What’s the history of this building.

[Nightwatch]

Passed this building many a time over the years. But never really known the history of it. Photo is a copy of Peter Scott’s collection from Tonic thread.

[mrsmelly]

Just now, Nightwatch said:

Passed this building many a time over the years. But never really known the history of it. Photo is a copy of Peter Scott’s collection from Tonic thread.

Stupid boy!!

[Nightwatch]

1 minute ago, mrsmelly said:

Stupid boy!!

.? Oh! I see oooops! 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Nightwatch

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Photo is a copy of Peter Scott’s collection from Tonic thread.

 

Are you sure the picture is not from the book "The Invisible Man" ?

[mrsmelly]

Just now, Nightwatch said:

.?

What building? 

[Nightwatch]

I’ve decided to put a photo up now. Thought it may assist. It’s in a previous post but I’ll put it here as well. (If I remember)

[Jen-in-Wellies]

This 1880's map shows no road access, which suggests it is a canal building. The low building on the right in the photo (left on the map) looks like stables, presumably for tow horses. I'd suggest the main building is a toll house for the Oxford canal. The short bit of Oxford Canal between Braunston and Napton that boats taking what is now the Grand Union have to use was a big earner for them.

The modern OS 1:25,000 map shows a track from a road giving vehicle access now.

 

Jen

Edited July 24, 2022 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Stroudwater1]

One of the elevations has 1903 on it 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Stroudwater1

[Jen-in-Wellies]

19 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

One of the elevations has 1903 on it 

Interesting. My first though when I saw the picture was that it had been altered and extended. Possibly more than once, to suit changing circumstances. The difference in window opening sizes between the central core and side wings, for example. Smaller often means older, as glass dropped in price over time.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Stroudwater1]

Yes I think you are right, the picture I took is from the canal and Peters shows the same window configuration at the other wing so the central part is older with 2 wings added in presumably 1903. 

The windows are definitely different in the centre section but difficult to match to the map 

[Ray T]

The house was a Waterway Employee residence at one time.

I know of a Waterways retiree who lived in it for a while.

[David Schweizer]

I have always understood it to be the Toll House between the old Grand Junction Canal and the Oxford Canal. similar to the  building at Napton Junction, now known as Wigrams, which was the Toll House between the Oxford Canal and the old Warwick and Napton Canal.

[David Mack]

29 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

I have always understood it to be the Toll House between the old Grand Junction Canal and the Oxford Canal.

But all three arms at the junction are on the Oxford Canal. The junction with the Grand Junction was at what is now the entrance to Braunston Marina. The Stop House here may have served as a toll office for the GJC.

[David Schweizer]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

But all three arms at the junction are on the Oxford Canal. The junction with the Grand Junction was at what is now the entrance to Braunston Marina. The Stop House here may have served as a toll office for the GJC.

Did the stretch between the stop house and the new junction, remain with the Oxford canal, after it was realigned in the 1830's? All the later maps show it as part of the Grand Junction.  The stop house was almost certainly the toll office, before the re alignment, but what other purpose would the new, building on the junction serve? perhaps trade was so heavy that two toll offices were required, There also appear to be stable buildings at the junction which could have accomodated exchange horses.

[Captain Pegg]

In the 1881 and 1891 censuses the original toll office by the narrows is listed as the Oxford Canal Company offices and is occupied by Thomas E Cope and family. However Mr Cope is listed as a "Wharfinger on the Oxford Canal" and not as a toll collector.

 

His son Harold Frances Cope later became a toll collector at Calcutt top lock and interestingly not at Wiggerham's, which by 1939 appears to have been occupied by Alfred Neal a non-canal worker but also Harry Cope's brother-in-law.

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Captain Pegg

[Heartland]

The original course of the Oxford Canal as stated went through what is now the termibus boatyard, with the Oxford Canal straightenings of the early 1830;'s leading to the creation of the triangular junction spanned by the iron bridges, It was also my understanding that this was a toll house and more suited to the traffic on the straightened line.

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Heartland

[Dav and Pen]

When we lived in Braunston in the 70s Tommy Johnson the lock keeper lived in that house and I always thought it was possibly a lengthmans house as it would have been built after the route was altered. 

