Hulked: the creative heritage of the Thames Barges

There is a lack of connection between the communities now resident in and around the Estuary and the region’s incredibly rich and textured maritime heritage. This heritage is a fundamental part of the region’s identity as a site of trade, commerce and migration. The lives, stories and songs of the bargefolk - the people who worked on the historic Thames Barges which were so central to the movement of goods around the region up until as recently as the 1960s - are still available, but in danger of being lost as well. So much of this history is yet to be told and the stories of the barges and the people who lived and worked on them are largely forgotten, but constitute a rich and highly significant aspect of the history and identity of the area and its cultural heritage. The project addresses the following issues: 1. A lack of connection between the communities now resident in and around the Estuary and the region’s incredibly rich and textured maritime heritage, including the music, histories and stories of the bargefolk and the region in general; 2. The disconnect between family heritage researchers and academic researchers and the largely untapped resources this represents; 3. There are historically important barges and bargefolk whose stories and songs are still undocumented which will disappear overt the next few years. The time to document and preserve this cultural-creative heritage is now.

The numbers in brackets link each activity to the issues/challenges identified above. Our pilot project (envisioned as a way of inviting and engaging people with its premises and ambitions in order to expand and develop further) will involve performance and film-based dissemination centring on song and story (1), and will centre on the abandoned hulks of two barges of the region: the Veronica and the Sirdar, both of which lie rotting at the head of Halstow Creek. The boats were notorious in their heyday, and were raced with great success in the annual Barge Matches. We will investigate the histories of the craft, the people that sailed them and the stories associated with them (3). Crucially, these hulks will not survive for much longer. We will collect the stories, songs and histories of these vessels and the lives of the bargefolk and their families more broadly, as well as collecting a visual and archival record of the hulks and of the Edith May herself (2). This research will be used to create a new performance piece using the stories and songs shared by members of the public or collected. It will also form the basis of an archive for further research on the barges and as a springboard/resource for future projects (including a play in development by Scott about the life of the bargefolk, for which funding is being sought from the AHRC and ACE). Final outputs: 1. A performance by Braithwaite and Scott (narrative and traditional song) hosted onboard Edith May and performed at the climax of a river cruise to visit the hulks, ideally as the tide rises to cover them up… We will invite families, communities and organisations connected to the barges. 2. A film of the event, plus drone footage of the region and the hulks themselves. The film will have a recorded soundtrack of some curated traditional songs from the era of the sailing barges, to disseminate via a project website (hosted at tillerandwheel.com). 3. An archive of histories, stories and music, hosted at tillerandwheel.com. During the cruise, we will canvas opinion on what kind of resource the communities involved would like with which to archive their stories and experiences. 4. An online interactive map of the Estuary and the barge hulks.

Preparation: 1. Open Day at Lower Halstow moorings, for people interested in the maritime history of the area (through barge organisations and local sailing clubs), folk song and contemporary art/music, family historians (via Cockin’s network). A physical map of the Estuary will act as a focus for conversations (recorded) about the history of the bargefolk and participants will be encouraged to add their own notes of memories and information they have about the area. This information will be documented and made available on the project website. (1), (2), (3). 2. Present a talk with Q&A, ‘Singing While We Work’, about the music of the bargefolk and the connections with performance in workplaces and family histories. (2). 3. Scott and Braithwaite will carry out research on the music of the bargemen to form the basis of new creative work (3): a. song performances; b. new short monologues. 4. Community and public engagement with the project will be carried out in a) barge history community (Grandsen, Braithwaite and Scott); b) family history communities locally and worldwide (Cockin).