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?).
On Thursday 7th Feb 1881, there had been a thaw, but the surface of the lake was still frozen, and it was being advertised as still skatable. Perhaps to prove the point, Daniel was skating on the lake himself. Most of the ice was still quite thick but one area was much thinner, and he fell through it. John Westmoreland from Nottingham was on the ice with him and tried to help. Ernest Newbury, a boatbuilder working at the adjacent boathouse saw what had happened, grabbed a rope and ran to help. He rescued Westmoreland but Daniel was drowned.
A little over two years later, on 5th September 1883, the youngest son, Reginald disappeared. The Erewash canal was dragged, but no trace was found for several days, until his body appeared in the canal. At first Ellen and the children stayed at Narrow Bridge cottages, but they later moved to Nottingham, probably to be with/near her parents. In October 1883 she married again, to John Henry Widdowson. She was a boat proprietor (presumably of the Trent Lake enterprise) and he was a boat builder and about 10 years younger than her.
Two years later, in July 1885, John Widdowson rowed two anglers out to the middle of the lake. As he was stepping onto a larger boat and raising the anchor, he slipped and fell overboard, perhaps hitting his head, and drowned. Having lost 2 husbands and a child, Ellen and the surviving children moved to Nottingham. But she died the following year, and the boys were split up.
Parling Barkham (also known as Daniel) had started in the infants’ room at Sawley National School 1884, but left in 1885. In 1891 he was living with his uncle on the Isle of Wight. During the Boer War he joined a cavalry unit called the Border Horse. Perhaps he was already living in South Africa. On 28th May 1900, his 18-man patrol was surrounded by about 80 Boers. After 3 hours they ran out of ammunition and were forced to surrender, but Parling and 2 others had been killed in action.
In 1891 Karl Barkham was still in Nottingham, at the Gordon Home for Destitute Boys. Nine years later he was also serving in the Boer War, as a trooper in the 2nd Hampshire Company, of 17th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He left the army in 1901 and moved to Southampton, where he became a marine motor engineer. He had a half-share in a motor launch but fell out with his partner later that year. He opened an office in Southampton High Street for the development of patents for motorboat engineering (and a safety brake for roller skates!) but the business failed after WW1 broke out.
He married in 1915 and became the licensee of the Ship Inn, Cracknore Hard (next to Marchwood Military Port). He also ran a ferry service between Cracknore Hard and Southampton. But 3 years later his wife left, taking their son. He went into business with two other men to repair boats and set up a workshop. His wife then returned for a while, but 2 months after a daughter was born, the wife left again, leaving the children with him.
Karl was still running the workshop and the ferry, but no longer had the Inn and he fell out with the new landlord. An attempt to buy the freehold at Cracknore Hard failed and he filed for bankruptcy in 1922.
In the 1930s he was back in Southampton, working as a marine engineer and running a speedboat. He had a terrier called Bobs which used to ride on the front of the boat. In May 1935 he was found gassed in bed at his boatyard. He died on the way to hospital. It was concluded that the dog, which also died, had pulled the gas pipe from the stove during night.
