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Ferrymen
Ferrymen provided the main means of crossing the river until the bridge building boom of the 18th and 19th centuries. Whilst small rowing boats carried one or two fee paying passengers, larger boats and rafts carried large volumes of hay and straw, cows and sheep, horses and carts.
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Mr. Simmons, Isleworth Ferry |
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Ferry |
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An old receipt book for the ferry at Kew give some fine examples of charges. On the 30th of April 1735, Mr. Downes paid I/- for the conveyance of 2 cows and 4 horses and later paid 2/- for taking over 2 horses and 100 sheep and lambs.
In 1736, the War Office paid 15/- for carrying over and back 41 men and horse, and 10d. for 20 Guards on foot. On the first five days of August, 1736, His Highness (Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II) took over 116 horses at a charge of £2.2s.10d. and for the conveyance of the Prince's Butcher's Cart, several times Is.6d.
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Danger
Not all crossings were successful. In 1751, as a coach and four belonging to Mr. Latwood, of Brentford Butts, was going over in the Brentford Ferry Boat to Kew the horses took fright and leaped into the water with the Coach. Two of the horses were drowned, and the coachman, who was seated on the box, was thrown off and narrowly escaped the same fate as the horses. Fortunately the family did not cross in the same boat.
(Source : Pages 105-107 of History and Antiquities of Brentford, by Fred Turner, published by Walter Pearce & Co, 1922. Held by Hounslow Central Library.)
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Bablock Hythe Ferry |
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Introduction
Ferrymen
