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Cruises for pleasure were initiated in the mid 19th century by an emerging middle class . On English canals these early voyagers were usually University educated with the time, money and an inquisitive instinct for the unusual. Initially voyages were made on home territory but soon progressed to the waterways of Europe .
Across the ‘pond’ things were similar with a gradual discovery of European rivers and canals. For some unaccountable reason I can discover no accounts of Americans travelling on British canals prior to the middle years of the last century. I am sure it probably happened but it would seem that the account of Emily Kimbrough’s English canal trip in 1957 was the first to be published in book form.
In post war austerity Britain and until well into the 1950’s the glamour and affluence of American society was well known in the UK propagated mainly by films from Hollywood. This affluence also manifested itself to British eyes with an increasing stream of American tourists crossing the Atlantic to ‘do’ Britain and Europe. In the 1940’s and 50’s foreign holidays were almost exclusively the province of the American and English middle classes and Emily Kimbrough emphatically typifies this category of tourist.
Miss Kimbrough steers her boat into the bank.
Emily Kimbrough was a well known editor of American society magazines and author of many books detailing her foreign travels. Born in the mid west and educated at a US university and the Sorbonne she would have been in her mid 50’s when she came to England in 1955 for a holiday on the Thames. The results of this trip were detailed in ‘Water Water everywhere’ published in 1956. In 1957 she visited the UK again for a four week canal trip,this was turned into the book which is the subject of this essay.
When I first encountered canals in the early 1960’s canal travellers of any sort were a rare breed and foreign visitors even rarer. There was however a myth around of the ‘wealthy,loud and flamboyant’ American tourist .I have to say straight away that in all my travels I never actually encountered anyone like this and they certainly don't exist today.However , in many respects Miss Kimbrough and her party do fit the bill perfectly although I don't think they were particularly loud. Indeed I think they were probably well aware of the image portrayed by the average American on vacation abroad at that time.
Miss Kimborough plans her trip.
As a precursor to the main trip which was to be from Stone to Thames Ditton ,Emily Kimborough and a friend charted a cut down wooden narrow boat from Wyatt's boatyard at Stone. Wyatt a very early member of the IWA ran the ‘Canal Cruising Company’ – one of the earliest hire boat companies on the cut and started just after the war. It is famous today as the dock to where Tom Rolt steered his boat Crecy on his last trip and where the boat was subsequently broken up.
Whether the authors fame had preceded her or whether it was just that they were wealthy American tourists and as such represented the beginnings of a hopefully increasing stream of the same in the eyes of the British Transport Waterways of the time I don't suppose we will ever know but in any event they were met at the rail station by 2 British Transport Waterways employees with 2 vehicles (one for passengers,one for luggage). At the boatyard they were welcomed by the local IWA and introduced to the man who was to steer their boat –Mr Walley an ex boater now employed on a maintenance gang on the bank. The journey to Llangollen is punctuated with details of the Americans scouring English shops for improbable things like ice and ice buckets, usually under the uncomprehending gaze of the shop keeper. Ice it would seem was an essential part of the cocktail regime which they assiduously followed each evening.
In the event the boat never got to Llangollen being abandoned by the two Americans at Ellesmere who returned to London leaving Mr Walley to return the boat to Stone.
Purchasing boaters requisites at Braunston!
A week later the two ladies together with 3 other American socialites gathered again at Stone this time on board a five berth wooden cruiser of the Maid Line fleet from Captain Munks base at Thames Ditton on the Thames. Their journey from Stone via Gt Haywood,Braunston and the Thames was again captained by Mr Walley together with another Waterways employee presumably to help with the locks.As hilarious as some of the account seems to us today with its recounting of quests for essential (in American eyes) items unknown or unattainable in England at that time it nevertheless shows a positive concern at times for those less well off than themselves particularly with regard to the working boat community. At one stage they stare with unbelieving eyes at the wife of a boater bow hauling a loaded butty up Audlem locks and at Oxford they are shown around the tiny but immaculately kept buttys cabin of a working pair unloading coal at a wharf. These working conditions of the English canal boat community are emphasised in the readers eyes by the fact that the Americans despite travelling on a five berth boat choose to stay in the best hotels around each night where of course they can dress for dinner and enjoy their cocktail hour, transported to and from by taxi of course.
Its interesting reading the book today how many of the characters that the tourists encounter on their trip can be recognized as well known canal personalities of the time. For instance the ‘shy canal painter unable to read and write’ from whom they buy their souvenirs at Braunston was probably one of the Nursers of boat building fame and the Muriel Ritchie travelling the canals of Shropshire that they meet at Audlem – could she be the wife of Colonel Ritchie of Stoke Bruerne an early artefact collector and canal enthusiast. Little details like this and the rich period atmosphere of the book keep the reader ploughing on through cocktail hour until journeys end at Thames Ditton.
The book was never published in England but copies can be found very cheaply on the net.
Some of my most read blogs are those concerning the rare war time Picture Post articles. I thought some people might like to know that one of these from 1939 –‘ Canals Are Coming back’ is being auctioned on eBay now .Its listed under Ships,Boats and Waterways.