Overview
This project is using the records of the navigation companies, records created by parliamentary committees, published Parliamentary Papers, records of central government departments responsible for regulating commercial inland navigation, records of local authorities and statutory undertakers and any records of private carrying companies, together with a wide range of standard sources for 19th- and 20th- century local history, to explore the history of the Trent and associated canals in the post-railway age.
The project is a co-production award, involving collaboration with a community partner, the Newark Heritage Barge Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The Organisation (formerly the ‘Friends of the Newark Heritage Barge’) is restoring a former working barge (the ‘Leicester Trader’) as a floating heritage centre for the river. They have already collected a large amount of oral testimony and written and photographic evidence for the recent history of commercial navigation on the Trent.
The project is also working closely with the Railway & Canal Historical Society, representatives of town and village local history societies and riverside communities more generally to record memories, recollections and testimony in support of the project’s objectives.
Publications
Selected publications for the River Trent project
Philip Riden is posting working versions of the draft text for the book he is editing from the research generated by this project.
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Anyone with comments or information about the text, or the subject matter more generally, is encouraged to contact Philip Riden.
Public engagement
Events and collaborations with the general public
The results of the project will be presented in a series of events including the March 2014 day school run by the Nottinghamshire Local History Association at Ravenshead in Nottinghamshire.
The day, to be called, ‘A River Runs Through It: The Trent and its Communities’ will feature presentations by project team members as well as representatives of our community partner (the Newark Heritage Barge Charitable Incorporated Organisation) and the Railway and Canal Historical Society. For further information, see the .
Launch event
At the project launch on 18 May, Philip Riden discussed 'Trade and Transport on the Trent' whilst Wendy Freer explored the Lives of Riverside Communities, slides for both of these presentations can be found below:
The project - Trade and Transport on the Trent 
Researching life on the waterways
Later in the day, Philip explored the resources available for exploring subjects in relation to this project.
Researching Trade and Transport on the Trent
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End-of-project event
The photographs and videos below give a flavour of the presentations delivered at an end-of-project event held on 26 April 2014 at North Muskham Village Centre, Nottinghamshire. The event combined presentations by academic and community partners and an opportunity for comments and questions from the audience.
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Open educational resources
The has produced a guide suitable for use with schools exploring life on board working barges such as the ‘Leicester Trader’. Further resources relating to the barge are available from the organisation’s website.
Philip Riden has produced a bibliography listing useful sources of information in national and local archives as well as the published literature relating to ‘Trade and Traffic on the River Trent and Associated Waterways’. This work, which was undertaken in preparation for the current project, was facilitated by a grant from the Challenge Fund for ‘Writing Our History, Digging Our Past’ (Phase 1), a ‘Research for Community Heritage’ project awarded to the School of Humanities under its ‘Connected Communities’ programme in 2012.
Canal Carriers
A historical analysis of the carrying trade on the Trent in the period covered by the project
Project team
Principal Investigator: Dr Richard Gaunt
Co-Investigator: Mr Philip Riden
Research Associate: Dr Hywel Maslen
In the press
Contact
For further details of the project please contact: Philip Riden
