BCN Bores

[Djuwenda]

hello, can anyone tell me where I can find more information on the BCN specifically?

 

Is there a BCN society somewhere? I get frustrated wondering about the history of each filled in arm I pass...

 

I also keep spotting features I cant explain, drives me insane!

[RLWP]

Look, I don't mind helping people out, but googling 'BCN society' isn't hard, is it

 

Richard

Edited September 24, 2012 by RLWP

[Djuwenda]

Look, I don't mind helping people out, but googling 'BCN society' isn't hard, is it

 

Richard

 

thank you, you big gruff!

 

 

there is indeed a fairly prominent BCN society! Somehow I expected it to be some shadowy organisation.

[carlt]

there is indeed a fairly prominent BCN society! Somehow I expected it to be some shadowy organisation.

You're thinking of the "BCN Lodge"

[RLWP]

thank you, you big gruff!

 

 

there is indeed a fairly prominent BCN society! Somehow I expected it to be some shadowy organisation.

 

They're quite active and very knowledgeable, well worth joining if you are into the BCN

 

Richard

[pete harrison]

They're quite active and very knowledgeable, well worth joining if you are into the BCN

 

Richard

But I am a member of the B.C.N.S. (I first joined 1972ish) and I'm not very knowledgeable

[RLWP]

But I am a member of the B.C.N.S. (I first joined 1972ish) and I'm not very knowledgeable

 

Yeah, right...

 

 

Richard

[mark99]

I just come across this site

 

http://captainahabswaterytales.blogspot.co.uk/p/bcn-backwaters.html

 

Seems highly relevant.

Edited September 24, 2012 by mark99

[dove]

hello, can anyone tell me where I can find more information on the BCN specifically?

 

Is there a BCN society somewhere? I get frustrated wondering about the history of each filled in arm I pass...

 

I also keep spotting features I cant explain, drives me insane!

 

There's a book called the "Other 60 mile", well worth getting.

 

Andrew

[Laurence Hogg]

I run a Yahoo group which is a resource too, please join and you will find lots of useful info on there. Prominent historians are there to answer the most awkward of queries and between all of us nothing gets passed by!

 

Here is the link: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/CanalScapeBCN/

 

Buying "The other 60 miles" will be a good investment, then with a A"-Z" take to the streets and find all the bits that are still there and just about there, its amazing how much evidence is about. Most people would think for instance the Neachells branch is all gone but drive down strawberry lane in Willenhall and there is this curious hump...... the bridge survives in situ but buried!

[Heartland]

I suppose with such wonders as the Shropshire Union, Stafforshire & Worcestershire, Trent & Mersey, Grand Union, Leeds & Liverpool, Oxford and the Aire & Calder it is easy to pass the 160-odd miles of the Birmingham Canal Navigations by. This waterway is at the heart of the canal network and itself was composed of different waterways. The heavy industry that included iron and coal led to a transformation and improvement of the BCN network that has some 100 miles left for boating and the Lichfield Canal currently under restoration and the hope that the Bradley Locks Branch might be also restored to Navigation. The many disused arms and basins is a dedicated study, and without them the trade may not have reached the levels which it did.

 

Ray Shill

[MtB]

Is there a BCN society somewhere?

 

Yes.

 

Hope that helps,

Mike

[Starcoaster]

I don't spose it's in Birmingham, is it?

[carlt]

I don't spose it's in Birmingham, is it?

No, it's in Oldbury.

[Djuwenda]

thanks chaps.

I dont know if the full flavour Society is for me yet. Although I like the idea, the reality of interacting within groups of people does not always work for me. The other 60 miles book/website and the yahoo newsgroup may be better starting points

 

the reason why I have asked this question is a specific feature which has been bugging me. I cant really make sense of these openings.

This was taken on the Smethwick Engine arm, roughly midway between the turning point and bridge street.

I am aware the steam engine used to be sited where bridge street crosses the canal, but thats probably a good 100 yards away or more.

 

the picture showing the upper part is a poor attempt at capturing the sort of arm at the top of it.

[Laurence Hogg]

thanks chaps.

I dont know if the full flavour Society is for me yet. Although I like the idea, the reality of interacting within groups of people does not always work for me. The other 60 miles book/website and the yahoo newsgroup may be better starting points

 

the reason why I have asked this question is a specific feature which has been bugging me. I cant really make sense of these openings.

This was taken on the Smethwick Engine arm, roughly midway between the turning point and bridge street.

I am aware the steam engine used to be sited where bridge street crosses the canal, but thats probably a good 100 yards away or more.

 

the picture showing the upper part is a poor attempt at capturing the sort of arm at the top of it.

Just the remains of a simple loading hoist, there were loads of these around. Basicly a Girder with a rolling hoist on it bit like you can still buy for garage use. There would have been some sort of unloading wharf below, probably not very wide and even possibly cantalievered.

[Derek R.]

