No new chain gangs under the sun

'Chain gangs' to be used to restore Montgomeryshire Canal - Powys County Times:

CONVICTED criminals will soon be used to reconnect the Montgomeryshire Canal. Chain gangs were regularly used in America to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment, now a similar initiative is to be rolled out across Powys to maintain the Montgomeryshire Canal.

(Oo-er, that's a bit fierce for what is, in effect, a prisoner skills training program.)

There are no new things under the sun, as Ecclesiastes points out, and there's rarely something on the waterways that someone hasn't tried before.  For example, prisoners were employed on the Stratford-on-Avon Canal restoration in the 1960s.

To ensure that episode wasn't forgotten I added a comment about it on the County Times story.  I quickly got a ticking off from 'DrRobG', who sarcastically said how he 'loved' my 'negative' comment and concluded:

So get off your high horse and in future only comment on something if you have something constructive to say!

Read the story and comments thread to see how I responded.

But all this does give me excuse to wonder about the prisoner work scheme that master-restorer David Hutchings arranged back in the 1960s.  Has it been used since?  The official IWA history of the canal only says:

The resoration of the canal continued at a rapid pace in 1963 with the Royal Enginners and prisoners from Winston Green augmenting the regular volunteers.

The Stratford Canal Society refers to it in places as well.  The largest reference is in the society's Historic Bridge Threat page, where it campaigns against the impending removal of the footbridge in Stratford's Bancroft Canal Basin, built by prisoners from Wormwood Scrubs.

(The canal society website says the Bancroft Basin bridge was installed by prisoners from 'Winson Green Goal', so clearly the bridge is a 'keeper'!)

I also wonder about prisoners working elsewhere on the waterways.   The IWA says they were recently employed as bricklayers on the River Gissing Gipping (the Stowmarket navigation) in Suffolk.

But going back in history I bet you'll find other occasions of prisoners helping the waterways.  Italian POWs were used on the Droitwich Barge Canal in WW2 (the young Max Sinclair recalls sharing their luncheon sandwiches).  And I seem to recall that Napoleonic War prisoners helped out in building the canals - although I suspect the terms there truly were closer to American chain gangs. 

Comments

[Andrew Denny]

Brian, Thanks for pointing out that it's the River Gipping, sorry. Have corrected.

[Spencer Greystrong]

Hi

Yes, we are currently using prisoners from Hollesley Bay Open Prison at Baylham Lock on the Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation (River Gipping) and they've been really useful. In fact we would like even more, after all it's free labour. To dispel any myths, no they aren't chained up, no we don't have any prison officers on site and no, none of them have 'done a runner'.

[flingel]

Re Dr Rob, that can be a problem with the written word of course, the reader will "hear" the comment how he thinks it was made, often not how the writer would have said it. Even so, it's a shame Dr Rob appeared to miss the unambiguous positivity of the subsequent 3 sentences.

[Brian]

Its the River Gipping in Suffolk and yes ther have been some prisoners working on it. I amnot 100% sure but I think some also workon the River Stour http://www.riverstourtrust.org/
Have a good Christmas and I hope you don't get iced in.
Brian

[Kevin]

I did wonder whether the 'chain gang' link (sorry, bad pun) came from a BW press release - the rest of the story looks like a top and tailed press release

[iain smith]

It was a horrible thing to compare what may happen on this canal to the chain gangs in America and your point was valid in that the writer had no idea of that such things had occurred in this country otherwise it would have been mentioned,or should have been.

[Fiona]

I posted a link on my blog to a video on American Chain Gangs set to the wonderful music of Sam Cooke. http://tizduster.typepad.com/tizduster/2009/12/from-christmas-wreath-to-sam-cooke.html

I don't think the Italian POWs in the Midlands were treated quite in this way.