Folk Tales from the Canal Side

Ian Douglas gathers tales rooted in Britain’s canal network, drawing on the lives, work and traditions of the people who travelled and lived upon the waterways. The collection moves through navigators, working boats, tunnels, bridges, horses, locks and boatmen’s cabins, preserving stories shaped by the industrial age and the communities of the cut.

Alongside accounts of hardship, humour, pilfering, smuggling and commercial decline are reports of ghosts, boggles, treachery, heroism and encounters with the Devil. A tale about an oatcake seller and her stove sits among stories connected with canals including the Caldon Canal, while traditional material such as ‘The First Cargo’ reflects the songs and storytelling culture of Britain’s inland waterways.