[David Schweizer]

9 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

When we lived in Braunston in the 70s Tommy Johnson the lock keeper lived in that house and I always thought it was possibly a lengthmans house as it would have been built after the route was altered. 

 

Possibly, but it is of quite generous proportions for a lengthman's house.

 

 

1 hour ago, Captain Pegg said:

In the 1881 and 1891 censuses the original toll office by the narrows is listed as the Oxford Canal Company offices and is occupied by Thomas E Cope and family. However Mr Cope is listed as a "Wharfinger on the Oxford Canal" and not as a toll collector.

 

His son Harold Frances Cope later became a toll collector at Calcutt top lock and interestingly not at Wiggerham's, which by 1939 appears to have been occupied by Alfred Neal a non-canal worker but also Harry Cope's brother-in-law.

 

A lot more info on Wiggerham's here:-  https://static1.squarespace.com/static/564a5d6be4b0da3c3b0864c4/t/565f77eee4b052d551489625/1449097198382/Wigrams+History.pdf

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by David Schweizer

[Dav and Pen]

Interesting that the 1885 map shows the house being there and the gable end in the photo has a 1900 date brick built in. Possibly it was 2 houses at one time. It never had official road access when we were there but I often drove across the field to see Tommy,who was also responsible for the paddles on the puddle bank that controlled the level.

[Ray T]

50 minutes ago, Heartland said:

The original course of the Oxford Canal as stated went through what is now the termibus boatyard, with the Oxford Canal straightenings of the early 1830;'s leading to the creation of the triangular junction spanned by the iron bridges, It was also my understanding that this was a toll house and more suited to the traffic on the straightened line.

 

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

41 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

Possibly, but it is of quite generous proportions for a lengthman's house.

 

1 minute ago, Dav and Pen said:

Possibly it was 2 houses at one time.

I wondered about the size too. Perhaps more than one dwelling originally. There would be jobs there for working with the stabled horses as well as toll collecting.

[ditchcrawler]

Didn't Ivor Bachelor live there in the 1990s 

[Nightwatch]

Thanks for all the comments so far.

[Rose Narrowboats]

It was built by the Oxford Canal Company at approximately the same time as the puddle banks (1828/29) and I'm sure it was a lengthsman's house. There is a flood paddle and weir just the other side of the turnover bridge, plus a very large embankment for him to keep an eye on. All the big OCC embankments originally had houses near them and all bar one (at Nettle Hill, again with no road access) survive.

 

The wharfinger title seems to have been used to cover any number of canal company employee job descriptions  - the toll collector at Stretton Stop was similarly described. There was no road access up to that property, so I can't see it being much use as a wharf, and the house is too far back from the towingpath and the wrong architectural style to be a toll house. The building in the garden was originally part stable and part drop plank store.

 

The toll houses covering the Braunston pound were the Stop House in Braunston for traffic from the south, Hillmorton Middle Lock to the north (now sadly demolished), Calcutt Top Lock (Calcutt Boats property these days - tolls were never collected at Wigrams afaik) and Marston Doles Top Lock (for where I have one of the toll registers if anyone ever wants to see it) to the west.

 

The OCC spent a fair bit of money on their properties over the years and particularly it seem in the early 20th Century. The one I grew up in had been extended (and significiantly altered internally) at least three times, though they drew the line when they discovered the then occupant (the company engineer) was having the back garden levelled to make a tennis court using company labour and materials! 100 years later it still has a change level at the point he was sacked......

 

After the Johnsons moved out of the house at Braunston Turn in the early 2000s it was unoccupied for a while before being sold off by BWB, still with no vehicle access.

[MtB]

3 hours ago, Rose Narrowboats said:

There is a flood paddle and weir just the other side of the turnover bridge

 

Swerving off at a tangent, I think it's an ordinary bridge rather than a turnover bridge.

 

But it's an interesting and possibly unique bridge for a different reason. It's a double bridge with a wall down the centre. So boaters and walkers, horses etc can cross from one side of the canal to the other, and at the same time the bridge is an accommodation bridge for the farmer whose livestock can also pass from one side to the other without mixing with towpath traffic or escaping onto the towpath.

 

I've never noticed a canal bridge like this anywhere else, but maybe there are loads.