Calling BCN experts – Naboth’s Wharf?

[Tony K]

Which Broad Lane is that Ray - the Bloxwich/Essington Broad Lane or the one Short Heath way?

[winja]

Let Uncle sherlock look at this logically....now please remember I have not read the book (although I have ordered a copy..please note I hope the book is more about canals than fishing as I rate Fishing about as interesting as watching Cricket or playing computer games )

 

As Mr W was saying pits had interesting and descriptive names and at the end of the list he mentions Olly Bonk so he obviously means the pit....coming from Bloxwich Broad Lane would be the obvious choice, a short cut accross the fields would bring him to Olly Bonk, passing the pit he would cross Kitchen Lane and arrive at ???????

 

Now let me tell you a little story about us as young boys living on Perry Hall, we used to cross Lichfield Road head up Linthouse Lane over the Black and white humpbacked bridge, down onto the canal side and cross what looked like a recently built overflow ridge with the canal on our right and the overflow pool (or Basin) on our left ,it was pretty daring stuff, we then crossed Ashmore Park, ( Open fields and no houses in those days ) finally coming to "The Magic Mountain" if we had gone any further we would have crossed Kithen Lane (a mere dirt track at this time) and eventually arrive at Holly Bank Pit ( or site thereof)

 

Now my Wife is Essington Born and Bred and lived in the nearest house to said "Magic Mountain" yet she had never heard of it, it was known to the local children as the "Blue Bank"...... HOW DARE THEY CALL OUR MAGIC MOUNTAIN A BLUE BLOODY BANK, which raises my theory Naboth Wharf maybe a Bloxwich name for Wharf where someones Dad or Brother worked at one time....and everyone else called it by its proper name whatever it was.

 

Back to Mr W when I read his decription of walking from Olly Bonk across a desoluate cratered old battlefield and breasted an old slag heap, I imediately thought THE BLUE BLOODY BANK, could he have crossed the fields of Ashmore Park and arrived at what became our famous overflow? on the 1945 Google it looks more like a Basin than an overflow... and if Mr W could see the ruinous timbers round all three sides, the wharf could not be very big......

.I rest my case Elimentary (Canal) dear Watson

Edited April 30, 2013 by winja

[Laurence Hogg]

Hi Winja,

I dont think the "blue bank" is the location. The basins at Perry Hall bridge are very old but still very clearly identifiable behind the piling. At this time of year they are quite visible. There was a winding hole at Linthouse Lane bridge somewhat over the years gardens have encroached on it and the site is virtually lost. Again a tramway came down to this too. The run off weirs you mention are all still in place each has its paddle gear with the triangular spindle. With the name Naboth being present in the area theres a good chance of a connection.

[Tony K]

Nice one Sherlock Winja........... looks like I'm gunna spend another hour or two tonight 'tracking' routes to The Blue Bank.

 

 

There’s a possible critical clue that I’ve just spotted nearing the end of the tale .......

 

 

‘..........there were some desperately exciting evenings with the sun going down behind the huge smoking tips of Olly Bonk and the rats stirring in their catacombs under the decaying planks.’

 

 

That would indicate to me Naboths Wharf was to the eastern side (somewhere) of Olly Bonk

 

 

 

Given your aversion to angling, hope you haven’t spent too much on the book. As Mark said - 'it's biographical, but centred around fishing so unless a fisherman or a lover of Black Country references beware.'

 

I’m sure you’ll enjoy the first half dozen chapters or so which contain some limited references to the towpath, but there are a few chapters that will turn you off – skip them and ‘move on’ – there’s still some interesting experiences and the authors vocabulary and style is at times fascinating - well at least to me.

[Heartland]

Broad Lane Wharf was on B4210. If the route described by Winja is correct in Kitchen Lane area was Ashmore Park Colliery and Allens Rough Colliery. In fact Allens Rough was working as late as 1933. Their tramway outlet to the canal was the basin at the Linthouse.

 

There were as it has been established a number of mines in this area, but the wharf being sought does seem to be on the canal from the Linthouse to Lane Head.

 

Ray Shill

[RLWP]

Would it be possible for someone to mark up a map to give me some idea of where these places are relative to the existing canal network? I'm not very familiar with the geography

 

Richard

[winja]

If the wharf was any nearer to Bloxwich than Linthouse he would surely have gone directly through New Invention, and would not have gone anywhere near Olly Bonk

 

 

Just a mo someone on roots web is trying to find details on a George Brice rumoured to have owned a coal wharf in the Linthouse area of Wednesfield

[Derek R.]

Could be a starting point Richard:

http://goo.gl/maps/Ym7Z6

[RLWP]

Could be a starting point Richard:

http://goo.gl/maps/Ym7Z6

 

Thank you. Yes, that does help

 

We have stopped overnight in Rough Wood country park

 

Richard

[Tony K]

Elsewhere in the book we learn that the author was born two years before the war – ie 1912.

 

Lets assume he’s aged 10, so I’ve snipped a copy of the nearest OS map to that 1920/24 – sorry it’s not brilliant, had to use 1/10000 scale because of the possible ‘distances’ involved. You’ll have to zoom/blow it up to see greater detail Richard

 

 

 

 

The author lived about 100/200 yards west of the green blob I’ve added to the eastern side of the map

 

The Wyrley & Essington canal is highlighted in blue. The staggered blue highlights are path of a long since disused arm which headed north west up to ‘Olly Bonk’ Colliery which is highlighted in red square.

