Ray T Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 8 minutes ago, Heartland said: Another question this date stone is found on a bridge for a canal that started as separate venture, formed an alliance with another and then another and was absorbed into a greater undertaking in the twentieth century. It is in the West Midlands. Coventry / Birmingham Fazeley Canals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) Coventry remained independent, Birmingham & Fazeley had the rare distinction of Parliamentary intervention that led to the merger with the Birmingham Canal Navigation. Neither fits the clue above, but does narrow down the choice. Another clue is that it is a footbridge. Edited September 1, 2022 by Heartland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerbeerbeerbeerbeer Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 Are we anywhere on the Northern part of the BCN? I’m thinking an independent arm/branch that might have become part of the Curly Wyrley and then the BCN. and is this canal still navigable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-M Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 Is it Pelsall Junction...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerbeerbeerbeerbeer Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Rob-M said: Is it Pelsall Junction...? I thought Pelsall but I don’t think there’s a footbridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-M Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 24 minutes ago, Goliath said: I thought Pelsall but I don’t think there’s a footbridge. I think northern BCN somewhere, there are a couple of bridges near the junction. I reckon that bridge has featured as a question on the BCN challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerbeerbeerbeerbeer Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Rob-M said: I think northern BCN somewhere, there are a couple of bridges near the junction. I reckon that bridge has featured as a question on the BCN challenge. There’s a cross over bridge for the horses and a road bridge. I give up. I’ve started thinking Merry Hill 😃 or thereabouts because of the reference to being absorbed into a greater 20th century undertaking. 🤷♀️ Edited September 1, 2022 by Goliath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mack Posted September 2, 2022 Report Share Posted September 2, 2022 14 hours ago, Heartland said: Another question this date stone is found on a bridge for a canal that started as separate venture, formed an alliance with another and then another and was absorbed into a greater undertaking in the twentieth century. It is in the West Midlands. Kixley Footbridge, Warwick and Birmingham Canal, and part of the Grand Union Canal since 1929? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2022 Yes David Mack gets the answer correct In one Nicholson it is shown as 23A, but on the bridge when this picture was taken (2010) the bridge number was 22A. So which is correct? I took the image when compiling Silent Highways and the reason for that book name was inspired by the Grand Union Canal scheme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mack Posted September 2, 2022 Report Share Posted September 2, 2022 But why was it built? It connects a footpath across the fields from Kixley Lane to the towpath, and the footpath doesn't continue on. If a bridge wasn't needed when the canal was built, why was it necessary over 100 years later? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2022 I gather this was a a replacement bridge for an existing bridge, which would indicate the path had a use. At Kixley Bridge there was a wharf and a small community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2022 Something for BCN followers, this image is of a location that has somehow remarkably survived. It shows a curved wall and iron girder support for what when built spanned a basin which had been created when a new canal was built. The engineer for that canal was James Walker. The wall separated the canal basin from a tramway that linked an ironworks and blast furnace with another ironworks, collieries and ironstone mines. When those ironworks closed nearly 40 years after the making of the new canal, the coal underneath was mined and the basin had a use for coal traffic, but when the coal was exhausted the basin ceased to have a function and was later infilled. This basin was also placed between canal cottages owned by the BCN and all of those buildings have now gone. The ironworks owners were successful in their day and once gave employment to the canal carrier James Fellows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-M Posted September 3, 2022 Report Share Posted September 3, 2022 49 minutes ago, Heartland said: Something for BCN followers, this image is of a location that has somehow remarkably survived. It shows a curved wall and iron girder support for what when built spanned a basin which had been created when a new canal was built. The engineer for that canal was James Walker. The wall separated the canal basin from a tramway that linked an ironworks and blast furnace with another ironworks, collieries and ironstone mines. When those ironworks closed nearly 40 years after the making of the new canal, the coal underneath was mined and the basin had a use for coal traffic, but when the coal was exhausted the basin ceased to have a function and was later infilled. This basin was also placed between canal cottages owned by the BCN and all of those buildings have now gone. The ironworks owners were successful in their day and once gave employment to the canal carrier James Fellows. Is it on the Bentley canal...