Where I am

[Split Pin]

20 minutes ago, Heartland said:

 

 

With regards to Coombe Hill Canal the early ordnance survey of the 1830's does not indicate a lock at the Severn, but then the scale to which the map was made might not show it anyway. The first ordnance survey was as published after the canal was abandoned, but still shows a lock, The 25 inch scale indicates a mitred pair of bottom gates and a single top gate. Which raises the question as to the type of craft that used the Coombe Hill Canal.

 

 

As to the Scottish image the posting was to discover if anybody knew of this waterway. It is the Arisaig Canal and the 6 in ordnance for Inverness shire shows the route.

 

 

 

And now a more simpler image which links a waterway with the iron industry as well as engineering

 

 

 

Foster & Rastricks Iron Works, home to the Argenoria, now the site of Lion Heath Centre housed in part of the old building

An earlier image

Edited January 24 by Split Pin
Remove Text

[Heartland]

Well that must be a record for working out a location. It was Bradley & Fosters ironworks and J U Raistrick did build "locomotives" there at one of the earliest factories for engines used on the railways. I hesitate to use the term "Locomotive" as the type of engine made at Stourbridge is best described as a travelling engine. This was a term used in the north east of England to distinguish the railway engine from the stationary engine. The engines made commonly had cylinders on top of the boiler which drove through a system of rods to the wheels. The Stephenson's built "Lancashire Witch" may be first described as a true locomotive where the cylinder had a direct drive to the wheels. The Stockton & Darlington "Locomotion". for which there will be renewed interest in 2025 is best described to be of the Travelling Engine Type. Foster and Raistrick built the Stourbridge Lion and Agenoria at Stourbridge.  J U Raistrick partnership at Stourbridge was relatively brief as he went on to be a successful railway engineer involved in railway construction.

Edited January 24 by Heartland

[Split Pin]

It does help when you have lived in the area for a good few years, another image taken by the late Alan T Smith M.B.E at the 1962 Rally, the yellow pontoon conversion was our family boat. so I had a bit of ahead start.

Edited January 24 by Split Pin
Spelling Correction

[Richard Carter]

21 hours ago, Heartland said:

As to the Scottish image the posting was to discover if anybody knew of this waterway. It is the Arisaig Canal and the 6 in ordnance for Inverness shire shows the route.

 

 

 

Nope, didn't know about this - but it is about 2 min. walk from the holiday cottage we've booked for July. Will take a look. The lock - was it a pound lock or a tidal sluice of some sort? - is not on the map but Google Earth shows it to be on the upstream side of the road crossing nearest the sea.

Edited January 25 by Richard Carter
to remove duplication

[Heartland]

It  would be of value to know more. The RCHS visit was based in Fort William and involved visits to railways and waterways. Not sure if Ian Moss attended this one though.

 

 

[Heartland]

As to the Ivel Navigation, this is a waterway that does perhaps deserve more attention. Clifton Lock was placed on the extension canal to Shefford and there was a plan to link Bedford and Shefford with the Grand Junction Canal, although this link was not made.

 

Clifton Lock in 1882:

 

 

Clifton Lock was the penultimate lock with Shefford being the last. The navigation extended to a wharf at Shefford and this map shows a reservoir which seemingly supplied the canal section.

 

 

 

And now another image to ponder on. This shows a warehouse by a basin, which I gather has now gone. This is a 1990's view.

 

Edited January 26 by Heartland

[Richard Carter]

3 hours ago, Heartland said:

And now another image to ponder on. This shows a warehouse by a basin, which I gather has now gone. This is a 1990's view.

 

 

Ripon?

[Pluto]

4 hours ago, Heartland said:

Clifton Lock was the penultimate lock with Shefford being the last. The navigation extended to a wharf at Shefford and this map shows a reservoir which seemingly supplied the canal section.

 

 

The reservoir looks much more like one for the corn mill just below it, with the navigation relying on water from the river.

[David Mack]

Just now, Pluto said:

The reservoir looks much more like one for the corn mill just below it, with the navigation relying on water from the river.

