Filmed onboard the General VI in 1962/3 with General Lighterage - we see Keith Bullock , Kenneth Bullock, Edwin Hunt and various other lightermen at work in this great 1963 documentary showing life on the River Thames
So happy to see this. Keith was my grandfather but I never got to meet him, he died before I was born but I remember my dad showing me a tape of this but we lost the tape so I’m so happy to see it here!
So presumably, The Mate, Keith's father was your great-grandfather. There's also his Keith's brother, your great-uncle. How blessed you are to have a documentary showing some of your ancestors, in one of the most historic occupations in London. Something you can show your children and your children's children. How blessed you are.
I used to work for General Lighterage in the 60's and I remember being like that boy, leaving school at 15. I worked through the 1963 severe winter with inadequate clothing and obviously no lifejacket I have hated snow ever since. I probably met those lightermen but can't remember them. I had quite a large family on the River, the Crawley's were fairly well known my Grandfather had the Company called Crawley Water Barges from Gravesend and Woolwich supplying fresh water to ships coming from all over the World. When they were short of water they would run a bucket up the flagmast. Good times in the Summer and a fair amount of beer.
What a fabulous experience it must have been for you, and what a family history to have, such essential workers on one of the world's most important rivers in the world's most important city!
What isn't explained in the video is what does lighterman mean? Obviously it is a man who works on a lighter. But that leads to asking what is a lighter? A lighter is a small vessel that takes some of the cargo off of a deep-draft ocean going ship in order to lighten the ship enough that it may enter the shallower water of the port in order to reach the docks. In those days of shipping, and in some places in the world today, it was (is) common for small ships and barges to take the loads from large vessels and disburse them to the various ports and docks in the area of the larger port or anchorage facility. There was even a class of ships built in the 60s and 70s where the lighters were carried by the ocean going ship. These are called LASH (Lighter Aboard SHip) vessels. Today's cargo is containerized, and discharged at massive docks especially built with giant gantry cranes, and the containers are hauled to their destination by semi-tractor trailers.
I bought a couple of lash barges for BWB which proved very useful in providing floating platforms within the West India and Millwall docks. I still recall the consulate skill of the marine staff in the docks, all water and lightermen.
@@liquidhighway yes he did he used to tell me about it as a boy. His son (my uncle) Colin Window also did a documentary with the BBC about being a lighter man. The Window family have been lighter men for many years even to this day. Great video Thankyou for the upload.
It's absolutely incredible to see how men like these would wear a tie to work; real pride in the job. Now it's all sloppy track pants and hoodies. I was born in 1961, and brought up not far from Greenwich. I recognise some of the old skyline; the chimneys, power station, etc. I remember all the lighterage going up and down the Thames, the closure of the docks, and the decline. Back in the day, if you stood by General Wolfe's Statue by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park, the Isle of Dogs was a thick forest of dockside cranes, hundreds of them. The words "Canary Islands Depot" were clearly visible on the roof of one of the huge sheds a mile and a half away. One day, as a young teenager, I cycled through the foot tunnel (avoiding being seen by the lift-man, who'd make you carry your bike up the stairs if he saw you riding), and had one of my mooches around the old Millwall and West India docks, but the place was deserted. It was like a ghost town, as though everyone had gone home on Friday, and never come back on Monday (which is exactly what had happened, I suppose). I remember looking through a canteen window and seeing all the condiments on the tables (remember those tomato-shaped ketchup squeezies?), but nobody there. In one area I saw around 100 forklift trucks being broken up for spares or refurbishment. Gradually it was all trashed by vandals and colonised by weeds, and most of the cranes removed for scrap. The sadness was palpable. Eventually, there was the LDDC, the Red Brick Road (anyone remember that?), and the first few stations on the DLR. Since then, the development has been staggering. It's completely unrecognisable now. My post is slightly off-topic, but this wonderful film brings back strong memories from years ago.
The Red Brick Road! It’s nearly 40 years since I’ve thought about that. I remember it well. In about 1987 I remember seeing one single fairly large house in a pretty sad state but clearly occupied, standing alone in a sea of streets where all the houses had been demolished. The streets were lined with sheets of corrugated iron that formed walls. It was a surreal sight. I WISH I had had a camera with me that day.
It is interesting how 'modern' people associate suit, tie and real shoes with stuffiness and narrow-mindedness. To me it is just one possibility to work on some attentive, careful atmosphere and niveau in contrast to utmost 'comfort' and all level easy access. Which also figures in the rapidly declining ability to express oneself properly languagewise and general taste. At least here in Germany. Thankyou.
