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Heartland

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Everything posted by Heartland

  1. Why should an organisation that promotes canals, i e the CRT, want to devalue a heritage structure such as Claverton? If that is the case, that is.... Still, in view of the many posts on this site supporting, commenting or deploring the CRT actions of late like the sale of land (Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal at Bury to name a recent example), is there a financial directive that is the basis of their current policy? It may be a false hope to restore and keep all that is possible on British waterways, yet those many dedicated people who worked for such goals, and those that still do deserve to have their voices heard and achieve as much as is possible.
  2. Well as far as narrow boats are concerned, I suppose the semi- diesel was an important step forward, but not all canal craft were narrow boats. On narrow canals there were tugs for tunnels or general haulage. On barge sized canals and river navigations, even estuaries and coastal waters, the opportunity for steam powered craft was greater.
  3. Nearly opposite the junction with this lost waterway, is the entrance to the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The volunteers on the MBBC are making great efforts to restore what is left, even if the CRT has sold off the Bury terminus. The MBBCS are now looking at restoration of the locks above the present section in Salford, should this proceed a new navigable length could be opened up and craft will have a reason to travel along the Irwell again.
  4. Engine Rooms have changed with time as have the engines that fit inside. There is now a hydrogen powered boat on the canal and no doubt new technology will produce a suitable hybrid engine for canal craft. Steam was still the best..... RCHS Weaver Collection - Sissons Engine, Windemere Group of Slides
  5. Is the pub/ house still closed?- I have heard it still is- there is an opinion that there is a business opportunity here though.
  6. Yes, The cottage numbers are the clue 1-100 Birmingham District 100-149- Tipton/Wolverhampton 150-199- Dudley etc 200-249- Walsall 250 plus No 5 district- top end of B & F and part of W & E The district inspectors also came to have some large accommodation, that at Tipton, for example was a large building at the top of Factory- now demolished. These districts also changed with time, as previously stated, a factor in this regards was the merger with the W & E and the Dudley. There was also some reorganisation at times to save costs. References can be found in BCN company minutes.
  7. I noticed the following stone cap on brick work at Bank Lock, Montgomeryshire Canal. I presume this style of capping was Shropshire Union, as the brick work is of blue engineering type. Having seen similar styles on the portal of Chirk Tunnel, I did wonder if these pyrimidal style stone carved caps were a standard feature on reconstruction and repair work undertaken during the period the Shropshire Union owned these waterways.
  8. Ian Langford was of the opinion that bridge 108 Swivel, or Cavans, Bridge was rebuilt after 1835 (as this was the time when machine made bricks started to be be incorporated into buildings etc) and the existing structure is built using brindled engineering bricks. Ian noted that as far as he knew only two swing bridges existed on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. the other was north of Kidderminster. The Kidderminster Swing Bridge was near Broadwaters Forge as shown on the 6in Ordnance Survey (1882)...
  9. Yes the districts were 5 in the end No 5 included the Fradley, Ogley section
  10. The Grand Western Canal was later, though the lifts on this line did convey craft for the working life of the waterway from Taunton, where a junction was made with the Taunton & Bridgwater Canal.. The lift on the Ellesmere Canal was worked during the trial period. Contemporary engineers have differing opinions as to the practical working of this lift. When in 1801 a decision was made to link the Ellesmere Canal at Whitchurch with the Chester Canal, any prospect of making the canal north of Pontcysyllte ceased to be and the need for a boat lift or lifts, also became unnecessary. The patentees messr Rowlands and Pickering were compensated to the value of £200, but after that time the fate of the structure has been a subject of considerable debate. Richard Dean is adamant that it was at Home Farm, but this proposed route was made around the time the aqueduct at Pontcysyllte was to be made on a plan suggested by Jessop where the canal was taken down through 3 locks, on the Fron side to a masonry structure, then raised by another three on the Ruabon/Trevor side . When Jessoip decided to adopt the full height aqueduct, comprising an iron trough, the route was set for a line to Trevor and a climb to a summit near Cefn Mawr. It was this route that was adopted for the Act (the second act) that passed Parliament in 1796. It is this date that Mr Dean quotes as significant as the trial lift was in operation that year. However, the planning of the revised route had taken some two years as alternative options had been suggested and rejected. Thomas Telford was given the duty of choosing the trial spot. I find it difficult to see Telford choosing the trial on a speculative route. That through Home Farm would be speculative as it would have required the permission of the local landowner. I can see him choosing the route that would become the parliamentary line and the level part of that was through Trevor, where the canal now terminates. There is a spot at this basin where there is a short connecting basin adjacent to the bridge over the Plaskynaston Canal entrance. This basin was spanned by building known as the iron warehouse. Today this basin is about 40ft long but map evidence suggests it was 70ft long enough to be a candidate for the lift location. Surviving images of this now demolished structure show stone work as being of a age perhaps contemporary with the trial period. 59823393a27fe_Ironwarehouse.docx
  11. They changed with time as the system was merged and expanded. The lock cottages were numbered in district order and the maintenance boats were allocated to these districts. also. I know of an early list that was at Gloucester for the Mid 19th Century, and Roy Jamieson sent me a copy, that listed 6 districts. Generally there were 4 numbered districts, but became before the cottages were numbered in the present series. Ocker Hill for boat allocation was a separate district at one time.