Particularly since it is also labelled "Mill Pond".

[Heartland]

Mill Pond or Reservoir? A mill pond provided water for the mill. Having both names given raises the question as to what the reservoir served.

If it supplied the mill then why call it a reservoir. At heart of this question is a possibility that the reservoir was a compensation reservoir like those on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal protecting water supplies to the mills on the Ivel.

[Heartland]

The warehouse view was at the end of the Lydney Canal and the buildings behind are still there. There are new units there now. Neat this place was the original navigation - Lydney Pill- came up from the Severn and formed a means of transfer to Pidcock & Co Canal

 

Another query then-------

 

 

[Heartland]

The cottage number 151 should have helped with this one and may be Goliath has some idea where this is and there is a nearby brewery, In fact in times gone by one road had a brewery at both ends. One brewed straw coloured beer and the other brewed darker beer. Sadly the one sold out to a group that closed many real ale pubs and breweries and even shut their own brewery, such was the destiny of the British brewery industry.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

A quick google says 151 is at Brierley Hill. 
So the surviving brewery nearby will be Bathams at the Bull and Bladder / the Vine Inn. 
 

ETA : we’re at the top of the Delph flight? but I don’t recall seeing the cottage

Edited February 2 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[Lady M]

Was the other brewery Simpkiss?

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

15 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

ETA : we’re at the top of the Delph flight? but I don’t recall seeing the cottage

There was another lock though, and the top of the flight now diverts around from where it was. 
Is the cottage there? 

Edited February 2 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[Rob-M]

Autumn 2016 Boundary Post included the photo and was titled Lock keepers cottage 151 on the original line of the Delph.

[Heartland]

Yes it is on the original line of the Dudley Canal when there were 9 locks and as Thomas Dadford was the engineer there were long pounds and a short distance between some locks. The tithe map shows the original and Ian Langford in 1979 shows where the two cottages are in relation to the diverted canal. Malthouse Stables were a later addition post 1900 in fact and were seemingly part of the joint Shropshire Union/ BCN engineering establishment controlled by G R Jebb.

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

That’s interesting I like that,

am I understanding this right: we use still use the original lock 9 and the ‘new’ lock 8 became redundant,

and at some point both of these locks were in use, side by side?

 

[springy]

The "Blue Book" suggests that the whole flight was rebuilt in 1858, top and bottom locks on their original location with the intervening 6 on a new alignment replacing the original middle 7 which suffered from subsidence. Whether the fall of the top and bottom locks was adjusted to make them all equal I'm not sure. It would seem unlikely that both sets would be usable at the same time depending on the severity of the subsidence, certainly there would be little point in doing any maintenance or repairs on the old 7 once the new ones were built. 

 

springy

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I’m misreading the map,

I thought it looked as though there were 2 locks side by at Delph Road

[Rob-M]

Just now, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

I’m misreading the map,

I thought it looked as though there were 2 locks side by at Delph Road

There is the area by the bottom lock where you can moor, not sure if there is any historical significance of that area.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Yes, I’ve moored there a couple of times.

And the locals have been known to park cars in there too!

 

 

Edited February 2 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[ditchcrawler]

2 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Yes, I’ve moored there a couple of times.

And the locals have been known to park cars in there too!

 

 

I couldn't get in due to the thick weed, even on ropes. That was in the summer, it was all gone the last time we came down but I didn't want to stop

[springy]

The middle 6 have a layout quite similar to factory 3, the sideways extended short pounds between each lock chamber provided extra water storage so that drawing a lock full of water off the pound did not lower the pound level too much. Retention of the wharf and part of the original line below top lock would serve the same purpose for that pound, it is possible that the "arm" alongside the bottom lock served a similar purpose for that pound as well as potential use as a wharf. The end of that "arm" is also the location of the bywash for the bottom lock.

 

springy

[Heartland]

Lock 1 and 9 at the Delph are on the original line the original 8 has been in filled.

 

As to Simkiss, yes they was the now closed local brewery

 

And now a West Midland waterway feature