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Canal carriers working in the brickfields.


Ursamajor4148

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Hello everyone. I am interested in finding out about the canal carriers who worked the brickfields of West Drayton/Yiewsley/Stockley/Hayes. It would be great to find any photos/info relating to this if anyone can point me in the right direction. I believe that there is an article in the autumn 2017 edition of Narrowboat Magazine relating to the brickfields around London. Would anyone be kind enough to tell me if this relates to the aforementioned areas? Thank you.

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Amongst my bits and pieces I have over 200 health registrations for boats involved in the brick trade between 1879 and 1924, and are a mixture of wide boats and narrow boats from all over the waterways system. How you separate these into those specifically involved in the west London brick trade is another matter.

If you have an enquiry about a particular boat or boats I am sure I can help further :captain:

Edited by pete harrison
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38 Horton Lane West Drayton was a family home of many of my Sibley boating people who worked between the brick works & canal carrying

Uxbridge libary & family centre may still have a few books & info also Yiewsley has some local area history books 

Ronnie Wood of the rolling stones lived with his parents opp the works when his dad first came off the boats 

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1 hour ago, Ursamajor4148 said:

Hello everyone. I am interested in finding out about the canal carriers who worked the brickfields of West Drayton/Yiewsley/Stockley/Hayes. It would be great to find any photos/info relating to this if anyone can point me in the right direction. I believe that there is an article in the autumn 2017 edition of Narrowboat Magazine relating to the brickfields around London. Would anyone be kind enough to tell me if this relates to the aforementioned areas? Thank you.

Ever thought of getting a copy of the magazine, its a simple way forward instead of relying on second hand tit bits, also its called "research".

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Ursamajor4148 - there is, for the record, an article in the Autumn 2017 NarrowBoat magazine entitled 'Brick Boating' which is probably the one you have in mind. Written by Chris M Jones, it takes a broad look at vessels used by the west London brick-manufacturers, including businesses based at the places you mention. It includes a short section on independent carriers. Hope that gives some indication of its scope. 

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I was contacted in 1963 & asked if I would be interested in moving approx 36 tons of engineers blue bricks from the West Drayton area to the Horseley Fields area of the BCN  I said yes but was contacted to say the deal had fallen through

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Many years ago (50 odd) i was told  that the road that i walked  leading from Horton road  to the road where my familys settled  was once a branch  of the Grand Union canal leading to what the boatmen called Otter Dock where the bricks would be loaded to go to a basin near Paddington . when the basin & branch was filled in they lined the sides of the canal there with trees this then became Colham Lane. Chimney Chain may be able to tell you more on this as his folks settled off this road as well.

 

Edited by jeannette smith harrison
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23 hours ago, Ursamajor4148 said:

Hello everyone. I am interested in finding out about the canal carriers who worked the brickfields of West Drayton/Yiewsley/Stockley/Hayes. It would be great to find any photos/info relating to this if anyone can point me in the right direction. I believe that there is an article in the autumn 2017 edition of Narrowboat Magazine relating to the brickfields around London. Would anyone be kind enough to tell me if this relates to the aforementioned areas? Thank you.

Yes it does relate to those areas. It includes maps and descriptions of the brick making companies and a few details about people involved in the canal transport.

How much interest it will be to you depends on what angle you are coming at it from.

JP

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I believe that this is true but the land either side of Falling Lane was brickfield and has consequently been dug out causing the level to drop below both Falling Lane and Royal Lane. The old allotments next to the football club were riddled with debris from the brickfields. There was a pub called the Black Bull on Falling Lane at the side of Otter Dock.

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  • 11 months later...

My father was born in the Brickmakers arms in Horton road and his father Thomas Belsey was the licensee from when the pub was built in 1900 until hes death in 1931 and continued in my grand mothers name until about 1940 my father talked a lot about the boatees as they were called  and the boats and owners, he talked about Sabey,s  boats and about Sol Woods [Ronnie woods Grandfather] being a tug driver towing [Dust]  rubbish barges from Paddington to Sabeys dump in Horton road. My mother lived in Horton Road in 6  Sabina Villas and opposite there was a shoot for loading gravel directly into barges, during and after the war there was about 4 sunken wooden boats sunk in the dock they all had Sabeys name on them. 

 

 

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Looking at the maps through NLS, it would appear that there were a group of dwellings(?) that almost backed onto Liddall's Dock which had a tramway/railway at its head coming from the brick field North East of it.

 

Could these have been Sabina Villas?

 

2076917105_HortonRoadWestDraytoncropped.jpg.9d55373113f0713e324fd54c4f84161b.jpg

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Hi Derek R

Really pleased with your post, Sabina villas are still standing ,Sabey had them built in 1922 that was when my mothers family moved in,they are opposite where Liddalls dock used to be on, across the road from your hatched area,I see on your map there were rail markings this was where horse drawn side tipping trucks were used to load sabeys boats. I remember seeing them still in situ in the late sixties and the shute was still there. The woods family lived next door and my mother grew up with Artie Woods Ronnies father.

My Grandfathers Pub The Brickmakers Arms is in front of what used to be Coopers dock and it was still in water up until about 1910 and it stood behind the pub more a less part of the pub garden the reason i am sure of these dates is that my fathers younger brother Thomas drowned in the dock when he was 2 years old in 1909 after that tragedy my Grand father made the canal company fill in the dock. hope my memories are of interest.

Regards John B.

  • Greenie 1
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You are welcome. All these memories are of great interest. The website National Library of Scotland has a most useful facility of transparency overlay that allows seeing maps as they are today, and as they were, depending on where the overlay 'blue button' is moved:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=8&lat=53.7615&lon=-1.7074&layers=6&b=1

 

I see the The Brickmakers Arms is still in Horton Bridge Road.

  • Greenie 1
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These are Sabina villas aren’t they, this was Liddell dock that ran across Horton road and up past Uxbridge football club. In the late 50s early sixties my dad can remember pelting sunken wooden sabey boats with his catapult. My family are all from Yiewsley and my grandparents worked on sabey boats my grt grandfather being a tug driver and my Nan’s brother working on the crane unloading boats. 

DEE54AF3-945C-4A8F-8A6C-762C2B518A3D.jpeg

6C3ED5E3-50A6-4111-B3CC-BCF945920948.jpeg

  • Greenie 2
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Hi Chimney Chain

Thanks for putting up these photos up they really mean a lot to me, my grand parents house is third from the right there name was Emmett. i spent a lot of time at my grandmothers and these photos bring back lots of memories for me. I was born in 1936 so remember the dock and the shute and the rails that were still there 

Do you know any names of People on the boats and have you got any more photos of this area?.

once again Thanks John B

 

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Hi John,

I've sent you a private mail.

George Beauchamp (Beecham??) lived along there too. When we got to know him in 1960/61 he was off the boats and known as "George the Crane" - crane driver on the Cowley Peachey dredging tip. It was George who dissuaded us from buying a rather decrepit maintenance boat there and pointed us to the ex-GUCCC wideboat Progress instead. OK, it was sunk, but hey ho ......

I agree with you that the photos are brilliant. That's a serious chunk of tow line on the counter of Fastnet in the photo there isn't it!

 

Tam

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