Here are a few books which will provide a wealth of background material about how boatmen and their families lived and worked 'on the cut'. I can recommend Hanson and Freer. Some older titles may have been reprinted. Freer, Wendy, Women & Children of the Cut, (Railway & Canal Historical Society, 1995). Hadfield, Charles, The Canal Age, David & Charles (Newton Abbot, London, 1981, 1st edn. 1968). (Hadfield wrote many, many books about the canal system) Hanson, Harry, The Canal Boatmen 1760-1914, Manchester University Press (Manchester, 1975). Hanson, Harry, Canal People, David & Charles (Newton Abbot, London, 1978). Prior, Mary, Fisher Row: Fishermen, Bargemen, and Canal Boatmen in Oxford, 1500-1900, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1982). Rolt, L T C, The Inland Waterways of England, George Allen and Unwin Ltd (London, 1970, 1st ed. 1950). George Smith attempted to improve the living conditions of brickmakers, boatmen and gypsies. He was greatly concerned about their moral state as well as their physical conditions. Smith, George, Our Canal Population: A Cry from the Boat Cabins, with Remedy, Reprint of 2nd ed., 1878, E P Publishing Ltd, (Wakefield, 1974, 1st ed. 1875). Smith, George, Canal Adventures by Moonlight, (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1881).