Sundries to Haywood

John Green Ames appears to have established a canal carrying business by the early 19th century and he was was a member of the Inland Waterway Association for Apprehending and Prosecuting Felons in 1804. The firm of J.G. Ames & Company specialised in transport by water to and from Bristol and the West of England via the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and River Severn. At the end of the 1820s their services from Derby comprised a boat to Stourport, Gloucester and Bristol on Tuesday and Friday; another to Worcester, Kidderminster, Cheltenham, Bath and the West of England three times a week; and a slow boat to Bristol every day. They also operated similar services from Liverpool and Manchester with wharves at Dukes Dock and Castlefield respectively. I suspect that the business was based at Stourport and it was from there that it was noted that Ames' partnership John Adams was dissolved in 1831 on the retirement of John Green Ames in 1831. The business continued as Ames & Co.

This ticket was carried with goods being carried by the company from Manchester to Great Haywood at the junction of the Trent & Mersey and Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canals, and would have been used in calculating the toll charges. In 1832 the majority of long distance carrying was likely to be by canal whenever possible. The boats carried a wide variety of goods rather than the single bulk cargoes of later years. In this case 5 tons 1cwt 1qr of sundry goods (which were probably all rated the same for toll purposes) and 5cwt of empties.