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"Brightwork"

by Mike Clarke

  "Studio" Room, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

March 30, 2010 at 7:30pm

Note: Refreshments are available in the Brewery Arts Centre but may not be taken into the meeting room.

The evening’s talk will be by Mike Clarke who is well known as an authority on the history of the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Mike will be talking about the painted decoration of working boats on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal which was one of the most colourful of Britain’s folk traditions. It was last used in the early 1960s, but despite that being just fifty years ago, there were no records of its origins and styles.

To record these traditions Mike worked with Sam Yates, who served his time as a boat builder at Hodson’s Boatyard at Whitebirk, near Blackburn, and undertook the decorative painting for several years before boat repair at the yard ceased in 1964.

Mike’s talk will look at the variation between the traditions in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and its origins through boat, church and house decoration across Europe. There are examples of paint work at Hodsons boatyard, along with details from other yards on the canal, showing the designs and colours used. The talk gives an introduction to the style which could be used on pleasure boats on the canal today.

Mike Clarke is an industrial historian, with forty years professional experience, who is best known for his research into waterway history. He has travelled across Europe and is well-known for his research on the development of European inland waterways, and wrote on the subject for Encyclopedia Britannica. Other work includes research for the National Waterways Museum and for British Waterways. He has written several books on the history of Britain’s northern waterways and articles by him have been published in both academic and popular periodicals. 

Mike Clarke's website