Canal Narrowboat 'Primrose'

The narrowboat grew up with Britain's canal network, which spread across England from the late 1700s to carry coal, pottery and grain. Many locks were built just over seven feet wide, so the boats were made long and slim, often around seventy feet, and were first pulled by horses walking the towpath. From the mid-1800s many boating families lived aboard, fitting a whole household into a tiny back cabin with a stove, a fold-down table and a bed across the stern. They brightened these small spaces with painted roses and castles, polished brass, lace-edged plates and decorated water cans, a style still loved by boaters today.

The working trade faded after the Second World War, but the boats did not disappear. Restored canals now carry holidaymakers and people who live aboard, moving at walking pace past fields and towns, with pots of flowers on the cabin roof and ducks paddling alongside. Boaters still call the canal the cut. This brick model captures that unhurried scene, with a dark green and red hull, painted cabin sides, a gleaming chimney, geraniums on the roof and ducklings at the water's edge.