DARK SIDE OF THE CUT

A history of crime on Britain's canals which explores brutal murders and criminal activities during the Industrial Revolution, revealing the dark underbelly of waterway life and rough justice. Waterways are isolated places on the edge of society. They have always had their own distinctive way of life and a shady reputation with sinister figures lurking in the shadows and bodies found floating in the water. When a brutal murder in 1839 created a national outcry, it seemed to confirm all the worst fears about boatmen - a tough breed of men surviving in harsh conditions who were swiftly branded as outlaws by the press. This is a veritable trove of human drama, a rattling read which will warn you to keep off intoxicating liquors like gin! Chapters cover Water Gypsies, Perks of the Job, Desperate Remedies and dangerous liaisons, Atrocious Crimes and Gruesome Facts, A Cry from the Boat Cabins and A Gang of Ruffians among them. As today we sit at a canal side pub sipping a cool drink in the sunshine with dappled shadows playing gently across the grass and the water, this was in the Industrial Revolution the crime scene for much drunkenness, violence and poverty that were facts of everyday life in past centuries. Read about the gang of labourers on the Leicester & Northampton Union Canal who decided to have some fun by attacking a detachment of guards from the Leicester Fencibles trying to liberate two army deserters. There was rioting and chaos and the frightened villagers panicked. 260 pages, nice historical illustrations, engravings and even a photograph of the traditional method of 'legging'.