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Idle Women

Mail Newspapers (UK).

Crew of "Narrowboat Girls" on the Grand Union Canal, Southall, London, 1944. Britain's extensive canal network is now mainly used as a tourism resource but, in the 1930s and '40s, it was still in use as a means of transporting heavy cargo within the country. The advent of WW2 only increased its importance in this regard. Many of the younger men working the canals (they were, more often than not, members of "canal families") were drawn into the Armed Forces or industry, resulting in a serious labour shortage on the waterways. A solution was found in one of the less well-known forms of womens' emergency war work, that of the "narrowboat girls". The affectionate nickname, "Idle Women" was based on the initials of their employer - the Inland Waterways Department (IW - geddit ?); it was not always appreciated by the young ladies concerned. In fact, it was a pretty rough service, involving manoeuvering dirty, leaky, oily canal barges loaded with cargoes such as steel, coal, stone ballast, bricks and cement, and all for £3st per week. Strangely enough, many former "narrboat girls" remember the experience with affection ... Best regards, JR.