There has been some discussion on the modern tradition of decorating narrowboats with “Registered
in A Town” with the town mostly being Watford which was the registration
home and headquarters of British Waterways. The original reason for working
boat registration was not for craft licensing but for health under the Public Health
Registers: Canal Boats Acts of 1877-84. But owners of traditional styled modern
narrowboats started picking up on the “Registered
in” style and soon adopted Watford as their base. It is now
ubiquitous.
The question now is, the Canal River Trust headquarters are in Milton
Keynes but licensing is run from Leeds. Will “Registered in Watford” soon be replaced by “Registered in Milton Keynes” or possibly “Registered in Leeds”? I doubt it, but who knows.
We are not planning to changes Albert’s signwriting soon so we have some
time to contemplate what we will do. However, one boater has no such problem. I
spotted this very individual registration near Somerton on the Oxford Canal. I
first wondered where the town of Sane was!
