Idle Woman of the Canals Working a Narrow Boat - IW Inland Waterways 1942

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IW stood for Inland Waterways and created the nick name Idle Women. This referred to women who in WW2 received 6 weeks traing to operate cargo carrying canal boats replacing men on active women manned pairs of boats - one powered and one (butty boat) towed - working up to 20 hours a day moving 50 ton loads along the waterways. It's thought there were about 45 idle women operating boats in the war years.

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Size: 4680px × 4680px
Location: Stoke Bruerne Northamptonshire England United Kingdom
Photo credit: © wyrdlight / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2, boat, canal, dungarees, head, idle, ii, inland, narrow, scarf, stand, steer, substitute, tiller, transport, war, waterways, women, work, world