Watermen's Hall is open to the public from time to time by appointment only and we do our best to accommodate as many as possible of those who wish to look round or see our valued possessions. To arrange a guided tour of the Hall please contact Carol on carol@watermenshall.org

For enquiries on researching family members please contact Susan on  admin@watermenshall.org  for further information.

The Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames does receive a large number of requests for information. We wish to encourage interest in the History of Freemen and the Company but the information we have recorded is limited to a register of apprentices giving name, date apprenticeship started and length, the apprentice’s master and apprentice’s birth parish and a register of Freedom recording apprentices who were made free with date. At the HAll we only hold the Register of Bindings from 11 January 1898 to the present time and the Register of Freedoms from 10 February 1891 to the present time. All other records are now held at the Guild Hall in London.

Our early records are kept at the Guildhall Library (www.history.ac.uk/gh/) Apprenticeship from 1688, freedoms from 1759. Records from 1908 are still kept at Watermen’s Hall.

The Company is on the World Wide Web at www.watermenshall.org.uk  A large amount of our archives are also on the web at www.geocities.com/watermenarchive It is our intention to place more information on researching your ancestors on this site.
 

If you are interested there is a short free leaflet describing a little of the History of the Company, its possessions and its activities available on request from admin@watermenshall.org. There are 5 Volumes of the Company’s History available for purchase from 1514 to 1920 enquires to the same email

One of Company’s Freeman Robert Cotterell (email to rjcindex@aol.com) has put a large number of the records on CD ROM which can easily be searched. For a small fee  Mr Cotterell will undertake the search.