I'll bet that back in the 60s there was an older generation saying, "Look at that tug captain without a hat! He's got no pride in his work. Bloody younger generation".
I started work in 74, all the older blokes wore ties under their smocks/overalls. They all wore checked sports jackets like my dad used to wear when they went home.
My grandfather had a tug in Holland the Germans borrowed it in 1942 in 1945 he walked to Germany and retrieved it ...I had a tug this morning but as I've aged I tug less than when I was a boy..🚣♂️😁⚓🚢👀🛑
The Waterman & Lighterman's hall is one of London's/England's historic hidden gems and is a must visit if you come to London. From beautiful interiors to Masonic tradition this was a real treat to see for me and my family.
My Grandad was a Lightermen, all my Dads Family worked on the Thames. Baker Family, the history goes back so many generations. My Grandad worked for Cory, General and many other companies. Thank you for posting this, its wonderful for a young man to be able to see exactly what life was like back then.My Grandad is in the other Documentary you posted, Lightermen Documentary 1984, which again is brilliant viewing.
I have a friendwho was a bargee. He still has his articles of apprentieship, framed. They never have changed. After 400 years they still state that the apprentice should not be forced to eat salmon more than twice a week.
In my first year of secondary school in 1960 at the end of term our headmaster wished the leavers farewell. One was going to be a "tea boy on a tug", and I thought, having enjoyed river trips on the Thames, and "cruises" on the Woolwich Ferry, "what a great job". I still think it must have been a great job, though demanding both in terms of watermanship, and endurance, out on the River in all weathers. Sadly with the demise of the London Docks over the following decade, I wonder what happened to him as the demand for tugboats on the River decreased. I worked for the last years until retirement in Docklands, and from my building, I had a panorama of the River from the Isle of Dogs upstream, traffic was almost non-existent, compared with what I remember from those trips in the heyday of the Docks, mostly pleasure craft and the "Clipper" ferries, with the occasional tug hauling rubbish barges downriver.
Hard to believe they're all wearing shirts and ties and Civvy Street clobber instead of marine waterproofs and buoyancy aids. Next time I go sailing I think I'll wear my tux...!
'And I'm telling you .. I don't care if you're a Teddy Boy, Mod, Rocker, or Twist And Shouter .. no one's leaving this house - alive - not to be filmed for all the neighbours to see you without a clean shirt and tie on.'
@@TheLeonhamm My father was apprentice in the late forties for Blackfriars a lighterage firm where all the freeman( you become a freeman of the river when you passed your apprenticeship) came to work in a suit shirt and tie.
was nice to see that, my Grandfather , his brothers and , my Grt Grandfather were lightermen, I was told they also had a tug or boat , their name was Margetts, i dont know what happened to them as i never really knew my Grandfather he died when i was only 2 yrs old, 1954, i think the family had their differences, and, they went their separate ways, thank you for showing that was nice to see what they did
How very British, my first job when I was an apprentice merchant navy deck officer was to make tea and coffee for the Captain and the river pilot when we sailed from Tilbury.
Grrrrrrrreat, I really loved this movie! I was 6 when this came out and we used to live in South Kensington SW7 at that time. Thank you so much for sharing this with us! 👍🏻
The vast majority of the Lighterman lost their jobs and hundreds of years of family tradition to the invention of the Shipping Container. Sad, but that's life.
Many in my family were lightermen before the days of engines and tugs, when the lighters were moved by sweep and tide. Would be interesting to see a film produced about those days.
Moved by tide, okay. But what on earth is moved by sweep? Did you English build a warp drive by bending spacetime in front of ships? Is that sweep? You dazzle me all the time.
@@voornaam3191 A sweep is just a very long oar, suitable for controlling the orientation of a barge or lighter or small sailing ship being carried along by the tide, and occasionally giving it a very small amount of way sufficient to keep it lined up with approaching bridge holes [about thirty bridges from Teddington to the Tower, and a rise and fall of up to about 25 feet giving tides of 7 or 8 knots at times] or to bring it close to mooring buoys or quays or other anchored vessels at its destination.
@@darioburatovich2240 Indeed! One reason they had long apprenticeships. From my limited experience using sweeps to manoevre largish hulls, up to about fifteen tons merely, I should think it would have depended a lot on getting into position in VERY good time, taking from a vast store of knowledge, from experience, forming accurate estimates of current flow, speed and direction, and wind effect, and God knows what else! Very different times.
I remember my uncle and me going to east India dock to load lamb from the ship to his lorry W Wards and Son. Their yard was was in Burnham road Hornsey. I went with him in the school holidays. Happy days.
I moved fro west london to the Isle of dogs in 1963. The river was alive with activity, and as a 12 year old used to collect Tug numbers ie Sun X!V etc. I wanted to be a lighterman, beacuse all you had to do, was stand on the back of a Barge, and sail along the Thames, with your shirt off catching the Sun. Unfortunatly it was a closed shop. You could not becoe a lighterman or Docker, unless you came from a family of dock workers. I wonder where that Lad is today, as only four years later they became redundant A guy I knew got a £7,000 pound pay off after years of working. I dare say the young lad got far less?
@@filtonkingswood Here in Australia ,it's wharfies ,mainly container crane and fork operators today. I have nephew who is 6th generation on the Wharf.None ever see much of a ship now.
Had to chuckle at around the 14:30 mark as he said “these tallies need to agree” , they always agreed (period) It was a closed shop from start to finish and you had more chance of seeing Rocking Horse poo than ever becoming an apprentice if you were not in the gang.
This is a great little documentary or whatever they were called then. Far too many people employed for the work in hand! My parents had just bought their first house very near Teddington Lock where we lived for the next 13 years, but oddly enough I didnt actually get on the river until about 1987 when I was caught by the police water skiing behind a friends boat past the Houses of Parliament...
When i was a cadet in the British MN i attended Gravesend Sea School in 88 and the old MN Officers had many stories about these Lightermen and such, they also spoke about the huge stone Pillars that we discovered after we walked along the Thames embankment and it all seemed a bit like some long forgotten Masonic lodge society if that makes any sense....i'm sorry but that's about the best as i can put it .
"Her job is to tow barges from place to place on the river. Not all lighters take cargo off bigger vessels. They also tow barges, like tugs/tow boats...
Did they really wear ties? I thought maybe they were just dressed up to make this documentary. After reading all the comments, looks like I could be wrong about that. I thought men at Sea were unshaven scurvy old dogs, who didn't bath and wore baggy clothes that smelled like fish and whiskey. What a classy time to look back on.
@@TheBushfish The Thames was - like some other large rivers in the UK (and the US) - filled with filthy soap foam .. poured out with the sewage from homes, launderettes, factories, etc. Seeing foam-bergs accumulate even on largely unpolluted streams in the 1950s-60s was common enough, the scum became grimier the closer it came to cities - yet it was the unseen concomitant chemical pollutants that left much of these rivers .. worse than dead (alive, but hostile to life). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8CuY4AyvqNQ.html Oh! But of course, nothing like that could ever happen today ... Hmmmmm?
Top film, what are the 3-legged stanchions, either side, at the aft end of the engine room casing? Thanks. Looks like they are just to keep lines off the skylights etc?
Yes thats right - they are called stopper posts , although you can use them for tieing a rope to and mooring up, they are basically designed to stop the tow rope coming round and catching on the casing top and things.
They were taught to swim in their overalls and we're safety conscious as they were aware any accident or incident could prove fatal, similar to the sinking of the yacht of Italian coast.
All against a backdrop of good ole London smog. Ah yes, the good old days of death at 50. I suspect they were all told they were going to be in a 'talkie' and thought they'd better smarten up with a tie.
I liked the captains white smoking jacket when he came onboard and all those snappy ties. I would have to jump overboard and maybe drown myself if I had to live in that England weather. All that's good for is an Alfred Hitchcock or Sherlock Holmes movie.
@@TheAngryNeighbour Ah yes! Sadly the industry in the film is mostly gone, there are still a few companies that operate lighterage with tugs today but not so many
Now replaced by an Amazon truck 🚛 or FedEx. A bygone way of life but I have to admit... being ex US Navy... this looks like really dismal duty. But it does complement the English weather
In those days, endless cuppas (tea) were the fuel that drove the British workforce. My wife and I still drink 4 or 5 piping hot cups a day, the stronger the better. My mechanic father in law took his in a large tin mug with a spoon of condensed milk!
It's quite complicated, really, if the young Apprentice can't be taught to make tea properly they'll be no good at anything . when I started in the joiners,/ carpentry, the old boy who ran the firm said to an irate mother who son he'd just sacked, if he can't follow instructions on how to make a decent cup of tea,he's no good to us
Don't underestimate a good cuppa tea. My wife and I drink way too much of it at home. Funnily enough when I'm at work in the office I only ever drink coffee - which I never drink at home :D We're a complicated, kooky nation.
Ha one slip from that lad and hes a gonna.. but he didnt slip, people back then looked after themselves... now unless u wearing a hard hat your gonna die.
