The Volunteer
basil | 11/13/2005 | 6:57 am
Droitwich Barge Canal
1916 The death of the Barge Canal.
In the middle of the Great War the Salt Union Company in Droitwich received a telegram from The British Alkali Company in Bristol, their main customer for salt, with the shock news that no further deliveries would be accepted. Barges already well down the Severn were turned back and emptied.
Skipper Bourne removed the sailing gear and mast from the Volunteer and its barge boat was hauled up on the bank. It was then hauled by a gang of men down to Mildenham Mill Claines to be loaded with two hay ricks. Little ‘Lol’ Brown aged 14 was waiting to go in the navy and his father thought he should gain some sailing experience and asked Mr Bourne to take him to Cardiff. ‘Lol’ told me that as the men hauled the boat they sang out a sea shanty chant to which the crew called back.This must surely have been the last time such a thing was heard on our Inland Waterways. Reaching the Severn they drifted down to Worcester to join a steam tug hauled convoy down to Cardiff docks. It returned empty to be used as a dumb lighter on the Severn. The Volunteer was finally broken up at Bristol in 1934.
The hay ricks had been commandeered from Bill Watts the Miller by some British Army Officers to help feed the two million army horses in France.
By coincidence my mother and a group of girls at Kays of Worcester were conscripted from the office and sent to Cardiff Docks. They were billeted in some large sheds in the Docks and handled the documents for an enormous tonnage of army foodstuffs. Max
The Volunteer.
