Cool canals Guides & Waterways Directory

Roses & castles

Aboard 17th & 18th-century working narrowboats, families lived in cramped conditions so everything had to be functional - perhaps that's one reason decoration was so elaborately applied in every crevise of the boat and on all its paraphernalia.

The interior of the boatman's cabin, the water cans, poles, door panels, even the nose bowl for the horse that pulled the boat - all sparkled with the characteristic decoration of roses and castles.

Although the origins of canal folk art remain unrecorded, we at Coolcanals like to think that 'roses & castles' were the narrowboat families' way of cushioning the harsh struggle of their confined living conditions, and perhaps their home was a castle... & their garden was always full of roses!!

Go learn:

Evening course: Leasowes Business & Enterprise College, Halesowen ~ 'Canal Art Painting for Beginners and Improvers' more...
Daystar canal painting workshops, Audlem, Shropshire Union Canal

Courses run by the Waterways Craft Guild more...
London Canal Museum Courses more...

Go shop:

Artists online:
 
Artist on the Waterways, Sylvia Hankin, London

Julie Tonkin, West Midlands

Terence Edgar, Braunston

Gower Giftware, Northamptonshire

NarrowBoat Art, Andre Cornhill, East Sussex

Traditional Canalware by Martin Toennigs, Walsall

Robert Wright, Wiltshire

Narrowboats & canalside shops selling canalware:
Victoria Hignell & Dave Tipping,

Jane Selkirk, Live-aboard

The Boat Shop, Braunston, Grand Union Canal

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