Birmingham is famously reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice. These canals contributed much to the city's growth, bringing coal and merchandise from the surrounding areas. As the city prospered economically, it continued to grow and absorb neighbouring communities, a process in many ways bound together by the waterways. Although part of the national network, Birmingham's canals, including the Worcester & Birmingham, the Stratford-upon-Avon and the Birmingham Canal Navigation, retain their original identity – and most are still in water and used regularly, albeit in different ways to their original industrial purpose. Fully updated and illustrated with stunning new photographs, this book captures the heritage, development and modern role of Birmingham's canals in a way that will appeal to canal users as well as those with a wider interest in Britain's second most populous city.
Birmingham is famously reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice. These canals contributed much to the city's growth, bringing coal and merchandise from the surrounding areas. As the city prospered economically, it continued to grow and absorb neighbouring communities, a process in many ways bound together by the waterways. Although part of the national network, Birmingham's canals, including the Worcester & Birmingham, the Stratford-upon-Avon and the Birmingham Canal Navigation, retain their original identity – and most are still in water and used regularly, albeit in different ways to their original industrial purpose. Fully updated and illustrated with stunning new photographs, this book captures the heritage, development and modern role of Birmingham's canals in a way that will appeal to canal users as well as those with a wider interest in Britain's second most populous city.
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Overview
Birmingham is famously reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice. These canals contributed much to the city's growth, bringing coal and merchandise from the surrounding areas. As the city prospered economically, it continued to grow and absorb neighbouring communities, a process in many ways bound together by the waterways. Although part of the national network, Birmingham's canals, including the Worcester & Birmingham, the Stratford-upon-Avon and the Birmingham Canal Navigation, retain their original identity – and most are still in water and used regularly, albeit in different ways to their original industrial purpose. Fully updated and illustrated with stunning new photographs, this book captures the heritage, development and modern role of Birmingham's canals in a way that will appeal to canal users as well as those with a wider interest in Britain's second most populous city.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780752492186 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 10 MB |
| Age Range: | 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Birmingham Canals
By Ray Shill
The History Press
Copyright © 2013 Ray Shill,All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-9218-6
CHAPTER 1
The Birmingham Canal Navigations
The first canal to reach Birmingham was the Birmingham Canal Navigation (BCN), which linked the town of Birmingham with the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Aldersley Junction. The main reason for building this canal was to provide cheap coal for the workshops and factories of Birmingham. Wagonloads of coal collected from the existing coal mines around Bilston, Darlaston, West Bromwich and Wednesbury were brought along the turnpike road into Birmingham.
The turnpike trustees had the monopoly of the transport route and their rates reflected this. In January 1767 a group of prominent Birmingham citizens organised a public meeting at the White Swan in High Street, Birmingham. Their aim was to consider the possibility of forming a navigable canal to the local collieries. Those who attended set in motion a scheme to build the canal.
The proposal quickly developed from a simple canal from Birmingham to the collieries into a canal which joined other waterways then under construction. James Brindley was invited to survey a route from Birmingham to join another proposed canal, the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, from Great Hayward to the River Severn. The first stretch of the Birmingham Canal was opened from Birmingham to collieries at Hill Top, West Bromwich, on 6 November 1769. It was then extended in stages until it reached Aldersley, on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, in 1772. When this canal was completed the BCN comprised the main line, 22? miles long, which wound and turned through the Black Country. There was also a branch to the West Bromwich coal mines at Hill Top (the Wednesbury Canal). A flight of twenty, later twenty-one, locks brought the canal up from Aldersley to Wolverhampton, but then boatmen were subjected to another climb of three locks to the Smethwick Summit, with a further six down again to reach Birmingham. Water was in short supply and boats frequently grounded on some of the tight turns on the waterway.
The Birmingham Canal followed the contours of the land, although its course had been dictated by a number of factors. The route as originally surveyed by Brindley was some 6 miles shorter than that finally made. During the construction period there had been many occasions when the line of route had changed, often to favour certain mine owners. This in turn led to dissent and disagreement between the shareholders. Two groups had formed among their ranks, which held different opinions as to where the canal should be cut. Those that favoured the policies of Bentley, the company chairman, won the day, but it created a bitter divide which was to have repercussions for years to come.
