Sir, Sixty years after being asked by Joe Bullock, the retired manager of Wantage Tramway Company, “How and when did Faith, Hope and Charity boost the floating population of Wantage?”, I have stumbled across the answer to that riddle.

Whether he knew the answer, wanted me to find it or to live in ignorance and puzzlement, I never knew, for he died shortly afterwards. It was while researching old records that I was led to the 1891 census and the families living around The Wharf alongside the basin at the end of the Wantage branch of the Wilts and Berks canal at the bottom of Mill Street.

Mr and Mrs William Hiskins, their eight children and a servant lived at The Wharf, with Charles Stroud, a house decorator nearby, and the families of Edward Fawler (insurance agent), John Farmer (farm worker), Robert Talboys (plumber), Thomas Powell (boatman), George Chamberlain (tinman and brazier) were among those in Wharf Cottages.

Then came a moment of enlightenment because, moored up alongside were five vessels. These included Faith (captained by Thomas Ferris, 25, born Bradenstoke, Wilts); Hope and Victoria (Rowland Brown, 21, and Edward Chandler 14; Charity (John Edwards, 54, wife Ann, sons John 30, Walter 28, daughter Bessie 27, the three children born in Abingdon); and Madeline (Harry Dixon, 25, brother Frederick 26).

Whether these were the three virtues Joe had in mind six decades ago, and how he knew what had been moored in Wantage on census night to add ten ‘floating’ names to the population will remain unanswered questions, but just perhaps I have found the answers — more by luck than diligence and skill.

Jack Loftin

Charlton Village Road

Wantage