Between 1760 and 1840, canals were built with locks just over 7 feet wide, known as “narrow” canals. These canals were navigated by “narrow boats”, typically 70 feet long and 7 feet wide. Although the exact number of working narrow boats built over the past 200 years is still being determined, there are approximately 1000 that still exist today.Most of the photographs were taken by David Williams, who grew up near the Shropshire Union Canal in Cheshire and travelled around the country from 2013 to 2018. Each photograph is accompanied by brief notes on the boat by Peter Silvester, a canal enthusiast with over fifty years of experience.