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2022 Not the Bentley Canal, it was another Walker canal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerbeerbeerbeerbeer Posted September 3, 2022 Report Share Posted September 3, 2022 4 hours ago, Heartland said: Not the Bentley Canal, it was another Walker canal Rushall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 No not the Rushall. The Basin was near a stop. Try and guess the gauging point as it seems few, if any, had noticed this feature. The original toll keepers house at this Stop was removed to make way for the plans of another engineer, John Robinson Mc Clean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-M Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 2 hours ago, Heartland said: No not the Rushall. The Basin was near a stop. Try and guess the gauging point as it seems few, if any, had noticed this feature. The original toll keepers house at this Stop was removed to make way for the plans of another engineer, John Robinson Mc Clean Is it somewhere off the Anglesey branch as John Robinson McClean was involved in developing coal mining in that area...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 John R Mc Clean was engineer for the South Staffordshire Railway that does cross Anglesey Branch, but that railway crossed other canals en route to Dudley. The image above is close to the Metro line presently under construction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-M Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 Somewhere on the Wednesbury Oak Loop...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Pegg Posted September 4, 2022 Report Share Posted September 4, 2022 Toll End Branch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Toll End Canal started as a private waterway and became a through canal to Tipton from the Walsall and the Engineer was John Rennie Senior. Wednesbury Oak Loop was the original canal as engineered by James Brindley with Samuel Simcox laying out the final route as first built. The main canal near this basin was completed in 1844 and linked the Walsall Canal with the Birmingham & Fazeley at Salford Bridge. This ironworks basin was a modification of an earlier canal that terminated at this ironworks. The ironworks itself had a longer history and at one time was a water powered mill/ironworks. The original canal was built by BCN contractors in the late 1780's, when James Bough and Samuel Bull had influence as engineers for new works, as a branch from the Walsall Canal. In making the new canal line to Walker's specifications that new canal cut across the top end of the original branch. The original branch canal had the distinction of having an aqueduct over the Tame, and whose site is now buried. Much of the lower end of that original branch has been converted into a road. The point where it joined the new canal had a towpath bridge that crossed the junction. Instead of having another junction opposite, a new basin link was made to the East and a link canal made with the original terminus section of the branch canal. This too had a towpath bridge (the canal had and has two towpaths and is still in use) Both towpath bridges were lowered to towpath level by BW The Ironworks basin link passed under the towpath and then the ironworks tramway before emerging at the spot made. This new link proved to be useful for the ironworks in sending finished iron to London and elsewhere. The stop was originally a narrowing of the canal like other BCN Stops such as Rowley, Sneyd and Coseley. What made this different was the making of the railway which was opened to Dudley. The stop was altered to two channels with the central island supporting the railway bridge that spanned it. In making the railway the toll house was taken down and another made to the west side of the railway embankment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Pegg Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 That appears to describe Golds Hill on the Tame Valley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mack Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Danks Branch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted September 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Yes it is Golds Hill Stop and Yes the basin came off the canal west of the Stop and Yes the basin was originally at the end of the Danks Branch and the ironworks was Goldshill operated by John Bagnall & Sons. The modern bridge across Goldshill Stop has been made for the Metro extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stroudwater1 Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 On 22/06/2022 at 18:07, Heartland said: Yes it is Sideway near Stoke, the Stafford Colliery behind had a conveyor belt that loaded the narrowboats. The pit was operated by the NCB at the end, and Stafford Coal & Iron Co before. The location was near Fenton and the pit closed in 1969. Canal traffic ceased before that and coal production was carried on at the nearby modern pit, Hem Heath, although this was a distance from the canal. The traffic in coal by canal seems to have used some of the modern BW narrowboats such as Mountbatten and Jellicoe, perhaps this can be confirmed. I can confirm that Mountbatten carried coal in around 1966, as did Lindsey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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