Is this England's only surviving national folk art?

The 'Roses and Castles' artwork on narrowboat cabins and their water cans - such as the one shown above - is believed by the National Waterways Museum at Gloucester to be England's only surviving indigenous folk art, writes Stephen Goodwin.

A pounds 1.14m Heritage Lottery Fund grant announced yesterday will enable the museum to delve further into the origins of the boatmen's art, which lives on at a canal-side yard in Northamptonshire.

"Roses and Castles" is often attributed to gypsy influence, but it is more likely to have been copied from the fantasy castles and floral swags painted on mass-produced furniture and pottery in the 19th century.