2025 locked in and out
As a roving trader my working life and income depends on two, fairly obvious, elements: roving and trading. As a result, not being able to rove or trade brings multiple worries. When sections of canal closed due to drought in 2025, a whole myriad of issues filled my head. Plus canal closures raised questions about the sustainability of earning a living as a roving trader. Add to this limited media coverage and a lack of awareness of the impact of canal closures on roving businesses I, and other traders, are left feeling unheard. Something that as a roving trader is a regular emotion.
Seen but not heard
There are over 4501 roving canal traders on the English canal networks. Bizarrely, I think, there is very little record keeping or recognition of this distinct group of business boaters. If you were to read Canal and River Trust’s (CRT) annual report you may not realise that roving traders exist. As roving traders we pay a higher license fee yet do not factor as a specific group in any CRT reporting. Often, the only way roving traders appear in CRT literature or advertising is in photographs. Quite simply, we don’t count.2
To some, I am sure, this lack of recognition doesn’t matter. However, I argue it matters a great deal, especially for those of us working on the network. To be honest, it peeves me that my hand-painted work is good enough for a photo op3 to advertise CRT, but my hard-work running a business is sidelined when it comes to CRT’s business reporting. Additionally, ignoring roving traders means we rarely have a voice, and are often not considered in business meetings or information sharing.
For instance, during the pandemic the All Party Parliamentary Group – Waterways met and discussed the impact of COVID on waterways businesses. Yet, of those invited to speak none were roving traders. Similarly, evidence sent to a parliamentary committee was based on businesses that advertise in Waterways World (WW). As a result only two roving traders responded to the survey, after all roving traders are unlikely to advertise in the magazine, our turnovers are small and such advertising is costly.
Locked in
All of this brings me to this year, 2025. My peak trading season is from March to November, when I attend canal festivals and pop-up at key canal locations. I plan my route early in the year and book into events at the same time. The distance I travel is dictated by 2 factors: first, my boats are extremely slow, and second I have to paint at least 5 days a week to maintain stock levels. As a result the distances I can travel are limited, and last minute changes really aren’t an option. I rely on large events for income, this financially supports me throughout the year. Basically, if I can’t reach a festival my income drops and the drought of 2025 brought financial worries as the canals shut.
By early August 2025, as the drought continued, it was clear large sections of the canal network were going to close. On the Leicester Line the locks at Watford and Foxton were closed to passage at the end of July. This particular closure locked me out of returning to my mooring at Welford. In mid-August CRT announced multiple lock closures across the system, starting 27th August. The CRT stoppages map showed a network with 20% of the system closed to navigation, it was a depressing sight.
Locked in at Stoke Bruerne
I was trapped above Stoke Bruerne locks, in a pound that stretches to the bottom of Buckby locks. I could move through the pound, but my focus had to be on where I could trade. So, I decided that Stoke Bruerne with its pubs, museum, cafe and visitors from around the world, seemed the best bet. I was also ‘lucky’ as I had my car with me. (Usually by August I am travelling through Derbyshire or Staffordshire and leave my car at Welford. I find it too stressful to be car hopping with the boats and trying to work and trade too.) Additionally, I was fortunate as Stoke Bruerne canal museum sells my work, and they allowed me to trade on their mooring at weekends.
Stoke Bruerne is a lovely village, albeit without a shop or bus plus a 20 minute walk from the top of the locks to parking at the bottom. As a result only 3 boats remained in the village for the duration. Normally narrow boats only stop for a couple of nights. Yet, me and my new found boaty friends sat in the village for weeks. To be honest, the situation had a ‘Ground Hog Day’ feel (think 80’s film, rather than weather predicting animal). We developed a weird routine of ‘Rant of the Day’ and generally catching up. The former consisted of towpath rumours, annoyance at folk disturbing Charlie by tapping on the boat window and general uncertainty. Similarly, I was grateful to make friends in the village who also helped in a myriad of different ways.
Missing out
As September ticked by my future bookings disappeared. A day of trading at Wigram’s Marina, pop-up trading planned in Braunston, plus the big Banbury Canal Festival, all gone. It was extremely worrying to see key events disappear off the calendar. I never know how much events will bring in, but one thing is clear – if there is no event there is no cash. Plus, these events take a huge amount of planning and organising.
Tooley’s and Telly
Of course for festival organisers the lack of trade boats was also a problem. A waterways festival with no boats is not really what events are about. Unable to travel, traders were stuck across the system. In the heart of Banbury at Tooley’s Boatyard , the situation was looking dire. Tooley’s, the oldest functioning inland boatyard, couldn’t get boats in for maintenance, nor to the Banbury festival. Cleverly, they put out a call: would trapped roving traders be interested in setting up stalls inside the dry dock for the Banbury Festival? It seemed like the best option in a dire situation, and an occasion to see trader friends stuck in different places. Again I was grateful to have my car with me.
With boxes of stock, table-cloths, and all the stuff I need for a land event I headed to Banbury. It was surreal to be stood by a table in a dry dock, aware that behind me stop planks were keeping the canal out. The public were fascinated to be in the dock and the two days proved to be a great success. Plus, ITV came and interviewed Tooley’s folk, me and other traders about the closures. Weirdly, on the same day, I appeared on BBC Sunday Morning Live . The pre-recorded piece filmed at Stoke Bruerne in September also featured Charlie-Hopeful.
Still locked out
Despite the success of the Tooley’s event I was still locked in at Stoke Bruerne. Even when Stoke Bruerne and Buckby locks opened Watford remained closed, denying me access to my mooring and the boatyard for blacking. Finally, on Monday 27th October Watford locks reopened, providing just enough time for me to make it back to Welford before my boatyard appointment. However, ‘just enough time’, meant I had to get through Watford on the opening day. Although I had arrived at the bottom of Watford on the Friday before reopening I was boat number 12 waiting – and the last boat into the locks was to be at 2.15pm.
Locked in – on the right side
After a nail-biting time, where the vlockies only started taking boats up the Watford flight at 1.05pm, the Pea Greens entered the bottom lock at 2.13pm on Monday 27th October. It was a tremendous relief to get into the locks, and I am hugely grateful to friends who kept me sane, helped with the locks and generally listened to my anxieties. Obviously, with the issues people are facing on the planet all of this seems a niche problem. However, the reality of life is that we become wound up in the day-to-day challenges we face. For me the 9 weeks of not being able to move my boats to specific trading locations, the loss of income and the uncertainty, are themes I would have preferred to avoid. Plus the ongoing disinterest or support from CRT for roving traders adds an extra, uncomfortable, layer of complexity.
Finally…
With an uncertain future ahead, I hope that CRT will begin to take the work of roving traders seriously and to show us the respect we are due. This applies to both their future reporting, the way CRT communicate with us, and about our role on the canal network. And, if they don’t their future publications will look very dull without images of us working, as we roving traders give up trying to deal with a failing canal network and a disinterested organisation.
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- FOI request to Canal River Trust February 2025 ↩︎
- This was further confirmed in a CRT Boater Forum for Waterways Businesses in Nov 2025 when CRT staff expressed their views on the worth of roving traders. ↩︎
- This has resulted in me declining CRT photographers the right to use images of my work ↩︎