Wigan Album

A barge is a large flat-bottomed boat which was towed by a narrow boat, it did not have an engine.This is a commercial one.

Only some. see Wiki. It is a self propelled barge.

(Barges around long before narrow boats)

It is a tug boat designed to pull storage hoppers when dredging the canal.

Although 'barge' is a general term for river and canal craft of all shapes and sizes, the term is usually reserved for craft of 14'+, such as the Leeds-Liverpool Short Boats (so called because they were built for the 60' locks this side of the Pennines), and the Bridgewater Canal barges, which are 72' long, which is the usual length for British canal locks. The term narrow boat is used for craft built for the 7' wide locks of much of the central canal system of England and Wales. Boats between 7' and 14' are called wide boats. The men who worked the canal boats were usually simply called boatmen - that's the term found in our church registers, where you'll find a number of marriages and baptisms relating to men who worked on the Leeds and Liverpool, which flows through two sides of the parish of St Mary Ince.
The craft in the picture is a British Waterways work float, being steered by a BW employee and was unlikely to be called a bargee.

Thanks Rev, thought we'd get a lecture. Is there anything the Clergy don't know about?

Perhaps I should also point out that the boat is travelling in the opposite direction to that given - the gantries on the West Coast Main Line visible behind the boat, and the lie of the land dropping away from the canal indicate it's coming from Wigan.

Thought that myself, your holiness.(only jokin)

Is't that Rivington pike in the background

My geography is not what it should be but if the Rev Long is correct and I'm sure he is then the hill in the back ground must be Billinge hill

Sorry!