A dispute also arose over the location of the canal terminus in Birmingham and eventually two were built: the Newhall Branch (1772) and the Paradise Street Branch (1773). The BCN had temporary offices in Newhall Street but made the Paradise Street Wharf their headquarters when these wharves were finished. The canal passed through fields right up to the outskirts of the town. Some of the less important thoroughfares crossed by swivel bridges, instead of the traditional brick, humped-back version, and the towpath was separated from the fields by a quick hedge. Paradise Street Wharf, named because it faced Paradise Street, comprised two long basins arranged side by side in the shape of a tuning fork. Here the coal boats unloaded their coal for stacking alongside the wharf. The merchants trading in coal loaded their carts to take into the town.
During these early days the BCN had its own boats for bringing coal from the mines into Birmingham, but also faced competition from private traders. Within a few years the canal company had given up the carrying trade and left the business of bringing coal into Birmingham to the traders. Wharf space became more in demand, and new wharves were established alongside the Newhall Branch. Although coal remained the principal cargo, the carriage of limestone, iron, paper and other general merchandise started to become more common. Most trade remained local and the number of boats which ventured up and down the locks between Wolverhampton and Aldersley was smaller than that which passed from Bilston to Birmingham.
The BCN proprietors faced and sometimes fought off competition from rival canal schemes which threatened their trade. In 1781 a serious threat was presented by the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Company who proposed a new line of canal from Fazeley to the collieries around Darlaston and Wednesbury which were not adequately served by the existing canal. The BCN offered an alternative proposal, but Parliament finally sanctioned a modified Birmingham & Fazeley Canal plan two years later. A new line of canal from Fazeley to join the Newhall Branch at Farmer's Bridge and a separate section from the Wednesbury Canal at Ryders Green to Broadwaters were authorised by the Act of 1783. Within another year (1784) the two Birmingham canal companies had merged. Construction started soon after the merger. The main line of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal extended from Birmingham and through Aston, Erdington and Coleshill to join the Coventry Canal at Fazeley. This canal, unlike the old Birmingham Canal, followed a much straighter course. More engineering was involved which included embankment and cuttings. There were two major flights of locks within the Birmingham area; the first set of locks, which became known as the Farmer's Bridge Flight, comprised thirteen locks and descended 83ft from the Birmingham (453ft) Level down to the Hospital Pond Level at Snow Hill Bridge. This canal, which is still known as the Birmingham & Fazeley, then continued to Aston where another flight of eleven locks brought the canal down to the Erdington (302ft) Level at Salford Bridge.
The canal from Farmer's Bridge through Aston to Fazeley was officially opened in 1789. But there were some problems with the construction works and commercial traffic did not properly start until a year later. At Aston a branch was made down to Digbeth, which also opened in about 1790. The Digbeth Branch descended through six locks at Ashted to a terminal basin which faced Bordesley Street.
The completion of the Fazeley route was accompanied by the lowering of the locks at Smethwick. It had been a burden to the boatmen who had to endure six locks on the climb from Birmingham and at least another three down again to get over the Smethwick Summit. Between 1789 and 1790 the top three locks either side of the summit were removed and the bottom three on the Smethwick side doubled to aid navigation. Both sets of improvements encouraged commercial canal carrying through Birmingham and a number of canal-carrying firms started to regularly pass through the town; carriers' wharves were established at Aston Junction, Broad Street and the Crescent.
The year 1799 saw the completion of the Warwick & Birmingham Canal between Digbeth and Budbrooke, while from 1795 the Worcester & Birmingham Canal had been gradually extended through Selly Oak, Kings Norton and Tardebigge to reach the River Severn at Diglis in 1815. Each of these two waterways, in turn, had links with other canals, which added to the complex network of waterways through which Birmingham was becoming a natural centre of trade. Meanwhile, the BCN had continued to expand in size, adding extra mileage to Walsall (1799) and linking Toll End with Tipton (1809). Some minor improvements had also been carried out near Birmingham where some of the tight turns had been altered and widened.
Minor improvements continued to be made to the Birmingham Canal up to 1820, but after this date a programme of sustained alterations were commenced that were to extend the system further. The Birmingham Canal Navigations Company engaged Thomas Telford to assist them in the new work. Telford was already an eminent engineer and had planned roads and canals throughout the country. He is perhaps best remembered for engineering new canals and roads in Shropshire and Scotland. On the Birmingham Canal Telford's major work was the New Main Line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Thomas Telford came to the Birmingham Canal in 1824 and spent a few days riding on horseback around the area before formulating his plans. He found a narrow waterway clogged with boats. It was a canal where boatmen fought each other to get to the locks or for right of passage in a restricted channel. Telford resolved to remedy the problem by building a wide waterway with a double towpath. These were the days of horse boats where every movement on the waterway was done either with a horse, by bow hauling or by poling.
