Floating Market

Hello and welcome to the Water Rd Podcast. And this episode comes from Market Drayton in Shropshire. In fact, we're on the Shropshire Union Canal and we're here because this weekend there's a floating market, so the canal is lined by more than a dozen boats, all belonging to licenced waterways traders and the locals are thronging to buy their wares. I'm going to go and find out more about it. So with Julie and you're on the committee of the Roving Canal Traders Association. Yes, I'm in charge of publicity.

I do all the advertising for the markets. So just tell me a bit about the the RCTA. What does it do? Who's a member? Well, it's for boat owners and people who want to trade off their boats. A lot of people live on their boats full time and we get together, we do floating markets. It's really nice because we we meet each other and then we part to go different ways. Then we come back and we do markets again and that's how people make their money and pay for their boat licences so. Obviously sometimes you've got a big market like this with loads of traders, but sometimes you just trade on your on your own on the on the tow part.

Yes, sometimes a few of us get together and just do a little market. We call it a pop up because it's supposed to be done informally in a spur of the moment. So what's the big thing about trading on from a boat, do you think? It provides you with the money to afford the boat. I mean, that's why I do it. And also it's a nice social thing to do and it's a reason to go to a certain direction because the markets are in in certain places. So we all get together and we all aim for the same destination.

So there's quite a few of them throughout the season, isn't there? So do you sort of you you you're doing a loop really. Yes, it's designed by the committee to form a loop so people can all go off in the same direction and. Just tell me about what you're doing 'cause you're you're sat here painting. Yes, well, I'm a canal artist. I paint. I decorate boats and paint things for boats. I've been doing it for 25 years. I enjoy it very much. And the roses and castles, just tell me about those 'cause they're really traditional, aren't they?

Yes, they are. The roses we believe came from the Potteries, from Meashamwe. People in the factories realised they could make money by offering to paint people's boats. So they left the factories, went on to the canal which runs through Meisham and they put roses on boats. And the castles are an Eastern European castle. We believe when the Eastern Europeans came over they brought with them their images of castles and to make their boats pretty, they put the castle scenes on the castles they've seen on the way across Europe.

Because actually the the roses look quite complicated, but when I see you people doing them, they're just a few strokes. They are a few strokes, they're very simple, but you have to know the formula, have to be taught. It's quite difficult to grasp at first. It's done with enamel paint, which is like thick nail varnish, so it's a very special paint. And you can tell people by their rose, the way they've painted it. We've all got our own style and I've taught roses and castles. I encourage people to develop their own castle and their own rose, which is their special rose.

So we all be what we try to have our own rose. And people sometimes bring me work to identify and they've got something on their boat they say, do I know who painted it? And quite often I like to think I can't tell them who painted it. And I imagine that sometimes you're going along and you see, I don't know, teapot on a boat or something, and you say, oh, that's one. Of mine. I did that recently and the lady said to me, no, no, it's not yours, it's mine. No, you don't understand. I painted it. Could I?

Please have some beetroot, beetroot, some rhubarb and fig and dams and chutney. Please, lovely. It was a difficult choice. Thank you very much. Right, so one of the traders here is my good friend Helen from Wild Side. Just tell me about your business. We started in 2012 with the business launched, which was following on from an accident I had in 2010, which meant my current career was no longer going to work so I needed to look at something else and I started foraging and making jams as a result of extended convalescence.

Following on from that, we started the business because suddenly people kept buying them. And how does the boat come into that story then? Well, we have permission from the Canal and Rivers Trust to forage on their land, which if you're selling forage goods is really important. And they're I think the large third largest landowner in the country. It's true that most of their land is underwater, but of the bits that aren't underwater, there's a lot of fruit trees because a lot of lot keepers used to have their own cottage gardens and they're now abandoned.

And there's a lot of wild seedlings that have grown on the towpath. And it's particularly useful when you're when you're on a boat because you can reach bits of overhanging trees that you wouldn't be able to from the ground. So we're talking jams and chutneys and all that sort. Of and marmalades. Now, we haven't actually found the fruit trees for growing oranges and lemons yet on the towpath, but what we do to try and make those have a foraged element to them is that we add alcohols that we've infused with foraged things.

So we do, for instance, slow whiskey, Seville marmalade, and other such things. And how does a floating market like this work for you? Well, we're part of the RCTA, they get together and organ do all the organisations. So sort out all the insurance or the safety certificates, all that kind of thing. They organise for you and for a nominal fee we get together and it's like an extended pop up of traders. I think there are, we're in Market Drayton this weekend and I think there are 18 other trade boats here.

