Barges & Bread - Di Murrell

Di & Tam Murrell spent many years afloat on barges, bringing up their two sons. They worked a pair of canal boats, loading up with barrels of lime pulp which they transported from the Liverpool docks to the wharf in Hemel Hempstead belonging to Rose & Sons, for Rose's Lime Cordial.

They made many trips with heavy loads like sand, grain, coal or lime, and Di learnt the value of slow cooking. For several years they carried grain from Tilbury Docks on the river Thames to Cox's mill on the river Wey.

Now they live in both France and London, although they have just sold their motor barge and find the views from the windows of their houses is nothing like that from the deck of a boat. Di is a travel writer for French magazines published for the English speaking expatriate market, and is well known in both food historian and boating circles.

Preface

Introduction

Early historic overview - setting bread into context
Growing grain for London
1. Some pre-history
2. Where wheat was grown
3. Who grew it
4. Harvesting and storage
5. Growing up in London/seeing water life on Thames/moving on to the
water
6. Recipes

Using waterways and rivers to transport grain
1. Pre-history: Making them navigable
2. Who transported it
3. What craft and their development
4. Controlling the trade
5. Bargemen and their skill
6. Watermen, lightermen and dockers
7. Imported grain from Canada/Baltic grain
8. Specifically Thames, Wey and coastal
9. Getting involved with boats and then freight transport
10. Recipes

Mills
1. Pre-history: Water mills
2. Life in a mill
3. Conflict between carriers and millers/Regulating the water use
4. Onward by water
5. Coxes mill/ Uxbridge mill/Wellingborough
6. My memories of Coxes Mill
7. Recipes


The Bread
1. Pre-history
2. From mill to table
3. Changes in its production from home to bakers to factory to home
4. Some recipes
5. My interest in how bread is used