Daily archives: January 1, 2025

In the 1870s there were many boatmen in Sawley, working on the river and canals, but Daniel Barkham was a qualified master mariner, who’d been brought up as a fisherman on the Isle of Wight.  In 1871 he was still a ship master, but lodging in Ripley with his first wife, Anne (nee Blanchard).  After Anne died in 1873, he moved to Sawley.  In 1875 he married again, to Ellen Comery.  They lived in Narrow Bridge cottages, on the Lock Lane bend, and had 3 children: Parling Barkham (born 1876) Karl Barkham (born 1878) Reginald Barkham (born 1880) They rented the 40-acre ballast hole known as Trent Lake from the Midland Railway.  It’s not clear why a master mariner was renting a lake miles from the sea.  Perhaps he was hiring out boats (it seems there was a boathouse next to Narrow Bridge cottages) and/or teaching people to sail. In the winter they rented the lake out for skating.  Ice skating was quite a big thing locally at the time.  There even seems to have even been an ice rink in Long Eaton (Forbes Hole?).   Trent Lake, c1884 On Thursday 7th Feb 1881, there had been a thaw, but […]