about these women in the war in the book so to hear about the real thing from you was a treat. It didn't mention in the book they were called Idle women though! Would have been great to have seen Tench. I do feel rather envious of your travels I must say having emigrated from the UK at 23yrs I never realised having lived in the south that those locks even existed and if I had stayed living in UK could imagine quite easily living that lifestyle since retiring. I particularly love the scenery of the Yorkshire canals. Thank you Andrew for your infectious enthusiasm.
Thank you Alison, I'm pleased you've enjoyed watching. Like you, and coming from the south I had never really seen a canal or a lock before I moved onboard, and I was completely unaware of the beauty and wonderful history of our canal system. It has been a revelation.
I've read that one, the Waterways girls trilogy by Milly Adams & The Boat Girls by Margaret Mayhew, The Waterway Girls are my favourite.
@@Nat6999 Those are all fiction and, whilst great reads, it well worth searching out the four written by the women who were there: Idle Women Susan Woolfitt; Maiden’s Trip Emma Smith; The Amateur Boatwomen Eily Gayford and Troubled Waters: Memoirs of a Canal Boatwoman Margaret Cornish
There are also references to the trainees from the point of view of a woman born and bred on the boats in Ramlin Rose; the boatwoman’s story Sheila Stewart (Rose is a fictional character but is telling the stories of the last generation of working boatwomen recorded by Sheila Stewart around 1980). Available from Audlem Mill
And there were a very small number of women on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal… Memories of a Wartime Canal Boatwoman Nancy Ridgway (ed Mike Clarke and Timothy Peters)
Another great video, really enjoyed, and we have all met some idle women 🙄
to be honest, I think I've met more idle men...
I don't think they meant it in a disrespectful way only that they saw woman at home and idle during the war effort and saw a way to incorporate them into it... Like as in the term being used for production lines and how it going idle wasn't being effective enough in the war effort...
Scott Phillips Women were recruited into factories, on to farms, into Home Front organisations etc because the workforce was severely depleted due to the men being away fighting in the war.
In the book I'm reading by Milly Adams it's because of the inland waterways badge they were given iw turned into idle women.
This is addictive for all us housebound gongoozlers! Lovely about the Idle Women but.......who is Linda , she didn't seem idle whatsoever!
Haha Glenn, no Linda isn't at all idle - in fact she never stops! She was someone I 'buddied-up' with for a while, a travelling companion. Pleased you're enjoying my travels
I have a book called 'Maidens' Trip by Emma Smith. Tells about the 'Idle women." =-)
Yes I've been told about this, I must try to get a copy.