Telford's scheme enabled traffic to flow easily, without boat lines getting entangled leading to the inevitable arguments. Telford's improvements are visible today on the section that extends through Smethwick and beyond to Coseley. The double towpath main line starts from Broad Street and passes through Ladywood and Winson Green to Smethwick and the deep cutting beyond. The new line continues through Albion and Tipton, maintaining the same level of 453ft (or Birmingham Level) throughout before reaching the three Factory locks which take the boats up to, or down from, the 473ft (or Wolverhampton) Level. The work through Smethwick was completed in 1829. In addition to the new wide waterway, modifications were made to the water supply that included a new reservoir at Edgbaston and two canal feeders: one feeder brought water from Titford Pools and the other united the reservoir with the Engine Arm at Smethwick. Most of Brindley's old canal was retained and now formed loops and branches off the New Main Line. Industry flourished on these backwater branches, which contributed to the trade on these local canals.
The BCN continued to expand, merging with the Wyrley & Essington Canal in 1840 and Dudley Canal in 1846. They also continued to build new lines such as the Tame Valley Canal (1844), which linked Salford on the Birmingham & Fazeley with the Walsall Canal near Ocker Hill. Surprisingly, more additional mileage was added to BCN between 1840 and 1860 than had been in all the previous years and in spite of growing competition from railways. Part of the expansion was due to the trade connected with the local iron industry, which was at its peak between 1850 and 1870. Coal traffic also continued to increase; even though Black Country coal mining was on the decline by this time, the development of the Cannock Chase Coalfield during the 1860s more than compensated for the loss. Developments in technology led to new business ventures seeking canal-side locations where coal continued to be delivered cheaply. A new trade was also created in association with the railway carriers.
The Birmingham Canal Navigations Company had actively promoted a new railway from Birmingham to Wolverhampton through joining in partnership with railway operators. It was a partnership which eventually led to railway control, but the amount of canal-side industry was such that a trade was established where goods passed between railway interchange basins and works on the canal.
Trade flourished on the Birmingham Canal up to around 1914, when a slow and steady decline set in. There was also a change in how boats were worked. From 1912 a number of motorboats started to appear, driven by petrol or paraffin. Commercial carriers such as Fellows, Morton & Clayton started to change over their fleets to motorboat operation and the days of the horse boat were numbered on the long-distance trade. On the northern BCN some coal carriers started to use tugs on the long lockless sections from the Cannock Chase Coalfield. Loading times for coal boats could be lengthy, which led to delays in coal delivery. The process was speeded up through the use of tugs, which ferried empty boats to the collieries and collected loaded boats without having to wait to be loaded.
During the First World War canals and railways were controlled and subsidised by the government. For railway-controlled canals this control came into effect almost from the start of the war, but for other waterways, and some commercial operators, control and subsidy did not take effect until 1917. Government control continued until 1920, when the canals and canal carriers were left again to fend for themselves. In the intervening time costs had risen and canal boat operation was becoming less and less competitive.
Coal remained the largest single commodity carried on the BCN, but there was a whole host of other cargoes. Commercial carriers' depots were crammed with every conceivable commodity from metal goods to tea. Private boats also handled a variety of goods, which included bricks, chemicals, cement, foundry sand and stone. Birmingham Corporation was an important canal user. The electricity, gas, public works and salvage depots all generated canal trade. Passenger boats have had mixed success. Better known as packet boats, these vessels carried passengers along the Old, and later New, Main Lines calling at strategic points to pick up and set down. Packet boats have been recorded operating on the Birmingham Canal as early as 1800, but the service had all but ceased by 1852. During April 1919, however, Dunlop Ltd commenced a passenger boat service along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal from Aston to their Erdington works. Each boat could take 100 people at a time. It was at its busiest in 1920, when the boats carried 5,000 workers a week, but stopped after a new tram route was opened to Fort Dunlop.