The vertical columns would be as Laurence states, parts of a crane or hoisting system, but the various little doors at different heights do present a mysterious challenge - unless someone knows why and for what they were used. They are not big enough to allow any goods of size through, but perhaps they were specific to something long and thin, with a requirement not to let in cold or draught whilst in transition.

 

Perhaps some sort of clinker were shoveled through into waiting boats. Pure conjecture. They are no more than two feet high judging by the courses of brickwork. What firm was there, and for what were they installed at such different levels? Bet someone knows - then we'll all have that - 'Oh yes' moment.

[Djuwenda]

I find the square openings quite puzzling too, but even more so he rectangular, vertical ones!!

 

edit: in the name of clarity, and as an apology for the poor quality of the picture,

 

There are types of elements which show

 

- a vertical steel girder, which looks like it may have a positionned the way it is to help support the crumbling wall

 

- square opening with steel doors. There are three or four of these barely visible as hidden by the vegetaion, about 2ft above the waterline and a 2 others either side of the steel girder

 

- two rectangular openings on the left side of the girder. they are less visible as their openings have been infilled with bricks, however the door of one is still in place - albeit not visible as at the wrong angle on this picture! The hinges to the other one are still visible on the picture so it definitely used to have a closing door in place?

 

-the 4th thing is possibly the most difficult to see and protrudes at a right angle about a foot from the top of the wall. It goes out for about one foot and hen has a right angle, you can just about make theoutline of its vertical element in the foliage, against the white sky.

 

to me this looks like it may have been a moving, mechanical element, like a governor? edit again just some sort of lever...

Edited September 25, 2012 by Djuwenda

[mark99]

It's a long shot but you could try google earth, satellite view and use the feature to roll back time.

 

You get historic aeriel views (eg. in most places, there seems to be a 1940's ariel view available)albeit in low resolution - but there may be enough detail surrounding to take an educated guess.

[Pluto]

The vertical slots look as if there could have been some form of rope drive to whatever was outside. The square holes look very much like bearing blocks for line shafting inside the building.

[Djuwenda]

I like your idea of the rope drive.

 

Actually I reckon you must be on the money there.

This would hint at some sort of mechanical shovel contraption, presumably to unload coal off boats?

[Derek R.]

Most mechanical unloading of coal was done by grab, and dropped into hoppers. The 'roll-back' on Google Earth shows little to give clues, and that piece of wall is all that is left of the former building to which it must have once been part of. The vertical rectangular sections 'may' be the remains of a frame which held the sheaves of a hydraulic ram such as were used in many wharf side hoists along London River and elsewhere.

 

But looking at links to Old~Maps.co.uk for that area of Smethwick in 1888-1889, there is shown a host of engineering works along that bank. In the vicinity of the half way point described, were the Eagle Works and the Patent Axle Works, squeezed in between these particular two was the Soap Works. Doubtless several would have shipped via the canal or at least taken in materials.

[Laurence Hogg]

On a 1945 overhead there is an rextended awning projecting over the canal mid way where OP has indicated. Also the term "hood" is present on an old plan along with mention of "bedstead works". I am sure Ray Shill will have a definitive answer on this as this type of archeology is what he does so well.

[Djuwenda]

In the vicinity of the half way point described, were the Eagle Works and the Patent Axle Works

 

I think the exact location of the wall is 52.497443,-1.959963 (you can just copy and paste these coordinates in google maps)

 

Eagle works? would this be a parent of the eagle foundry where Boulton and Watt commissioned work:

while the cylinder jacket, or outer cylinder, together with some smaller work were cast at the Eagle Foundry, Birmingham

 

and later

 

 

Apparently, it was not before the year of 1794 that the firm took the first serious steps towards doing more of the engine work themselves. The original idea was to have a boring-mill, and Peter Ewart, who was then in business as a millwright, and superintending the erection of Boulton and Watt’s engines in Manchester, was brought to Soho to design and superintend the erection of a separate establishment at Smethwick, which became known as the Soho Foundry, and was about a mile distant from the parent establishment. Soho had the disadvantage that everything had to be brought there and taken away by road; when the question arose of dealing with large cylinders and other heavy articles this became an important matter; possibly it may have been the factor that determined the setting up of a new works. At any rate, in selecting a site for it the point was kept in view, and the plot of land acquired had a frontage to the Birmingham Canal, from which a branch was cut and a dock formed within the works.

 

 

 

edit to add the source: http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/industrial_revolution_series_one_parts_2_and_3/publishers-note-part-3.aspx

Edited September 26, 2012 by Djuwenda

[Derek R.]

It may be possible, though the Eagle Works as shown on the 1888-1889 map extended across the road, and there may well have been other sites with the same name - perhaps older. The co-ordinates seem to match the site of 'Eagle Works' straddling Rolfe Street, and the wall marking the Northernmost point. The Plate Glass Works being on the opposite side of the Engine Arm.

 

Love those old maps.