Hello Jim!   Thanks for your email about what has,over the years, become
 a somewhat complicated issue!   Before going any further, I must
 emphasise that this reply is based on personal opinion, not that of any
 "official" organisation.

 It is true that the term "Buckby Can" has become a *"modern tradition"*,
 going back to around the 1960s.  Whilst there was indeed a Buckby Can,
 -one which was painted for,  and sold at,  the little shop at Long
 Buckby - it was an individual version of similar basic utility articles
 found around the canal system and elsewhere.  In other applications it
 was widely to be found, similarly constructed but without a top cover.
 (I have even commented on old cowboy films the same type of article
 without  a lid being used to keep the coffee hot!).  In a publication of
 *1858* there is a written reference in a Grand Junction boating context
 to a "gaudily painted jug". (1)

 Cans were made all over, but especially in the West Midlands area.  They
 all followed a basic pattern with individual minor variations.  Some had
 rolled strengthening ribs, others had added metal bands, whilst spouts
 and ears differed in fine profiles.  Handles were sometimes metal,
 sometimes wire, rear handgrips were sometimes narrow strips, sometimes
 wide with more comfortable-to-use shaped inserts.
 Frequently they were the most highly decorated - sometimes the only
 decorated - part of a narrowboat.  Often a boatman would have his
 can specially painted, and would take it from boat to boat when he
 changed.  Some boatmen became quite accomplished painters in their own
 right, but it was the dock painter whose work generally was found on the
 cans.   It was the physical construction of each maker's can which
 determined how the decoration could be applied in the various panels.
 The style of execution of the decoration indicated the hand of the
 particulatr man who painted it. Incidentally, as an alternative to the
 watercan small churns were to be found, and also barrels, although the
 latter generally appeared more on wide boats and other larger craft whilst
 watercans belong primarily to the narrowboats of the midland and adjoining
 waterways.

 But why Buckby Cans, when they could be bought all over the canal
 system? They could be bought from makers, shops and dockyards, each
 with their individual names and styles of construction and appearance,
 decorated by one of a wide variety of painters.  Sadly they have now
 become *generically* known as "Buckbys".   Various theories have been
 suggested.  My own personal thoughts are this:-  It is part of the
 modern boating scene with pleasure boating a major activity.  LTC Rolt (2)
 is recommended to everyone as a "must read" author on the subject of
 canals and the fascination of cruising all over the country.  In his
 text he refers to pausing at Long Buckby, where he purchased a can.  He
 later writes about his travels to distant parts, all the time seeing the
 "same" articles (cans) on boats.  To his eye, I suggest they were the
 same, but to a more discerning eye they certainly would not have been.
 Each would have its own individual characteristics depending on its
 place of origin and by whom it had been painted.  But, if he considered
 them all to be the same, then surely to his mind they shared the same
 identity with the thing he had bought at Buckby.  A logical theory but
 only a theory.

 In your reference to Cheshire Cans, I suspect you may refer to an
 ex-boating family who, until recently, made cans which I used to paint
 for the Museum Shop as just one of my many duties there.  Certainly
 there are individual differences such as I have mentioned above between
 the Midland area and the north. Gone is the Braunston Can, the Atkins Can,
 the Knobstick Can, the Nurser Can ..... It is rather sad that in calling
 watercans "Buckbys" we no longer recognise the individuality of what was
 possibly the most characteristic feature of our narrow boats and the
 community which once populated them.

 As a passing comment, there is also a popular misconception that dippers
 and handbowls are both the same.   But that's another story.  I said
 this Buckby business is a complex issue.   I hope I have given some of
 my thoughts about what is, perhaps, one of the most readily identified
 features of the narrowboats which once worked the Midland and associated
 waterways

 Regards
 Brian

 (1) Charles Dickens published "Household Words" in 19 volumes between 1850
 and 1859. The "gaudily painted jug" as an example of narrow boat 'art' is
 cited there.
 (2) LTC ROLT "Narrowboat", 1946 (was actually written before WWII)