The local canal trade commonly used the day boat, which was an open boat often lacking the basic comforts of a cabin. They moved all sorts of bulk material from coal to night soil. Major canal closures commenced during the 1950s, but most of the network within the City of Birmingham remained intact, although less used. Commercial traffic had virtually ceased by 1965, although the odd boat still continued to come through, and still does. Several factors had influenced this state of affairs. The significant increase in road haulage companies had eroded the remaining canal trade and closures had decimated the local colliery industry. British Railways had from 1954 decided to withdraw its own boatage services and interchange basins were shut down. Closures had also affected other canal-side industries. Many gasworks ceased production during the 1960s to make way for the new natural gas, and the smaller coal-fired power stations stopped generating electricity as the Central Electricity Generating Board rationalised its industry. But the most serious effect on trade had been the severe winter of 1963. Thick ice had prevented passage along the waterways for months. Many of the smaller traders were consequently forced off the canals and out of business. Traffic on the Birmingham waterways today is generally restricted to the boaters and the hire-boaters, whose gaily painted craft regularly line the towpaths. The canal side, which for many years was shut off behind grimy old buildings, has been opened up. New residential, hotel and recreational buildings have sprung up alongside the waterway.
The canal around Broad Street had seen particular change. Once it was hidden behind brick walls, factories and warehouses; now the factories have been demolished and the cottages and warehouses have been converted into coffee houses, pubs and restaurants. Trip boats take people around the local waterways and most towpaths are open to the public to walk around as they will. The International Convention Centre, the National Indoor Arena and the Sea Life Centre have frontages to the canal here. During the 1990s a new business centre opened at Brindley Place and the Crescent Theatre relocated to a canal-side location on the Oozells Loop. Planners have carefully blended the old with the new. Austin Court is now a conference centre, but started life in the early 1800s as a nail warehouse. Residential properties have also come to the canal side, reversing a trend of moving people out of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century courts and alleyways and into the modern version of apartments.
In Sherborne Street the Fellows, Morton & Clayton warehouse was converted into apartments for residential use. Similar scenes are emerging along the waterway from Salford Bridge to Summer Lane and Aston to Digbeth. The provision of mixed-use residential and leisure facilities still continues as developers cast their net in an ever-increasing circle. Yet not every change has received general approval. It is a continually changing scene.
The Birmingham Canal in Birmingham has an extensive mileage. Parts of the Old and New Main Lines, the Newhall Branch, the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal and the Tame Valley Canal are all situated within the boundaries of Greater Birmingham. We begin our study with the New Main Line.
CHAPTER 2Worcester & Birmingham Canal
The Worcester & Birmingham Canal was proposed during the time of Britain's greatest canal expansion. It was a bold plan to unite Birmingham and the River Severn at Worcester with a canal wide enough to take barges. John Snape was commissioned to survey the route in 1789. The promoters of the scheme had a difficult task ahead of them. Local canal companies, such as the Staffordshire & Worcestershire, feared the proposed canal from Worcester to Birmingham would take trade from their canal. In fact, the first bill before Parliament in 1790 was successfully opposed by the companies with vested interests to keep the status quo. There were, however, many supporters keen to see the canal built, and in 1791 the Worcester & Birmingham Canal Act was passed, enabling construction to commence.
Having the authority to build was a long way from getting the work completed. The Worcester & Birmingham Canal proprietors endured many problems before completion in December 1815. Work was conducted in stages starting at the Birmingham end and progressing towards Selly Oak and then Kings Norton. Construction began in 1792 after the canal was re-surveyed. Snape found that a saving of 2 miles could be achieved from his previous plan. The canal company began staking out the ground, purchasing barrows, carts and horses and erecting brick kilns. Bricks, at this time, were handmade from local clays, which were fired in kilns near the canal. The task of cutting the canal was given to Mr Morecroft, whose first contract was to make the canal navigable for flats (basic vessels) between the turnpike road at Five Ways to the north side of the Bournbrook Valley. This was followed by other contracts that extended through Kings Norton to Hopwood.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Birmingham Canals by Ray Shill. Copyright © 2013 Ray Shill,. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Prologue to the Second Edition,
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
1 The Birmingham Canal Navigations,
2 Worcester & Birmingham Canal,
3 Stratford Upon Avon Canal,
4 Dudley Canal,
5 Grand Union Canal,
6 Canal & River Trust,
Copyright,