Mike explained the history of canals - showing us a small model of a canal boat and the people who lived on it.

Doing the washing the hard way - scrubbing on a washboard with soap. The children all dressed up as Victorians too!

As there were no shops on the canal, the family would eat whatever they could find or catch!!  Our one pot contained - eel, duck, fried eggs, carrots, turnips, onions, mushrooms and potatoes!!!  Luckily our packed lunches were more to our taste!

The children are all very knowledgeable about recycling, but were surprised to learn that the Victorians wasted little too.  Mike showed us how old clothes were recycled into rag rugs with strips of material, a piece of canvas and a hook. 

The outside of the Roger - half of this covered space is the engine room and the rest is the living area for the family. Some of our children have toy-boxes bigger than the living area!!

This is the kitchen!!  The open flap is the 'fridge' area as it keeps cool as it's water-level.  At night, the older children would sleep on the floor and the baby in a cupboard!

As the family didn't have a garden, they would paint their boats with roses and castle scenes.  This is the front door to the 'Roger'.

They also decorated water jugs, plates, buckets and the 'guzunder'.  Even the horse's nose- tin was beautifully decorated!

First the water had to go into the lock from the canal, so that the water height would raise the boats.  On the way back, the water would have to go into the canal so that the boats would go down.

Opening the lock was very hard work!! And there were 6 of us doing the work. The gates open by pushing and close by pulling the bar.

'The Pride of Batchworth' carried each group through the lock before travelling up the canal.  We saw lots of water birds - swans, ducks and ducklings, Canada geese and some of us even saw a heron.