Barbara Castle

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Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn (née Betts) Was born 6 October 1910 and died 3 May 2002.

She was a British Labour Party politician and was elected to Parliament in 1945, she rose to become one of the most important Labour Party politicians of the twentieth century. Until her record was broken in 2007 by Gwyneth Dunwoody, Barbara Castle held the record as the female MP with the longest continuous service.
She is the first, and to date the only, woman to have held the office of First Secretary of State.

She joined the Labour Party at a young age. Her father was a tax inspector, avoiding military service in World War I due to his high rank in a valued occupation (known as a reserved occupation). It was because of the nature of the tax-collecting profession, and the different promotions he received, that the family moved around the country on different occasions. 

Having moved to Bradford in 1922, the Betts family swiftly became involved in the city's activity with the Independent Labour Party. Although her father was prohibited from formal political activity because of his role as a civil servant, he became editor of the Bradford Pioneer, the city's socialist newspaper, after William Leach was elected to Parliament in the 1935 general election.
Barbara's mother, Annie Betts, ran the family home, also partaking in the operation of a soup-kitchen for the town's miners. After Barbara had left home Annie stood for elections, and served as a Labour councillor, a role which she kept quite secret from even her close family.

Barbara attended St. Hugh's College, Oxford from which she graduated as a BA with a third-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She began serious political activity at Oxford, serving as the Treasurer of the Oxford University Labour Club, the highest position a woman could hold in the club at the time.

She was elected to St. Pancras Borough Council in 1937, and in 1943 she spoke at the annual Labour Party Conference for the first time. She was a senior administrative officer at the Ministry of Food and an ARP warden during the Blitz. 
Following her marriage to Ted Castle (1907–1979) in 1944, she became a journalist on the Daily Mirror, which by this time had become strongly pro-Labour.
In the 1945 general election, which Labour won in a landslide, she became MP for Blackburn, Lancashire. She soon achieved a reputation as a left-winger and a rousing speaker. During the 1950s she was a high-profile Bevanite and made a name for herself as a vocal advocate of decolonisation and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. 

In the Wilson government of 1964–1970, she held a succession of ministerial posts. She entered the Cabinet as the first Minister for Overseas Development, in so doing becoming only the fourth woman in British history ever to hold position in a Cabinet, after Margaret Bondfield, Ellen Wilkinson and Florence Horsbrugh.

It was the position as Minister of Transport that she held from 23 December 1965 to 6 April 1968, when she introduced the breathalyser to combat the then recently acknowledged crisis of drink-driving, and also made permanent the 70mph speed limit.
One of her most memorable achievements as Transport minister was to pass legislation decreeing that all (new) cars had to be fitted with seat-belts. Despite being appointed to the Ministry of Transport, a role which she was originally unenthusiastic about, Castle could not actually drive herself, and was chauffeured to functions, the Labour politician Hazel Blears driving her at one time as a young Labour party activist in the 1980s.

Barbara was responsible for the 'Transport Act 1968', a wide ranging act which covered all kinds of transport including canals.
Barbara was a keen boater herself, spending many weekends and spare time with friends on the Rochdale Canal, something her colleagues at the ministry were unaware of. So it was quite a shock when it was strongly suggested by some in the ministry that the majority of canals be filled in and made into roads. She was of course dead set against this suggestion, but could not simply say that she used the canals herself as an excuse to throw out these plans. She took the matter to heart, finding out all she could about the  network of canals throughout the country from various experts.
These experts gave her the perfect excuse for throwing out the suggestions, the canals had become an integral part of England's land drainage system.
Fill them in, she was told, and millions of pounds would have to be spent on thousands of miles of new drainage pipes. If not, thousand of acres of good farmland would return to bog. And so a priceless piece of English industrial history was saved to become a hugely important national resource for leisure, exercise and wildlife.

With the future of the waterways now secure, all the details had to be decided and incorporated into the 'Transport Act'. It was deemed impossible that every single waterway could be maintained to the same standard, and therefore the waterways were divided into three groups:

1. The waterways for the time being specified in Part I of Schedule 12 to this Act, being waterways (in this Part of this Act referred to as “the commercial waterways”) to be principally available for the commercial carriage of freight.
2. The waterways for the time being specified in Part II of that Schedule, being waterways (in this Part of this Act referred to as “the cruising waterways”) to be principally available for cruising, fishing and other recreational purposes.
3. The remainder of the waterways not specified in Schedule 12. These waterways would receive the minimum maintenance needed to keep them open as drainage channels.     

Schedule 12 specified the following waterways:

Commercial Waterways

The main navigable channels of the following waterways:—

The Aire and Calder Navigation from the tail of River Lock, Leeds, and from the Calder and Hebble navigation at Wakefield, to its entrance to Goole Docks and to its junction with the River Ouse at Selby.

The Calder and Hebble Navigation from the tail of Greenwood Lock to its junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Wakefield.

The Caledonian Canal.

The Crinan Canal.

The Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation from the tail of the bottom lock at Tinsley to its junction with the River Trent at Keadby.

The New Junction Canal connecting the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation with the Aire and Calder Navigation.

The Trent Navigation from the tail of Meadow Lane Lock, Nottingham, to Gainsborough Bridge.

The Weaver Navigation and the Weston Canal from Winsford Bridge to the junctions with the Manchester Ship Canal at Marsh Lock and at Delamere Dock.

