Canal Gift Shop & Ticket Office
Our lovely gift shop was once the original old stable for the horses that worked on the canal. Now carefully converted, it makes a unique Gift Shop and Ticket Office. Feel free to browse our Gift Shop where you'll find a range of Country Gifts relating to Canals, Heavy Horses, Waterside Wildlife & Duck Food, Handmade Gifts, Books and Everything Bargee.
We also sell our Horse-Drawn Barge Gift Voucher, so that the fantastic Horse-Drawn Barge experience can be given as a present to a friend.
To find out more on the Horse-Drawn Barge Gift Voucher Click Here
We now have new gift shop stock! See below for our beautiful new selection of painted pottery, wooden spoons, ornaments and more!
![Canal Art]()
Canal Art
Traditional Canal Painting, also known as Roses & Castles, is a form of painted decoration unique to the British Canal system. It can be found on boats, signage at canal side shops and pubs or, as in the pictures on this page, on gift and souvenir ware.
It began in the 19th century when families working the narrowboats on the canal system were forced to live on their boats, due to the drastic loss of income caused by the impact of the railways. Obliged to live in a small cabin at the rear of the narrowboat, unable to take their furniture and many their belongings with them, they had their boats decorated with similar decoration to the furniture, crockery & ornaments they had left behind. This, at least, made their new surroundings more tolerable, as well as giving them something to have pride in at a time when their self-esteem must have been very low.
Traditional Canal Painting is decoration done in the style of the boatyard painters working when the canals were carrying goods, from around the 1840s until the mid 1960s when almost all commercial canal boat carrying ended. The roses and castles varied in style depending on the boatyard in which they were painted, but the colours of Red, Yellow, and White for the Roses, and the various features of the Castles in their landscapes are common to all.Loading Content ...