Summer 2019 - Issue 54
![current issue cover image](/nb/issues/78/0/outputThumbnail.jpg)
The Summer 2019 issue includes the following features. You can purchase this magazine from our online Shop.
You can read the articles in this and all other NarrowBoat issues online by becoming a NarrowBoat subscriber.
Front Cover: From 1853, regular steam towage started on the River Severn and narrowboats (called ‘long-boats’ on the river) and barges travelled between Gloucester, Worcester and Stourport without the need for horse haulage from the towpath. Navigating the fast-flowing waters of the Severn demanded a higher level of skill and experience than on the canals. Many Severn long-boats were fitted with hefty timber-heads each side of the fore-deck to attach strong towing lines, as shown here.
![Boat Building at Braunston 1796 to 1958 featured image](/nb/issues/78/3/images/-000.jpg)
Working the Waterways
Boat Building at Braunston 1796 to 1958
Chris M. Jones looks at the long history of wooden boat building at the famous canal village
View an excerpt.
![Descending Stoke Locks featured image](/nb/issues/78/13/images/13_5d0c939d8c80f_-000-000.jpg)
Picturing the Past
Descending Stoke Locks
Another selection of images from the Jack Parkinson Collection reveals the carriage of pottery materials at Stoke-on-Trent
View an excerpt.
![Traffic on the River Severn in the 19th century featured image](/nb/issues/78/15/images/-000.jpg)
Traffic on the River Severn in the 19th century
Chris M. Jones studies the growth of long-boat and wide-boat carrying on the mighty Severn
View an excerpt.
![The old Thames Waterfront featured image](/nb/issues/78/24/images/24_5d0ca218d9ddf_-000-000.jpg)
Time and Place
The old Thames Waterfront
Chris M. Jones investigates images of the old Thames riverside when the Pool of London was a thriving port
View an excerpt.
![Charles Hadfield’s Jessop and Telford files featured image](/nb/issues/78/31/images/-004.jpg)
From the Archives
Charles Hadfield’s Jessop and Telford files
Joseph Boughey examines the late waterways historian’s research into great canal engineers
View an excerpt.
![Rebuilding the Warwick Canals featured image](/nb/issues/78/33/images/-000.jpg)
Working the Waterways
Rebuilding the Warwick Canals
Alan Thorpe studies a series of images taken in the early 1930s showing the widening and improving of today’s northern Grand Union Canal
View an excerpt.
![First Sod from the MSC featured image](/nb/issues/78/38/images/-000.jpg)
Canal Curios
First Sod from the MSC
Sarah Henshaw celebrates the men – and machines – who dug the 36-mile ‘ditch’
View an excerpt.
![Taking a Break at Tinsley featured image](/nb/issues/78/39/images/39_5d0ca7bbd361f_-000-000.jpg)
Time and Place
Taking a Break at Tinsley
The Sheffield & Tinsley Canal celebrates its bicentenary this year. Chris M. Jones looks at a scene from its working heyday
View an excerpt.
![Oxford Canal Improvements featured image](/nb/issues/78/41/images/41_5d0ca841e58c1_-000-000.jpg)
Historical Canal Maps
Oxford Canal Improvements
Richard Dean describes Charles Vignoles’ 1828 plan to shorten the northern Oxford
View an excerpt.
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