Getting ready for 2027 - the Gloucester Mariners Project
The Gloucestershire Mariners Project has involved Gloucestershire Archive staff, the Gloucestershire Family History Society and independent volunteers in a review of the information holdings which cover Gloucestershire’s Maritime History.
The initial focus was on the crew lists held at Gloucestershire Archives (collection reference D3080) covering a dates between 1863-1913. Gloucestershire Family History Society members focused on names from these crew lists and the villages mentioned. Census information also helped to track the employment numbers for the maritime trade in the county alongside other major trades and industries. Links between the trade on Gloucestershire’s canals and the ports has also now begun to surface through coordination with researchers working for the Stroudwater Navigation Archive Charity (SNAC). Health and safety issues and the dangers of a life at sea have been highlighted by both the crew list information and individual research by the volunteers involved.
An exhibition based on all of this research and the many stories that have emerged will be on show at the Gloucester History Festival in September 2025. The exhibition will then be displayed at the National Waterways Museum in the Docks during 2026 and will again be used during the bicentenary celebrations for the Docks in 2027. An online exhibition is in preparation and negotiations are underway for a scaled down physical exhibition to tour local libraries and smaller venues along the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal.
From the initial project work discussion has moved to digitisation of the holdings and widening the coverage to other crew list holdings in the South West. The information would include voyages, crew and masters, boat ownership and details of the vessels themselves.
Outline information on 400 ships from the crew lists has been captured on a spreadsheet. This data shows that just over 80% of Gloucester owned vessels were working on the local ‘River trade’. Traditionally this was the rivers Severn and Avon and the Bristol Channel as well as voyages to ports in South Wales and North Devon. The majority of the voyages involve Bristol. Around 15% were in the ‘Home Trade’ including Eire and the near continent. 2% of the voyages were to ports around the World.
Essentially, the project will act as a very useful base for further exciting preparations for the Gloucester Docks bicentenary. It has brought together a network of people who are interested in this subject and encouraged a greater awareness of a previously under researched area of the counties history. This project has been possible due to support from the Lloyds Register Foundation.