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Bargee "Owd Ned" was once a well-known character around Derby and Breadsall in particular. After running away from home at 11, he lived all his life in a cottage with no gas, water or electricity, to the ripe old age of 94 when he died of "nothing in particular". Here, his grandson, Kenneth Hill, of Chaddesden, fondly recalls "a tough old bod", who led a remarkable life.

My grandad was Edward Hill, known locally as "Owd Ned", especially in the Coach and Horses pub at Chester Green.

He lived in the cottage just past the bridge. He worked on the canals as a bargee and rented the cottage from Derby Canal Company for two shillings (10p) a week.

Owd Ned

Grandad was a tough old bod. He grew damson trees on one side of the canal and raised chickens and pigs on the other side. He slung a plank across the canal to gain easy access to them. The damsons would be sold to passers-by who strolled up the towpath to Little Eaton.

The pigs were walked down the road to Derby Market for sale by Owd Ned. After "droving" one lot, I remember him coming home and saying to my dad: "My, that made me sweat, lad."

He was 82 years old at the time, so it wasn't surprising.

The cottage was very isolated but there were always people walking by and all the train drivers knew him and would wave from engines as they crosse Nine Arches Bridge.

My dad and I would visit him regularly, walking down the fields at the end of the racecourse from where we lived in Hillcrest Road.

Life was much harder in the winter, though. The Co-op coal merchants would have to trudge about a quarter of a mile, sometimes in deep snow, along the towpath to deliver his 20 bags of coal, carrying them on their backs. Not their favourite call, I should think!

Grandad had no running water, just a water pump outside his cottage. There was no electricity or gas. He would use an old oil lamp and candles and there would always be a great blazing fire in the grate. The glow from these would light up his bits of furniture, making the cottage feel very cosy.

He had a very ornate organ in one corner of his living room, on which he stood the family Bible, and an old dresser in the other corner, which held his bottle of whisky.

He would read a passage out of his Bible at night while drinking his nip of whisky before going to bed.

Grandad has learned to swim in the canals by watching frogs after he ran away from home at the age of 11.

My best memories of him are walking to his cottage on the canal towpath, seeing the wild flowers and reeds and a kingfisher perched on a swaying bullrush, and gathering watercress which grew around a natural spring further up the hill.

I also remember the owl that roosted on the central span of the Nine Arches Bridge and hooted at the same time every evening – and the time I fell out of a damson tree when I was helping him pick them. I still bear the large scar on my leg to this day.

Grandad just picked me up, rubbed my head and said: "You'll be all right, Ted", and I was. He died, aged 94, of nothing in particular.

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County:  Derbyshire

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