Hard Working Boater

by David Blagrove

I'm a hard working boater and sharp as a knife
I've worked on the Junction for most of me life,
Wi' a pair of steel boats, seven kids and a wife,
I fancy I'll carry on boating.

I've fought with me windlass and taken some knocks
From the Brummagem wharves to the Weston Point Docks,
And I've fought for me turn on the Camden Town Locks
When I'm wanted in Limehouse for loading.

Meself and me missis have nearly been drowned
When working by night on the fifteen mile pound,
Wi' a big load of spelter for Birmingham bound,
And the weather has been pretty bloody.

I've been down to Oxford with a load of D.S.,
Fifty-five tons out of Griff Arm, no less,
And I've boated to Wellingbro', two boats abreast,
When the water's been coming down floody.

You can talk of your rail and your old Highway Code,
But there's nowt like a pair wi' a fifty ton load,
When your butty swims well and you get a good road
Right over the Cowroast to Leighton.

So wind up your motor and let your blades churn,
Keep a sharp eye on the oil that you burn,
And feel for the snatch from the butty astern,
And don't keep the company waiting.

Junction: The Grand Junction or Grand Union Canal, from London to Birmingham.

Brummagem: a dialect term for Birmingham.

Weston Point Docks: at Runcorn in Cheshire, on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Camden Town and Limehouse (basin): at the London end of the GUC.

Fifteen mile pound: a pound is a stretch of water between locks. The 15-mile pound is that between Tardebigge Top Lock on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the stop-lock at Gas Street Basin, Birmingham.

D.S.: double-screened nuts - a type of coal.

Griff Arm: the Griff Colliery Co. canal, off the Coventry Canal 2½ miles south of Nuneaton.

Cowroast: Cowroast lock is lock 46 on the Grand Union Canal, part of the long flight leading to Tring summit some 3 miles north of Berkhamstead.

Leighton: Leighton Buzzard

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