Pleasure Boating on the Thames: A History of Salter Bros

NOTE: The book has recently been updated for a 2017 reprint. For information about that click here.

Description: The River Thames above London underwent a dramatic transformation during the Victorian period, from a great commercial highway into a vast conduit of pleasure. Pleasure Boating on the Thames traces these changes through the history of the firm that did more than any other on the waterway to popularise recreational boating. Salter Bros began as a small boat-building enterprise in Oxford and went on to gain worldwide fame, not only as the leading racing boat constructor, but also as one of the largest rental craft and passenger boat operators in the country. Simon Wenham’s illustrated history sheds light on 150 years of social change, how leisure developed on the waterway (including the rise of camping), as well as how a family firm coped with the changes brought about by industrialisation – a business that, today, still carries thousands of passengers a year.

Pleasure Boating on the Thames is published by The History Press and can be bought from all major retailers at a retail price of £14.99.

Reviews: The book has been reviewed in a variety of places, including Thames websites (The Liquid Highway and Thames News), local newspapers (Oxford Mail and Henley Herald), and academic journals (Sport in History, Journal of Transport and The Local Historian).

Chapter Contents: Some of the major themes covered in the book will be summarised in article form in the ‘History of the Thames‘ section of the website.