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Port Loop


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Urban Splash, have on their website the plans for the Icknield Port Loop where the whole area around the canal will finally be transformed into their vision for the future. The wording in their proposals is both flowery and devoid of information as if their plans are yet to be finally unveiled. Calling the project Port Loop and with the use of large letters and vague statements it is a report that is almost child like.

 

This area was Icknield Port and the development in my opinion should reflect on that heritage. This was canal land built up on the brook course that still has a subterranean culvert through the ground. It was developed for industrial use and no doubt has the various pollutants that was part and parcel of the manufacturing there.

 

Urban Splash fall into the group of developers that like the challenge of industrial sites and have been in business for several years now. Such lands are fertile places for a certain type of redevelopment. It would be nice to think that care and consideration would be given by them when construction begins. And, hopefully this will happen.  

 

They are Manchester based and the link is:

www.urbansplash.co.uk/regeneration/projects/port-loop

Edited by Heartland
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It's easy to criticise - looking in from the outside.  I pity the poor draughtsman, having to produce a "glossy" from probably not very much information. What is actually produced will depend very much on how much money is available from the developer(s).

Sorry a bit serious.

 

Personally I'd be sorry to see the word "Icnield" disappear. However, Googling Icknield Way (was it a roman road? Looks a bit wobbly for one of those). Regardless of that it never went near Brum - so what's the connection with the city?

Now that one of the sources of information  is no longer around - can anyone shed any light? 

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1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

Personally I'd be sorry to see the word "Icnield" disappear. However, Googling Icknield Way (was it a roman road? Looks a bit wobbly for one of those). Regardless of that it never went near Brum - so what's the connection with the city?

Now that one of the sources of information  is no longer around - can anyone shed any light? 

 

The Icknield Way is nowhere near Birmingham, but the Roman Icknield Street passes through the city, although not on the line of Icknield Port Road.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icknield_Street

 

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12 hours ago, David Mack said:

 

The Icknield Way is nowhere near Birmingham, but the Roman Icknield Street passes through the city, although not on the line of Icknield Port Road.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icknield_Street

 

Aha - I didn't do enough research, did I?

So keeping 'Icnield'  in the loop name is not terribly important...

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If you read the Wikepedia entry, it states the Icknield Street of Hockley was not on the course of the roman road. Icknield Street in Birmingham  but the road did pass through Egbaston. The route of the  "Birmingham/ Hockley" Icknield Street was swallowed up with the road improvements that created Ladywood Middleway. Icknield Port Road was essentially a road built for Canal purposes in the 1850's, as far as I can trace, It was constructed later than the Telford improvements that created the embankment across the valley and making the old line of the canal into a loop.

 

The road (Icknield Port) provided better access, to the loop and enabled the wharf there to be developed. Gradually all the land enclosed by the loop was infilled and industry came to be established on all sides.

 

The  development has been a long time in preparation and the area is presently a graffiti ridden jungle. and hopefully will create something useful and perhaps Urban Splash will have better luck than they have with the disused pier at Weston Super Mare

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 31/07/2018 at 11:38, Heartland said:

If you read the Wikepedia entry, it states the Icknield Street of Hockley was not on the course of the roman road. Icknield Street 

Not quite. It was an educated guess by the historian Hutton, and it must be very close to the route, as we do know that the Roman road connected Metchley Fort with Perry Bridge, and if we draw a straight line between these two points it more or less goes along the present day Icknield Street.

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That Icknield Street is on the old Roman Road is quite possible when it is considered that roads like Hamstead  Road. Monument Road and Chad Road may have also been adapted from the original road course over time. Following the route between Metchley Fort and Perry Bridge in this fashion may well produce a link. Thank you John.

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