Historical Hillmorton

[zenataomm]

Come to the Old Mortonians Canal Festival at Hillmorton on the 15th August to celebrate 175years of the duplicate locks and in the marquee you will be able to learn all about the housing development, the road AND the plan to restore the Basin which is the old canal cut off in the 1700s. You can still follow the bend round to where it meets the modern canal. Don't be confused by the line of the Clifton Brook which goes under the modern canal.

 

Sounds great, but only if you're doing the food.

Do your services still include cess pits cleaned and handmade cakes?

[c c]

 

Sounds great, but only if you're doing the food.

Do your services still include cess pits cleaned and handmade cakes?

Sorry, that's from an old advert. The Tillie has been painted since.

We're doing the food for the boaters until 2pm but others are then providing the usual show food until 11pm

Bar open all day. DUPLICITY real ale

[Rose Narrowboats]

There was another, later proposal for an arm for the Earl of Craven which would have left the main line south of Bridge 26 and headed across where the Ansty Rolls Royce factory is now to a terminus near Coombe Abbey.

 

The Wyken Arm was not built until after the straightening. The opening date for the Alexnedria Colliery was 1862 I believe, so the arm would have been built at about the same time (which explains the lack of a cast iron towingpath bridge.

 

The was a loading basin on the Wyken loop just south of Shilton Lane Bridge (No 7 in the 1840s renumbering) for the original Wyken Colliery which closed in 1881.

 

Brownie points for anyone who knows where Bridge 8, the cast iron tp bridge originally at the south end of the Wyken loop now is.....

 

I think the first back pumping at Hillmorton was a beam engine installed in 1831 which could raise over four locks of water per hour. This was later replaced by a large open crank engine in a new engine house (still extant next to the sump lydfordcastle mentions) which is connected to the same culvert which drains the dock. The second engine was replaced by an electric motor and pump (still there in the 90s) which was then superseded in the 1940s by a new electric motor and pump in a utilitarian concrete building on the offside below the bottom lock. That served until the late 80s when the current system was put in on the towingpath side and the feeder through the hill field abandoned.

What is now the dry dock was originally a branch to supply the boilers with coal. One of the boilers served for years as a diesel tank next to the second engine house (which became a carpenter's shop after nationalisation) for years and is still there unless it's gone very recently. The other branch off the arm has got what's left of the OCC's inspection launch buried in it.

Part of the original engine house survives as a dwelling.

[Rose Narrowboats]

May be of interest? A part copy of one of one of original survey drawings of The Oxford Canal held by Coventry's Reference Library.

 

"A plan of the intended Navigable CANAL from the Coventry CANAL near the City of Coventry to the CITY of Oxford." Surveyed in 1768 Rob't Whitworth, delin.t

 

Of note is the arm to Gosford Green which was never built and the then planned canal was to join the Coventry Canal closer to Bedworth and the Warwickshire coal fields.

The thing that always strikes me about that map is how much straighter Whitworth's proposed route is than the one Brindley laid out.

[Athy]

There was another, later proposal for an arm for the Earl of Craven which would have left the main line south of Bridge 26 and headed across where the Ansty Rolls Royce factory is now to a terminus near Coombe Abbey.

 

The Wyken Arm was not built until after the straightening. The opening date for the Alexnedria Colliery was 1862 I believe, so the arm would have been built at about the same time (which explains the lack of a cast iron towingpath bridge.

 

The was a loading basin on the Wyken loop just south of Shilton Lane Bridge (No 7 in the 1840s renumbering) for the original Wyken Colliery which closed in 1881.

 

Brownie points for anyone who knows where Bridge 8, the cast iron tp bridge originally at the south end of the Wyken loop now is.....

 

I think the first back pumping at Hillmorton was a beam engine installed in 1831 which could raise over four locks of water per hour. This was later replaced by a large open crank engine in a new engine house (still extant next to the sump lydfordcastle mentions) which is connected to the same culvert which drains the dock. The second engine was replaced by an electric motor and pump (still there in the 90s) which was then superseded in the 1940s by a new electric motor and pump in a utilitarian concrete building on the offside below the bottom lock. That served until the late 80s when the current system was put in on the towingpath side and the feeder through the hill field abandoned.

What is now the dry dock was originally a branch to supply the boilers with coal. One of the boilers served for years as a diesel tank next to the second engine house (which became a carpenter's shop after nationalisation) for years and is still there unless it's gone very recently. The other branch off the arm has got what's left of the OCC's inspection launch buried in it.

Part of the original engine house survives as a dwelling.

Wow! You can't beat local info, thanks,

[c c]

 

I think the first back pumping at Hillmorton was a beam engine installed in 1831 which could raise over four locks of water per hour. This was later replaced by a large open crank engine in a new engine house (still extant next to the sump lydfordcastle mentions) which is connected to the same culvert which drains the dock. The second engine was replaced by an electric motor and pump (still there in the 90s) which was then superseded in the 1940s by a new electric motor and pump in a utilitarian concrete building on the offside below the bottom lock. That served until the late 80s when the current system was put in on the towingpath side and the feeder through the hill field abandoned.

 

Can we nick some of that to add to our history info for the event on 15th August

 

A relevant extract from our collection of facts is:

A windmill was originally pro­posed as the motive power for a water pump, but the choice was a stately beam engine, of the usual gargantuan proportions. Capable of lifting water the required 18ft l0 ¼ inches, its cylin­der was over 2 foot in diameter, with a stroke of 6½ft, and it delivered a leisurely 12 strokes per minute. Fuel consumption was l½cwt of coal for just over 4 locks of water. It was possible for a boat to pass through each lock, even using the additional side pond­ing paddle in just 80 seconds! The lock chambers were designed to fill in a staggering 29 seconds, and soon an impressive average of 400 working narrow boats a week were passing through the new locks. The Oxford Canal was to remain well in profit until the 20th century. Steam power eventually gave way to oil with a 32bhp paraffin engine, which powered the same l3in belt driven cen­trifugal pump. Sadly these pre­cious heritage items have been lost. Oil in turn was superseded by elec­tricity, which now drives the pumps on the tow­ing path side. The switch gear and meter are in the little white hut by the bottom lock, usually mistaken for an old toll house but actually the duty lock keeper’s lobby

[zenataomm]

Please sir, I know sir Sir Sir!

 

It's been repositioned in the city centre just off the inner ring road near Spon End.

 

It now spans the River Sherbourne just as it plunges underground.

[Rose Narrowboats]

By all means - but we've both missed a bit out there Ian. There were two steam engines - the first one a beam engine housed in what is now 13, The Locks, the second one drove the centrifugal in the new engine house - and I missed out the oil engine before the 1st of the three electric back pumping systems.

 

I didn't know the old centrifugal pump by the dock had been removed. I have some pics of it somewhere I think, but it wasn't a particularly impressive set up to be honest. The much bigger 1940's installation at the end of Canal House garden was a far more impressive set up, and I probably should have made an effort to save that!

 

There were originally two lock lobbies - there was an identical one on the offside at the top lock, and the toll office was/is built on to the end of Canal House.

 

The last lock keeper was a Mr Payne, and I have his OCC pattern windlass. It was doubtless the property of several lock keepers before him as it is worn so thin it has cracked and been repaired!

 

ETA missing words.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Rose Narrowboats

[c c]

we've both missed a bit out there Ian. There were two steam engines -

We do have mention of the second steam engine and the paraffin one in the full document but if we add your info and the sketches of the engines that were rescued when BW cleared the depot, we have the makings of a very comprehensive history of Hillmorton Duplicate Locks. Lets get together and have it printed up.