And it always works well when you're trading in company because it makes more of a spectacle and and in passersby are more interested. So for us it's useful trading with other people. So I just noticed that you seem to have quite a few paper bags and you've obviously been buying stuff. Yeah. What have you been buying? I've got myself some jam and some cheese and an embroidery kit as well for my daughter for Christmas. So what brought you down to the floating market? So I live on a boat and we're currently moored up on the Llangothlin and I went to the no saw one last weekend and I really enjoyed it and my in laws are down and they want to go to one too.

So you're quite a a floating market addict then? Yeah, yeah, I really like supporting the boaters because obviously I live on a boat as well, so it it's just nice to be able to support other boaters with making money so they can carry on living on boats and things. So yeah, and there's the Curry boats down there, and I'm quite obsessed with the Curry boats. Ever thought about making stuff on your boat and becoming a trader yourself? I think there's too many hoops to jump through to trade from your boat, to be perfectly honest, and I don't have anywhere near the skill that a lot of these people do.

I do paint, I enjoy it, but I could never sell it.

I'm with Emma and I'm on your boat and you're a fine artist. Yes, I've been painting all my adult life, but it wasn't until I I bought the boat four years ago, I was still painting and creating piles of artwork and I was thinking, what do I do with all this art stacking up? So I found out about the Roving Traders Association, joined up and now I can sell my art. For the very first time in my life. I'm selling what I'm producing, which is fantastic. And does the canal give you plenty of things to paint?

So it's sometimes I'm overloaded with the amount of choice I have to paint. Obviously very nature inspired canal boats, canal scenes, but abstract art as well on on top of that. But mostly canal work, definitely. And I see you've got some originals and you have prints made of some of your stuff as well. Yes, I paint my original and my husband, he prints what I paint and I sell as greeting cards, prints, small framed prints. In fact, when he first bought the printer onto the boat, when we bought the boat, I was really quite cross because I thought, what on earth do we need that for?

Because I at the time I didn't know that I was going to be selling my art. Where on earth are we going to put this printer? He was adamant he he was going to keep it. He said, well, we might need it one day. And thank goodness he did, because half of my art is original and the rest is print, so we've got a little business on the boat here. So is that an important part of your life, actually having something to do? Well, it was actually just a couple of days ago. I said to my husband, what would we be doing if we weren't doing this?

Would I feel like I was just floating aimlessly around with no purpose? So this has given me a purpose. I'm obviously still being creative, more creative than I've ever been. But also, we've made so many friends on these voting markets. We dip in, in and out of these markets and choose which ones we want to go on. So sometimes I won't see someone for weeks and weeks. It's like seeing an old friend again. So yes, definitely it's a new dimension to our boating life. And how much of your boat does your workshop take up?

Well, this is a bone of contention because when I'm actually painting, I'm taking over the whole dining area. I've got pots of paint and paint brushes all over the boat and then of course we have to store the frames so they are stacked in all areas. In the summer, when we're very busy selling, we're quite often tripping over them. Everything has its place, so we can't really bring too much on board because we've got art that takes precedence really. I'm Kate, I'm a stained glass and I live aboard Bears the Flow narrow boat.

So just tell me about the, the sort of things that you make to to sell on the on the boat. All sorts of things. Favourites are 3D Dragons, but they're very hard to store on a small space. So I make bears, letters, angels, mushrooms, cows. And why is it a good thing to do on a boat? Does it not take up much room? Oh, it takes up room. At the back of the boat there's a six foot workshop which we had specifically designed, laid out and the Bale thruster locker is full of finished items. And being glass, do you have to fire them somewhere then?

No, no, this, this is the Tiffany technique. So you cut the glass, you surround it with copper, and then you solder it together. I have previously done kiln work, but kilns and boats? No, it's too big and I would be afraid that when everything's molten, a boat would go past too fast and rock the boat. I have trouble with soldiers. I like to solder on the back deck because I can hear when the other boats are coming in and I need to to stop for the moment until they've gone past. And that's, of course, an electric boat.

Well, across the other side of the canal there's a small grassy area with lots of people sitting and eating and drinking because this is what you might call the food court area. So on this side of the canal we've got the Curry cruiser boat. There's a boat that's a coffee shop and is also doing quite a trade in ice creams. There's the crepe. Boat. And right at the front is the baked on board pizza boat where they've actually got a wood fired pizza oven in the weldeck. I'm David. I'm Lynn. And I noticed that you'd just had your lunch from the Curry Cruiser.

