Joseph Hewer - Swindon's Last Canal Carrier

Joseph, born in Chalford in 1857, was a 3rd generation boatman with grandparents from the Castle Eaton and Lechlade area. His father Francis had been based at The Wharf on the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton (north of Cricklade) for 20 years and owned a number of boats. Two of Joseph’s sisters married boatmen and a 3rd married a blacksmith from Cricklade who in 1901 and 1911 occupied the lock keeper’s house on the North Wilts Canal at Crosslanes (near the Joseph & Amelia Hewer and their 13 Children c.1919 Son James is in the front row on the right 48 Westcott Place in the 1940s Swindon and Cricklade Railway centre).

In 1881 Joseph married a Cricklade girl Amelia Selman. There he established himself as a grocer/beer retailer/coal merchant but continued his boat haulage business. He often transported coal for Butt & Skurray of Stroud. Skurray built a large mill by the canal at Whale Bridge in Swindon in 1893.

By 1897 he had moved to 48 Westcott Place, Swindon by the Wilts & Berks Canal. He owned four boats and often plied them between Swindon and Bristol. Amelia ran the shop. It was here that the youngest three of their 13 surviving children were born.

In 1901 the Wilts & Berks Canal become unnavigable east of Chippenham. Joseph sold two boats and broke up a third which left his remaining one called STAUNCH. He was aware that Gloucester County Council was repairing stretches of the Thames & Severn Canal. Anticipating the completion of these works, he took Staunch to stay at Latton Wharf for 10 months, undertaking transport of stone in the Siddington and South Cerney area.

In March 1904 he undertook a commission for Cirencester coal dealer Frank Gegg to fetch coal from Staffordshire collieries for the same price as charged by the railways. He and his mate Richard Bentley began their epic journey with horse-drawn Staunch. They were the first boaters through the Sapperton Tunnel for many years. They took a cargo of timber from Gloucester to Dudley and then went a further 25 miles to Hednesford Colliery to take on 35 tons of coal and brought it back to Cirencester Wharf. Here most of the coal was sold to Cirencester House.

The Return Journey

Canals Travelled

Joseph continued working his boat on the Thames & Severn and Midlands canals. The last ‘official’ boat through the Sapperton Tunnel was ‘Gem’ in 1911 but local rumour has it that Joseph used it in 1914 to bring his dead father’s furniture back from Chalford to Wiltshire.

Amelia left Westcott Place c.1916 and died in 1937 in Swindon (recorded as ‘wife of coal merchant’). Research by his family and others has failed to find details of where and when Joseph died.

His older children helped him to work the boats. Son James (born 1881) plied the Wilts & Berks Canal but later moved to London and trained as a baker. In 1928 he returned to boating, mainly on the Grand Union Canal. In 1939 he retired to his family who were then living in Wroughton. He died there in 1959.

Jan Flanagan
October 2014