  12. Yes the description of this lift mention a 70ft narrow boat being tried, current suggested locations are Home Farm on a proposed route by Jessop and Trevor Basin on the authorised 1796 line. Richard Dean insists that Home Farm fits the known criteria. From 1812 this place became the location of an industrial scale threshing machine and timber saw mill
  13. How will this topic affect cross border boating from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic, I wonder
  14. The problems of making the Ellesmere Canal to the River Dee from Pontcysyllte led to the experimental lift near Ruabon being built and working from 1796. The location of this lift has still to be proved.
  15. i believe ashes were in ready supply and these helped with the maintenance of the towpath. In an age of coal there were many sources of ash from factory and works boilers. The problem came when clay was washed down on the path making it very slippy. I horse boating days there was not a general problem of banks being eroded by the wash of passing motorised craft, allthough steam powered craft started making an appearance on canals during the 1820's, their use was initially limited. Another cause of wash, and towpath wear for that matter, was the packet boats. The Swift Packet on the BCN main line between Birmingham & Wolverhampton probably did affect the towpath in wet weather.
  16. John Duncombe proposed a boat lift before the Rowland & Pickering trial, but it was not constructed. An equally early contender, I gather would have been on the Somerset Coal Canal:
  17. I note contractors have part of the Icknield Port fenced off for some work. Could this be the start of the intended project there. Also at Wolverhampton the much vandalised Crane Foundry offices have been pulled down. Will work start there on the projects intended, I wonder
  18. My observations were more about the vertical lifts using a caisson, of which Anderton is a prime example. Although an incline or vertical lift are both boat lifts. Terry Fogarty's concept (he died 10th February 2018) was an inclined concrete tube which filled with water and raised/ lowered the craft using water in what was a very deep lock.
  19. Meanwhile the canal will be out of use. And at what cost to the CRT?
  20. Whilst the concept raising and lowering boats vertically in a caisson was suggested during the early days of the canal era, suggestions and patent applications did not necessarily lead to a full size working example. Early known working boat lifts include examples on the Ellesmere Canal and the Dorset & Somerset Canal, with the Ellesmere Canal patent machine being apparently the first. The location for Fussel's lift on the D & S is well established, but that of the Ellesmere (Rowland & Pickering) remains to be proved with two possible locations suggested near Ruabon. Establishing the location of this boat lift can only be of benefit to the World Heritage Site at Pontcysyllte.
  21. The Middlewich Branch breach is on the Telford engineered waterway that linked the T & M Wardle branch with the main Ellesmere & Chester Canal. Telford had problems with the nature Cheshire Marl when building this canal. This marl proved an unsuitable foundation when making embankments. When exposed to air it liquified and ran away. The embankments were built wider in consequence. Substantial engineering were required at the valley crossings and some six years were needed to complete this waterway. Historians have often commented on the engineering issues had on building the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal, yet similar challenges were met on the Middlewich Branch. Though for the Middlewich Telford was alive to witness the opening of that waterway!
  22. Terry Fogarty died on February 10th 2018. He spent many years and much money promoting his concept of the diagonal lock. During his last years Terry had sold his house and was living on a boat at Knowle. The diagonal lock concept must rank amongst the innovative canal schemes of British Canal engineering. Although no such lock has been built, there remains the potential in the future to use such ideas in new canal ventures. It is perhaps sad that he spent so much effort to bring his concept to fruition and during his lifetime failed to achieve even a full scale prototype.
  23. This was the South Midlands area of the National Coal Board, then. Rawdon was near Moira, and there were, as said others including Ellistown. To load at Gopsall however required a road carriage element. Sections of the Ashby Canal had been closed in 1944 and 1957 leaving carriage by road from the main operating collieries to a canal wharf an option.
  24. Pluto has listed early narrow boats on the Calder and Hebble. The Buckingham boats are of interest the craft owned by Southam as their journey would have been through Manchester and the Ashton. Length would also have been a factor getting through the Huddersfield Broad Certain carriers did advertise a service to Huddersfield, but the journey to the C & H must have been a more specific cargo
  25. It is Gopsall Wharf, I believe I attach copy of 1924 ordnance survey. On a related topic, where did the coal come from?
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