Same Canal but different names

[Split Pin]

7 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

I did anticipate that some more learned members than I may take issue with that statement but I think in general it's true and also that perhaps no company ever officially named it's canal. For instance what would the boaters and public naturally call the canal that went to Oxford and displayed notices bearing the legend 'Oxford Canal Company'?

 

That would explain the variances i.e. there is no absolutely right or wrong name of any canal.

 

I completely agree with your points on the BCN, the Stourbridge is BCN and the B&F isn't by environment. Although in other ways - such as lock furniture - the B&F is more BCN than the Stourbridge, which has a kinship with the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. There are ultimately no rules for what a BCN canal looks like other than the one defining feature - that the canal was owned by the BCN. It also brings to mind that while I was cruising the Birmingham & Warwick Junction recently (whose name strangely reverses order of the main line, the Warwick & Birmingham) my father kept referring to it as the Saltley Canal which is how we referred to it when we first went that way in the early 80s. He had great trouble trying to comprehend which canal we were on as we traversed through Salford, Bordesley, Proof House, Aston and Farmers' Bridge junctions to finally arrive at that place whose name has filled an entire thread on the forum.

The Stourbridge Canal was never a part of the BCN. The propreiters were the Stourbridge Navigation Company. At one time there was a BCN boundry marker next to the road bridge at the bottom of the Delph Locks

Edited December 4, 2021 by Split Pin

[Captain Pegg]

42 minutes ago, Split Pin said:

The Stourbridge Canal was never a part of the BCN. The propreiters were the Stourbridge Navigation Company. At one time there was a BCN boundry marker next to the road bridge at the bottom of the Delph Locks

 

Yes, my wording was perhaps a little imprecise. My point being that although it isn't part of the BCN it has more in common with the BCN in terms of it's general feel than the B&F which actually is part of the BCN. The key point about the ownership of the Stourbridge had already been made by Patrick in the post I responded to.

[Heartland]

Yes the Stourbridge Canal was a separate canal company that comprised the main line from the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal to join up with the original Dudley Canal at the Delph. There were branches to terminate in Stourbridge and another at the Leys (Lays) that formed the Fens Branch as well as the feeder from the Reservoirs. The Stourbridge Extension Canal was again a separate Company.

 

Returning to the Birmingham & Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. This was the result of the committee stage at Parliament when the Birmingham & Fazeley indepedent scheme was submitted as a bill and the Birmingham Canal Navigation (note the singular) opposed it with their own extensions proposals. The merger of the two companies was authorised by Parliament a year after the orignail amended bill became law. In 1794 the name was altered again to the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

 

I have been trying to think of other examples of parliamentary intervention in the case of waterways and may be Pluto can comment. It became more common with railway schemes such as the Manchester & Birmingham and the very complex arrangements that led to the creation of the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Rly, the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway and the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Co. 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Heartland

[Captain Pegg]

3 hours ago, Pluto said:

I was just pointing out that the legal title for individual canals was often more detailed than the names used more generally, but probably only appeared in legal documents. When the Waterways Archive was put on a more professional footing twenty years ago, they did create a list with variations of canal 'titles' so that documents, either legal or non-legal, could be linked to the particular canal they concerned whatever the name used.

 

Ah, OK. I didn't understand why you'd made the same point to me that I had explicitly quoted in the opening sentence of the post of mine you had quoted. The last line about everything being named after CRT was a little bit throwaway but emphasises why the names used today are generally frozen at the point of nationalisation. I do think it's a shame that some more of the original company names didn't survive into today's common usage, particularly those of the Grand Union.  

[Pluto]

15 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

Ah, OK. I didn't understand why you'd made the same point to me that I had explicitly quoted in the opening sentence of the post of mine you had quoted. The last line about everything being named after CRT was a little bit throwaway but emphasises why the names used today are generally frozen at the point of nationalisation. I do think it's a shame that some more of the original company names didn't survive into today's common usage, particularly those of the Grand Union.  

Names do seem to change over time, but I do find it annoying when people talk about the Leeds Liverpool Canal, without using 'and' or '&'.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Same with the "Worcester Birmingham" – that’s in fairly common parlance and even appears on CRT signs. (But then BW/CRT have often been a bit erratic with names on signage: I remember cringing at a BW sign saying “Welcome to Wendover Arm”.)