Coal Canal Lift Bridge

[magpie patrick]

I've been in a Facebook discussion with Scholar Gypsy regarding the lift bridge over the entrance to the coal canal - I knew it had come from Banbury but had assumed it was from below Banbury Lock where there is now a fixed pedestrian bridge. However SG pointed me in the direction of a photo he posted here about 5 years ago, showing the bridge at Grimsbury Yard, Banbury about half a mile above the lock and on a site that has now vanished with road improvements. Now this has been pointed out I realise the coal canal lift bridge has been in place since at least 1988 and the one below Banbury Lock was still there when I visited in 1993... (I lived in Cardiff and wasn't involved in the Coal Canal then)

 

So that's one little historical box ticked, but I wonder how come Grimsbury Yard ended up with such an unusual bridge? It's in the style of the Oxford Canal Bridges but made entirley of metal - aluminium I think. Had it been an ordinary wooden lift bridge it probably wouldn't have been as suitable at the coal canal due to the maintenance commitment

 

Anyone know why Grimsbury's bridge got the aluminium treatment?

 

Pics of the bridge at each location below

 

 

[Rob-M]

I think that might be the bridge my mother and I couldn't shift until a rather large BW worker arrived and added his weight.

[Balliol]

I’m not sure that I am up to speed on the conversation but if you are talking about the alloy lift bridge that used to be north of Tooleys then I had always assumed that it had something to do with Alcan aluminium (can’t remember what they used to be called) who used to have a factory there. Perhaps an access road to them?

[Balliol]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7643742.stm

[BEngo]

There were at one time more aluminium lift bridges on the S Oxford.  If my memory is not playing me false the one at Heyford (Br 205) and the one at Thrupp (Br 221)  were also Aloominum.  These latter two are fairly heavily used bridges  and the design might be a BW attempt to get more durability in the face of heavy traffic than a wooden bridge without making it so heavy that the balance beams would have been impracticably long  and/or require mechanisation at high cost.

 

The Alcan factory appears to have been nearer to Br 161 than Br  162 though albeit looking at my early Nicholson indicates Br 162 might have been a good route to Alcan from the East and North East of Banbury.

[magpie patrick]

4 hours ago, BEngo said:

There were at one time more aluminium lift bridges on the S Oxford.  If my memory is not playing me false the one at Heyford (Br 205) and the one at Thrupp (Br 221)  were also Aloominum.  These latter two are fairly heavily used bridges  and the design might be a BW attempt to get more durability in the face of heavy traffic than a wooden bridge without making it so heavy that the balance beams would have been impracticably long  and/or require mechanisation at high cost.

 

The Alcan factory appears to have been nearer to Br 161 than Br  162 though albeit looking at my early Nicholson indicates Br 162 might have been a good route to Alcan from the East and North East of Banbury.

The one at Heyford might still be, it was hand operated until early 2017 - Thrupp is now a susbtantial steel jobby

 

I can be surprisingly unobservant when boating, I'm much better at taking note if I walk

 

Anyone any idea when the alloy bridges were installed anyone?

[1st ade]

12 minutes ago, Paddle said:

...the 'destruction of the frie of fish'. Not sure what that means - fry?

Baby fish...

[magpie patrick]

29 minutes ago, Paddle said:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=J7FkAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA272&lpg=PA272&dq=thames+net+fishing&source=bl&ots=Jz39f9B68j&sig=ACfU3U12YfKs8aabtXpQI-_Ow9oewSO90A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCzfusv9joAhXZMMAKHf1cDvUQ6AEwEXoECA0QKQ#v=onepage&q=thames net fishing&f=false

 

Net fishing was certainly permitted in the Thames in 1670 - provided it did not obstruct the common passage of vessels or the 'destruction of the frie of fish'. Not sure what that means - fry?

Very interesting, but I think you want the Thames Lock thread!!!

[Chris M Jones]

Drawbridge at Banbury No. 162 was new in November 1930

[magpie patrick]

4 minutes ago, Chris M Jones said:

Drawbridge at Banbury No. 162 was new in November 1930

Thank You! 

[Scholar Gypsy]

I was told - I was  brought up in Banbury in the 1960s - that the whole of the Alcan factory had sheep on the roof during the war, with a fake factory built nearby to confuse Mr Goering. I see from the fascinating BBC post above that my father was indeed right!

 

I remember the Heyford bridge as being cast iron not aluminum. 

I am reading a fascinating book at the moment about the Flaxmill at Shrewsbury, the first iron frame building in the world. It was built by the same people who made the castings for the Longport and Ponty aqueducts.   https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2020/03/08/shrewsbury-canal-flaxmill-and-maltings/

 

[Dav and Pen]

We knew this as factory bridge and it was for the aluminum works. Because of all the use it was badly out of balance and when single handed it was a right B to get up and put the Banbury  stick  under it. You also had no chance of getting through it at shift change time. I have a photo somewhere approaching it and it was in an article published in Harry Arnold’s Narrow Boat magazine entitled Coals to Banbury.

[Scholar Gypsy]

Here's a map from (approx) late 1950s. Wharf (and lift bridge) in the centre of the map. You can see the Alcan works to the north, with its own railway sidings.  Grimsbury Lane didn't really go anywhere at the time - of course now it's a major access road for the M40 - though it got busier with the construction of housing and industrial estates to the west of the A423 (Southam) road. 

 

Somewhat to my surprise, Grimsbury reservoir was not built then.

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Scholar Gypsy

[Balliol]

2 hours ago, Chris M Jones said:

Drawbridge at Banbury No. 162 was new in November 1930

Which fits with the Northern Aluminium factory opening in 1931.......

[Balliol]

13 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

Here's a map from (approx) late 1950s. Wharf (and lift bridge) in the centre of the map. You can see the Alcan works to the north, with its own railway sidings.  Grimsbury Lane didn't really go anywhere at the time - of course now it's a major access road for the M40 - though it got busier with the construction of housing and industrial estates to the west of the A423 (Southam) road. 

 

Somewhat to my surprise, Grimsbury reservoir was not built then.

 

Also no smelly food factory (General Foods? Now Kraft), but this shows in the OP’s original 1970’s(?) photo.

Grimsbury reservoir is a water company reservoir, not canal company, and was built in the sixties.

[Scholar Gypsy]

11 minutes ago, Balliol said:

Also no smelly food factory (General Foods? Now Kraft), but this shows in the OP’s original 1970’s(?) photo.

Grimsbury reservoir is a water company reservoir, not canal company, and was built in the sixties.

Yes, if the wind was in the wrong direction we got coffee all over the laundry, over a mile away.  

[David Mack]

5 hours ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

Yes, if the wind was in the wrong direction we got coffee all over the laundry, over a mile away.  

 

Maxwell House I believe.

[Dav and Pen]

We live 12 miles from Banbury but when the wind is south westerly there is a smell of coffee in the air. Smells better than it tastes. Think it is Kenco now. 

[PeterScott]

Not far north of Banbury from 1980.

Gosh it's taken me thirteen days to find the picture. The brain must be disorganised by all this isolation.

[Dav and Pen]

Steerers view 1975. Horrible bridge. Sorry about quality.