Over 90,000 entries from books of toll permits that record the passage of boats onto or off the Cromford Canal at Langley Mill in the 19th century have been transcribed by FCC volunteers onto a searchable database.
They include almost all known surviving records: over a hundred books in the Derbyshire Record Office at Matlock, and several elsewhere in the UK. Each book covers roughly a month. There are also eight books in the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library, which are now included!
The records offer an insight into the frequency of traffic, the types of cargo carried, and the people who owned and ran the boats.
The table is searchable by all the categories listed and results can be sorted by clicking any of the headers (for example you can put your search results in date order).
Note: In view of the complexity of the table, it is best viewed on a desktop or laptop.
To view the data click the box below, but if you would like a little more insight into them first, then read on . . .
The dates cover from 1813 to 1878 but with many gaps (there would have been some 700 books in that period). Also the way boat cargoes were recorded means that records of some outgoing cargoes are yet to be discovered.
All cargoes entering the canal were recorded, but unfortunately not all cargoes leaving the canal. This is because tolls were paid and recorded at the first toll station passed by the boat. There was an additional toll station at Sawmills. There also appears to have been a toll point on the Pinxton Arm at its junction with the main line, but it is not clear if and when this was used. No records of these other toll stations have been found.
This means that cargoes originating north of Sawmills are generally not recorded and the boatman would simply have shown his receipt issued at Sawmills to the toll clerk at Langley Mill.
Whilst most cargoes are itemised, those described as ‘Sundries’ or ‘Goods’ are mixed cargoes, often carried by Wheatcrofts’ boats, which ran to a timetable and acted rather like modern courier services do today.
For a more detailed introduction to the data, follow the link below: