Gosbrook Mill

[Heartland]

Gosbrook Mill was a watermill on the Gosbrook. It was placed near the BCN where the Gosbrook passed under the canal between lock 15 & 16. It is difficult to find the aqueduct today. But it must be still there as the brook course must also run under the canal. Modern widening of Stafford Road probably obscures this course. It would be interesting to note if other lost aqueducts still exist elsewhere.

 

Ray Shill

 

 

[Laurence Hogg]

Gosbrook Mill was a watermill on the Gosbrook. It was placed near the BCN where the Gosbrook passed under the canal between lock 15 & 16. It is difficult to find the aqueduct today. But it must be still there as the brook course must also run under the canal. Modern widening of Stafford Road probably obscures this course. It would be interesting to note if other lost aqueducts still exist elsewhere.

 

Ray Shill

 

 

 

Gorsebrook rd is still there in Wolverhampton with one of the city's overlooked and derelict landmarks in evidence. That is Lady Wulfruna's spring which may contribute to the Gosbrook.

[David Mack]

It would be interesting to note if other lost aqueducts still exist elsewhere.

I would hope that, even if the watercourse either side has been culverted, and the aqueduct is not visible at the surface, CRT would have records, as it is their responsibility to maintain these structures, which support the canal.

 

The local authority and/or Environment Agency should have records of the culverts either side too.

[Blossom]

Gosbrook Mill was actually fed by the Smestow Brook as it was the area that was called originally (985 AD) Gose Broc and nowadays Gorsebrook. The section of the Smestow Brook bearing the name 'Gorsebrook', is now culverted, disappearing in Fowlers Park to the east and not resurfacing again until at the other side of Dunstall Park racecourse to the west. A distance of approximately 1.25miles

[Pluto]

If you are interested in unusual aqueducts, the one over the Douglas at Parbold is particularly interesting. For seven years, from the canal opening in 1774 until the old Douglas Navigation was finally close in 1781, boats sailed both over and under the aqueduct. This photo was taken from the site of Parbold lock on the old navigation, the aqueduct being on a skew so that boats could enter and leave the lock easily.

[Heartland]

The Leeds & Liverpool Canal Aqueduct at Parbold, is still visible, that at Gosbrook is not. The thread of this discussion is about non visible aqueducts. Another case is on John Ramsden's canal where the leat of the mill at Apseley passed under the canal (see map p31 of my North Eastern Canal Book).

 

What makes Gosbrook Aqueduct important is that it dates from 1772 and was probably a James Brindley designed Aqueduct, and if not him, his resident engineer Samuel Simcox was responsible. CRT plans still show the culvert under the canal around the spot early maps indicate the aqueduct existed.

 

Ray Shill

[Heartland]

A link to the 1776 Map

 

http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/rayshill/media/Map30_zps716bf705.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

This map shows the aqueduct

 

Ray Shill

[Pluto]

Parbold is an aqueduct you can't see easily, given that it is even more overgrown now than in the photo. However, this one is over Tinker Brook in Church, photographed when the culvert above it was opened out to remove a major blockage. I think it has since been covered over again.

 

The culvert entrance you can see in the distance is not the one for the canal on the section opened in 1810, but the one built for the turnpike in 1821 when they widened the canal embankment to fit the road alongside.

 

The same happened here, at Bentley Brook, near Burnley, where the culvert entrance was built by the new turnpike, opened 20 years after the canal, as it crossed tane embankment built alongside the earlier canal embankment. This was widened again when the railway was built in 1848, so the canal culvert is only visible from 'inside'.

 

Bentley Brook is also the location of two of the earliest box-section girder bridges, built where the railway crossed the canal here, though they were subsequently replaced as train weights increased.

[Graham and Jo]

The brook is shown on the 1886 OS map http://maps.nls.uk/view/101597303 but has been buried by the time of the 1903 OS map http://maps.nls.uk/view/101597297 Cheers Graham

[Heartland]

Looking at various plans for Gosbrook, much of the brook course had been buried or culverted before 1900, although it looks like the BCN installed an inspection access on the south side of the aqueduct.

 

Ray Shill

[Heartland]

Just to clarify, I understand the Gosbrook became the Smestow further towards Dunstall and it is as the Smestow that it crosses over the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Dunstall Water Bridge. Yates Staffordshire map shows 2 separate mills at Gosbrook ans one east of the Water Bridge.

 

Ray Shill