 

Sneyd Colliery is highlighted yellow.

 

‘Main’ road routes highlighted ‘orange’ – to the east Broad Lane heading north, then MW would have to cross a number of fields dotted with shafts on his way to Olly Bonk, almost via Sneyd Colliery

 

Alternatively he continues west towards New Invention and either heads north west up Sneyd Lane – but he now appears too far west of the canal.

 

Just wondering aloud – given his statement regarding ‘the sun going down behind the huge smoking tips of Olly Bonk’, wouldn’t Naboth’s Wharf be more likely to be in the vicinity of Sneyd Colliery – or up that dead arm of the canal, although I’m uncertain as to how much water it would now be holding as it had serious issues with water supply a century earlier..........

Edited May 1, 2013 by Tony K

[mark99]

As a coincidence, there is an article I skimmed in one of the specialist historical type narrowboat mags in WH Smith today that mentions Holly Bank in the Black Country, there was an attribution/thanks to Lawrence too for supplying info.

[winja]

But why wopuld he pass Holly Bank to get to a canal nearer his home, Could it be he was a child when he went fishing and a fuddled old whatsit when he wrote the book ?

[winja]

I'm not being nasty to MW but if I tried writing about my days on the cut some almost 60 years ago I think I might get some memories a little mixed up, please remember I have not read his book yet So I don't know what ages or times we are talking about, also I cant seem to find anything out about MW, ( was he anything to do with the Old Hall Wiggin family ?

[winja]

PPPS If he was walking back from the Wharf towards Holly Bank Pit, the sun set would be behind the pit

[mark99]

MW was an author of many books - grew up as poor BC boy and became a senior journalist/editor in various major papers. I think he was a correspondant on Sunday Times too.

 

He wrote a lot about his other passion - cars/vintage motoring. It is quite staggering just how many punctures one got on ordinary journeys in the 20/30's.

 

 

I'm not being nasty to MW but if I tried writing about my days on the cut some almost 60 years ago I think I might get some memories a little mixed up, please remember I have not read his book yet So I don't know what ages or times we are talking about, also I cant seem to find anything out about MW, ( was he anything to do with the Old Hall Wiggin family ?

[Tony K]

Just too add, the book was first published in 1960, when he was 48. Yep Winja - when I googled, apart from links to his published material there's nowt about him which I found surprising

 

 

Obviously you start learning about his character and snippets of his family life in the book, but here's a 'summary' from the dust jacket of another of his books - which incidentally, although I've only read the first two chapters, may have been 'more up your street' Winja

 

 

 

 

 

 

[winja]

Well thats answered my next question which was has anyone read any of his other books (not the fishing ones ) and are they any good ?

[Tony K]

Mark recommended 'Cottage Idyll' and 'In spite of the price of hay' - well to me at least.

 

 

There's also this solitary review on Amazon of M O a M

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoirs-Maverick-Maurice-Wiggin/dp/0171420055/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367440943&sr=1-3&keywords=memoirs+of+a+maverick

[winja]

Yeah I saw that customers review and ordered the book on the strength of it

[Laurence Hogg]

Having checked extensivly on Ancestory.co.uk there are no obvious Naboth names connected to this area having colliery or similar occupations. This leads me to believe the name of this wharf my be made up and or a corruption of another name. The name is rare to say the least and in the Staffordshire results only around six people have the name in the immediate area. Others are located in Rowley Regis, Quarry Bank and Kingswinford which is a fair distance from Bloxwich / Willenhall.

[Tony K]

Cheers Laurence

[Heartland]

In order to gain some idea of mines in this area for the 1920's, I give details of mines working in 1926 according to Colliery Year book

 

Allens Rough Colliery Co Ltd: Allens Rough No3 &4,Ashmore Park No 1 & 3, Ashmore Wharf Pit.

Broad Lane Colliery Ltd: Broad Lane & No 2 Bloxwich

Downing Brothers: Meadow & Meadow 2, New Invention

Hollybank Coal Co Ltd: Hollybank & Hilton Main

Rowe, Owen & Rowe, Croft, New Invention

 

Ray Shill

[RLWP]

Ray, do you have any earlier names for the mines? I'm aware that names of places and properties hang on long after the premises change ownership. I was working 'up the Austin' in 2005 (MG Rover Longbridge)

 

Naboths might be an old name hanging on

 

Richard

[winja]

First page first chapter 2nd line onwards " under the ghastly oak, Ralph gave it that name. He had a taste and talent for naming inanimate things, and his names endowed them with a quality which they did not posess for everybody. There was nothing very ghastly about the ghastly oak"

 

I think we can safely say Ralph invented the name "Naboths Wharf

 

Enjoyed the book, especialy the little details like his 3 pound "New Hudson"..... I paid 5 pounds for mine although it was only a 98cc model but allowing for inflation my fiver was probably worth a lot less than the 3 quid he paid all those years before

Edited May 5, 2013 by winja

[mark99]

I dug out my old copy of the book - "on the box" with travesty Brown had me laughing.

 

On the box - an expression for "sick or disabled or hard up pay" funded by your co-workers before the welfare state - wo betide you if they caught you claiming it and malingering.

Edited May 5, 2013 by mark99