Michael Streat - a man with canals in his blood

摘要

Canals and boats were in Michael Streat's blood, although he had grown up before his own association with them began to emerge. His maternal grandfather was a corn merchant in Stourport-on-Severn in the late 19th Century and owned a fleet of narrow boats. One of his boatmen fell into Stourport Basin and was drowned the very night that Michael's mother was born. In later years, his mother could clearly recall another occasion when a redundant vessel was hauled out of the water and pulled through the town streets on rollers to the family's orchard, where the cabin became the children's playhouse with an access door cut in the side of the hull.