WORKING RIVER

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2020 :: RMTnews 26 Working River - Songs and music of the Thames was released last month exactly fifty years after The Cambria, the last working Thames barge trading under sail alone, loaded her cargo at Tilbury for the last time before being laid up. This was a good enough anniversary as any to release 21 songs and music about the life of working people along the Thames over the centuries. In fact three of the songs celebrate the barge trade, A Bargeman’s Year, The Last Barge and Stormy Weather, a version of which was once sung by the singing bargeman Bob Roberts himself on his battered old melodeon. RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2020 :: RMTnews WORKING RIVER The General Federation of Trade Unions release a collection of songs and music celebrating the lives of working people on the River Thames THE LAST BARGE: The last working Thames sailing barge, The Cambria, passes under Tower Bridge in London. The picturesque craft, now owned by the Cambria Trust, was berthing at Tower Bridge on April 20, 1971 after she had been decommissioned as a commercial vessel six months previously.