Angelsey Wharf Controversy

This article explores observations from part of a single file from the Waterways Archive (CRT/BW/95/1792) entitled “NCB traffic (other than compartment boats)”. It includes many details of the decline of coal traffic within the Birmingham Canal Navigation (BCN) area, and insights into the reasons for this.

Carrier complaint

Unusually, it includes a letter from a carrier, Peter Keay & Son of Pratts Bridge Wharf in Walsall. By 1966 one of the few surviving coal loading facilities on the BCN waterways was at Anglesey Basin, and K.P. Keay wrote to British Waterways on 15th April to report rumours that this wharf was to close, which would involve the loss of 80 per cent of his business; compensation, or an alternative loading point, was sought. The largest customer, Langley Forge on the Titford Canal, Oldbury, took 1,993 tons in 1965 out of Keay & Son’s total coal traffic of 4,947 tons.

A file records that the total coal tonnage on all BW waterways in 1965 was 3,168,756, most of it coal for power stations, gas works and export, which was carried by broad vessels. The figure recorded on narrowboats was 120,006 tons, of which 101,912 tons was in the BCN area. Of the latter, 66 per cent served the power stations at Walsall and Wolverhampton, but these stopped using canal transport in 1965.

NCB indifference

The closure of Anglesey Wharf was prompted not by BW but by the National Coal Board. While its local representative had told Mr Keay in April that “there is no need to worry at this stage”, NCB was investigating the service of canal customers by road. Keay had stressed that some customers, such as Belliss & Morcrom next to the Icknield Port loop, and Langley Forge, would be greatly inconvenienced as they lacked coal storage grounds. Access and storage was probably a major factor in the retention of many traffics by narrowboat. BW’s commercial representative, H.A. Roberts, felt that the ending of coal traffic could affect the remaining rubbish traffics, whose carriers might be “unable to continue a service for this restricted traffic”. Nevertheless, the loss of one major customer, seemingly Lion Tube Works when this switched to oil, would make Anglesey Wharf totally uneconomical. Keay & Son did not carry to Lion Tube but in 1965 this traffic amounted to 12,336 tons out of 22,170 tons loaded at Anglesey.

Alternatives

One suggestion made by Keay & Son was for BW or NCB to provide a new coal loading point at part of the Sneyd Maintenance Yard. In a memorandum of 27th May 1966, Roberts stressed that this would increase the distance road transport travelled from the colliery from up to 5 miles to around 15 miles, and recommended that Anglesey Wharf should remain open. By 3rd June, Keay had changed his mind about Sneyd, and an alternative site was sought – a pencilled note states “Holly Bank”, which was a loading point by rail. This was dismissed due to the limited space for road-borne loading.

Other carrying firms loading at Anglesey included T&S Element, Ernest Thomas (Walsall) Ltd and Leonard Leigh Ltd. The latter declined to attend a meeting with BW in July to discuss the future. The carriers declined to provide or staff new loading arrangements, and wanted Anglesey to stay open. The view of Harry Grafton, BW’s Head of Commercial Department, was that their lack of enthusiasm would lead to the end of traffics; he also anticipated opposition from the Inland Waterways Association.

Closure

A further meeting on 17th November with NCB, BW, carriers and coal factors, established that Anglesey would close for domestic coal at the end of 1966. Of the remaining traffics to industrial customers, Grafton conceded that the NCB charges to load lorries, to move these for 6 miles, and then discharge, were for a “quite ridiculously low and impossible level of charge”. He had earlier (14th April) emphasised to NCB that “I realise only too well the problems of your organisation quite apart from our own views on narrow boat carrying.”

Some indication of BW’s views of narrowboat carrying would be provided in a letter of 4th January 1967 from its General Manager, Arnold Allen. He asserted that tolls had been kept low to retain traffic, and “we do all we can”, but “the economic scales often tip against narrow boat carrying even if the actual cost of moving the coal when it is in the boat is not unduly high”. Sadly, investment in good handling facilities could only be justified by good long-term prospects.

By 21st February 1967 it was clear that industrial customers from Anglesey, like Langley Forge and GEC Witton, were transferring to road; an exception was Belliss & Morcrom, which lacked land access for road-borne loading. Closure of the company by the end of the summer was envisaged, but on 29th March it was indicated that land access could now serve the boilers at Belliss more effectively by road.

This snapshot involves only part of one large file, but does serve to emphasise the problems facing commercial narrowboat carrying after nationalisation and depicts a small industry in a deep and final decline.

A letter from Peter Keay & Son to British Waterways pointing out the impact the closure of Anglesey Wharf would have on the company.