The River Severn from Stourport to its junction with the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Gloucester.

The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.

The River Lee Navigation from Hertford to the River Thames at Limehouse and to the tail of Bow Locks.

Cruising Waterway

The main navigable channels of the following waterways:—

The Ashby Canal from its junction with the Coventry Canal to Snarestone.

The Birmingham Canal from its junction with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Farmer’s Bridge and from its junction with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Worcester Bar to its junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Aldersley by way of the Birmingham level as far as the head of Factory Locks, Tipton, and thence by way of the Wolverhampton Level, including the branch leading to its junction with the Stourbridge Canal at Black Delph by way of the Netherton Tunnel.

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal from its junction with the Birmingham Canal at Farmer’s Bridge to its junction with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Fradley, including the detached portion of the Coventry Canal between Huddlesford Junction and Fradley Junction and the Digbeth branch.

The Calder and Hebble Navigation from Sowerby Bridge to the tail of Greenwood Lock, including the Huddersfield Broad Canal to Aspley Basin.

The Chesterfield Canal from the tail of Morse Lock, Worksop, to its junction with the River Trent.

The Coventry Canal from its junction with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Fazeley to Coventry.

The Erewash Canal from Tamworth Road Bridge to its junction with the River Trent.

The Fossdyke Navigation.

The Grand Union Canal from its junctions with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Digbeth and Salford to its junctions with the River Thames at Brentford and at Regent’s Canal Dock, including the branches to Northampton and Aylesbury and the Hertford Union Canal leading to the River Lee at Old Ford.

The Grand Union Canal from Leicester to Norton Junction, including the branch to Market Harborough.

The Kennet and Avon Canal from High Bridge, Reading, to the tail of Tyle Mill Lock, and from the head of Bull’s Lock to the tail of Hamstead Lock, and from the tail of Hanham Lock to the tail of the bottom lock at Bath.

The Lancaster Canal from Preston to Tewitfield, including the branch to Glasson Dock.

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Old Road Bridge, Aintree, to Leeds, including the branches to Tarleton and Leigh.

The Macclesfield Canal.

The Oxford Canal from its junction with the Grand Union Canal at Braunston to its junction with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury and from its junction with the Grand Union Canal at Napton to Oxford, including the branch to the River Thames.

The Peak Forest Canal from the top of Marple Locks to Whaley Bridge.

The Ripon Canal from its junction with the River Ure to the tail of Littlethorpe Lock.

The Sheffield and Tinsley Canal from its commencement at the Sheffield Canal Basin to its junction with the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation at the tail of the bottom lock at Tinsley.

The Shropshire Union Canal from its junction with the Manchester Ship Canal at Ellesmere Port to its junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Autherley, including the branches to the River Dee at Chester, to Llantisilio and to Middlewich.

The River Soar Navigation from its junction with the River Trent to Leicester.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

The River Stort Navigation.

The Stourbridge Canal from its junction with the Birmingham Canal at Black Delph to its junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Stourton.

The Stratford-on-Avon Canal from its junction with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at King’s Norton to its junction with the Grand Union Canal at Kingswood.

The Trent and Mersey Canal, including the branch to Hall Green.

The Trent Navigation from Shardlow to the tail of Meadow Lane Lock, Nottingham, by way of the Beeston Canal and part of the Nottingham Canal and including the branch to the River Soar and the length of the River Trent from its junction with the Nottingham Canal to Beeston Weir.

The River Ure Navigation from its junction with the Ripon Canal to Swale Nab.

The Witham Navigation from Lincoln to Boston.

The Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

The act also brought into being the  'Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council' consisting of a chairman and not less than twelve members appointed after consultation with the chairman of the Waterways Board,     and to include persons who appear to the person making the appointment to have a wide knowledge of, and interest in, the use of inland waterways for amenity or recreational purposes, including fishing.

The councils remit was to to advise the Waterways Board and the Minister or, in relation to any waterway in Scotland, the Scottish Ministers on any proposal to add to or reduce the cruising waterways; and to consider, and, where it appears to them to be desirable, to make recommendations to the Waterways Board or the Minister or, in relation to any waterway in Scotland, the Scottish Ministers with respect to any other matter affecting the use or development for amenity or recreational purposes, including fishing, of the cruising waterways.
The council was reformed in 2007 as the 'Inland Waterways Advisory Council' (IWAC) by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 to advise Government, navigation authorities and other interested persons about the use and development of inland waterways. It is very likely that IWAC will be disbanded when the new 'Canal and River Trust' takes over from British Waterways.

So if Barbara Castle had not been a boater and canal user, would all our canals have disappeared and been made into roads. Well there would have been much opposition to the proposals by the IWA and other organisations; and would any Bill to close the canals have got through Parliament. That we will never know, but if Dr. Beechings Bill to close so much of the rail system down got through then it is possible.

In 1974, Ted Castle was made a life peer. This meant that Barbara was now formally Lady Castle, but she refused to use this courtesy title. Ted Castle died in 1979.

In 1990, she was made a life peer in her own right, as Baroness Castle of Blackburn. She remained active in politics right up until her death, attacking the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, for his refusal to link pensions to earnings at the Labour party conference in 2001.

Barbara Castle died in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire, of pneumonia and chronic lung disease on 3 May 2002.