166. Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames Masters’ and Clerks’ Lunch Watermen’s Hall 22 April 2024


An Act of Parliament in 1514 first regulated watermen, wherrymen and bargemen, receiving Royal Assent from King Henry VIII.  The Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames was formed by Act of Parliament in 1555 to maintain a standard of navigation amongst Watermen plying for hire on the tidal Thames above Gravesend.  This has been achieved in succeeding centuries by a system of apprenticeships, examinations and grant of licence.  The Lightermen, the goods carriers, joined the Watermen, the passenger carriers in 1700.  The Company has been regulated by a succession of Acts of Parliament, the most recent in 1859.  The Acts allow the Company to set byelaws for its internal governance. It is therefore not a formal Livery Company, always coming at the end of the queue at Civic events. They have become used to it.

We were all presented with a rose to wear as a reminder of the Knollys Rose celebrated in a ceremony in June each year.  (Further details on Wikipedia.)  The Company have a magnificent 18th century Georgian Hall.


The Master welcomed all the visitors.  The profession was initially regulated, allegedly to stop unscrupulous individuals ferrying the public half-way across the river and then demanding additional payment to complete the journey.  With the building of each bridge the Watermen have been compensated for their loss of earnings.  The Master is well known as a bee-keeper with 50 hives on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex.  The honey smell and flavour reflect the wide variety of blossom available to the bees.  The Master is an expert on pollinators and shares his honey with the Lord Mayor and the Guildhall and even with the caterers on occasion.

The Water Conservators have had a long connection with the Watermen, sharing an interest in the River Thames and participating in many joint activities, the next one being the Tudor Pull in May. Congratulations to the Watermen on a most enjoyable lunch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

230. Installation Court, Apothecaries’ Hall, 3 July 2024

Image
The Installation Court was held in the magnificent setting of the Apothecaries’ Hall. The focus of the Court meeting was on the growth of the Company and increased activity and income. The Company was very pleased to welcome Liam Hogg, Lee Morton and Gerald O’Shaughnessy as new Liverymen, and Martin Ballard, Avtar Jirh, Tom Morton, Michael Nates, Lina Nieto, Elizabeth Price, Mark Smith, John Ward, Judy West and John Wylie as new Freemen of the Company.
Read more

229. Sunset Cruise and Dinner, River Thames, 2 July 2024

Image
My thank you event for the Court and Company had to involve water, so what better way than a sunset cruise on the Thames!   I wanted a memorable expression of thanks to members of the Court, Past Masters, Fellow Masters, Consorts and friends. I took the advice of the Master Waterman and approached several companies to hire a boat for the evening. The first we declined when we found that the catering was not of the required standard. Everything was going well for the second boat until I advertised it to the Court and had more responses than could fit on the boat. So we got a bigger boat and filled it. The caterer was concerned how they could feed us all but I was confident it would work. On Monday morning I took a call from the boat company to say that the refuelling on Saturday night had resulted in contaminated oil getting to the engine and they offered a fourth boat …. the Wellington ! I politely declined, as I knew the Wellington would not be cruising anywhere. Eventually the...
Read more

79.Lord Mayor's Address to the Livery, Mansion House, 22 November 2023

Image
I have taken so many pictures of the current Lord Mayor standing at a lectern I thought that it was about time for a change so a previous Lord Mayor instead.   One of 625! This was one of the occasions when Masters had to be at the Mansion House to hear the Lord Mayor.   It was an impressive but informal occasion. The Lord Mayor started with thanks to the cadet forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force for their help at the Lord Mayor’s show.   He then outlined his vision and plans for the year ahead.   In particular he emphasised the importance of the Livery and cross-Livery working.   We were given a handout on 12 of the different pan-Livery activities.   Although we have engaged with many of them, I felt that we were active members of relatively few and we needed to revisit our pan-Livery activities. The Lord Mayor then focused on his theme of Connect to Prosper and the various initiatives that were helping to deliver it.   He described the seri...
Read more