What was it like? It was very, very good indeed. A surprise that he can get that done on a boat up to restaurant standard. Great value, cheery company. Very, very good indeed. What did you actually have? I had the samosa chat smashed smosa chat which never heard the like of it before. That was good. And yours? I had chicken tikka rat which was delicious. The rat was homemade, which was amazing. And it was, yeah, truly stunning. And what brings you down to the market today? Well, we live in Drayton so we like to support whatever's going on and we're here to support this, which is great.

It's much bigger than it was last year I think more, more people and more boats, which is lovely to see. And are you regular canal users? We don't have a boat, but we do walk along the canal a lot.

I'm with Paul from the Baked on Board Pizza Boat and thanks first of all for taking the time because I know you've been really busy today. You're very welcome. Yes, we've had a very good day so far. A bit more of the day to do, but yeah, so far so good. So just tell me about the setup on your boat, because you seem to have an enormous pizza oven on your, well, deck. The oven and the deck that it was that was built for it to stand on is about 3/4 of a tonne. And it was manufactured by a company who make pizza ovens specifically for mobile units.

They put them into horse boxes and trailers and things. And we said we're going to buy an Arrow boat, can you put it on it? And they, well, they didn't put it on, but they supplied it, Yeah. So just tell me about your setup then, because you've got a hatch where you're serving people and you've got the the pizza oven right at the front. Well, it's it's obviously like everybody's boat. It's tight for space. As you can imagine. It's it is it is my kitchen. So it's my home kitchen, but it also serves as the pizza kitchen.

So the the oven sits right in the bow And then we've got serving hatches on both sides. So depending on which way we're facing, one side is this this way around is slightly better, but either side we can serve from usually when on the market to have one of my girls who comes and helps me. So Tracy's with me today and we just, I make them and cook them and she boxes them and sells them and takes the money and it just works. I've been doing it for seven years. It must take out quite a lot of space in the boat.

I mean, pizza boxes take up a lot of space. In the summer, when it's at its peak, which it is now, I live with tinned tomatoes under my bed and pizza boxes all the way along the wall in my bedroom. Because that's just the nature of the thing. And we have adapted it this winter slightly so that my bed now, instead of all the stuff that's in the kitchen, which needs to come out the kitchen when we're serving, used to go on the bed. And then you used to make pizza boxes with the girls sat on the bed or whatever.

Now the the bed has been changed. So the bed goes up against the wall, created some storage down below. So you just you just we find our way. But yeah, it's it's pretty tight. And obviously you attend markets like this. Do you sometimes just, you know, go onto the towpath and and open up? For very much so. So at the beginning of the season in February, we look when the when the festivals are, when the floated markets are, get the calendar out and plot things. And then when I'm not doing these sorts of things, I've got my own regular route where I go.

I do Barbridge and Beeston and Waverton and Tatton Hall, and I do Renbury and Whitchurch and Northwich and Middlewich and Nantwich and Audlem. So I try and get to all of those places 3 or 4 times during the course of the season. So. You get regular customers. Oh yeah, very much so. Yeah. We have a loyalty card scheme and we've got lots and lots of regular customers. Lots of customers who are here today are regular customers of mine who come to us pretty much wherever we go. So as long as we're in the area.

So yeah, it's, it's a, it's a mix of the two. What you doing before? I mean, how did you end up doing pizzas on a boat for? I lived in Cornwall for Best Buy well over 30 years and worked in pubs and then subsequently ran pubs and then myself, my ex. We needed to get out of it. Pubs were about to get the better of me all together because it the ones I was running was it was a particularly big busy pub with letting rooms and it was just it was too much and I was getting older. So we started having narrow boat holidays, fell in love with it completely, and then thought how can we earn a business?

So lots of different ideas came and went, but eventually we settled on the Pizza Robin. We'd researched it, other people were doing it, but not in this part of the world. So Pizza Robin came and suddenly the rest is history. And seven years later, here we are. And that's all from this busy floating market in Market Drayton. And I have to say, the mushroom pizza from the Pizza Boat was really good. The Water Rd is produced and presented by Lee Adam Porter. In the next episode we'll be on the Staffs and Worcester Canal hearing about the Bratch Locks angling and what it's like to have a log by wash flowing underneath your house.

It's not as loud as you might think, but it's actually quite comforting to hear the rustle of the water. If you've enjoyed the podcast, please follow or subscribe so you'll be alerted when new episodes are published. And please leave us a nice review because it really does help other people to find us. And don't forget, all previous episodes are always available to listen to. Thank you for listening to The Water Ropes.

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