Shropshire archivist rediscovers family canoeing adventure from 1867

A Shropshire Council archivist has been inspired by a ‘find’ in the county’s archives to recreate a canoe voyage along the Shropshire Union Canal first navigated in 1867.

Sal Mager, senior archivist at Shropshire Council’s Museums and Archives service discovered the intriguingly named ‘Log of the Gnat’ which is an account of a canal expedition from Gnosall in Staffordshire to Bunbury in Cheshire made by a Shropshire vicar and his three sons.

Sal, who is a keen canoeist, is retracing the route and will share her experiences and the history behind the original adventure at a talk called Paddle Your Own Canoe at Shropshire Archives on Saturday 5 August.

Sal Mager paddling her canoe along the route of the Shropshire Union canal

Sal explained:-

“This account really captured my imagination because I enjoy canoeing and the journey was undertaken at the time when canoeing for pleasure was a new phenomenon.

“I am retracing their route and enjoying comparing their descriptions of places they see along the way, although I’m not able to take advantage of the family connections they had to stay in the grand houses of the time!

“It was fascinating to read the social history surrounding the trip and I got more invested in that too as I read more.

“The Log of the Gnat is a diary written by 18-year-old William Egerton Garnett-Botfield, the son of Reverend William Bishton Garnett-Botfield about the journey they made with William’s two younger brothers, Alfred Stanton Garnett-Botfield and Walter Dutton Garnett-Botfield.

“They embarked on the trip around six months after their mother passed away and I couldn’t help wondering whether their father was making an extra effort to give them some quality time after what must have been a quite devastating loss for them, to give them something positive to focus on in the summer holidays.”

Tickets, priced at £5, for Paddle Your Own Canoe at Shropshire Archives from  2pm to 4pm on Saturday 5 August are available here.

Sal added:-

“I am hoping we will see canal enthusiasts, fans of local history and fellow canoeists in the audience. They can have a go at reading the original manuscripts which will be on display along with other related travel journals and books.”