The work of Coventry canal photographer Robert Longden

[dutchman]

Pictures of Hawkesbury Junction in Warwickshire in the 1940s and 1950s taken by Coventry factory worker turned photographer Robert Longden

They were once vital industrial routes used to supply coal to Britain's biggest mines and home to hundreds of workers.

But now relegated to leisure use, a unique collection of photos of Britain's canals give a rare insight into lives of the last generation to work the inland waterways.

The new exhibition, An Inland Voyage, at the London Canal Museum includes pictures from the late 1940s and early 1950s before the use of the waterways changed forever.


Nellie Stokes steering a butty down the Oxford canal


Four children aboard the Little Marvel canal boat when the inland waterways were still a vital industrial link


Joyce Hambridge making the most of some good weather sunbathing on the prow


A group of children stand by a barge used to transport coal to London


Hawkesbury Junction in Warwickshire, where the Oxford and Coventry canals meet, with a power station in the background


The Oxford canal provided the main coal supply route to London from Wyken Colliery and nearby pit heads around Hawkesbury Village and Exhall.

Longden became president of the Coventry Photographic Society and won several awards for his work.

Today, his archive is considered to be of unique social and historical importance.

The exhibition runs until February next year.