Looking into the Distance

Midlands-to-London cargo was undertaken via the River Severn and Thames & Severn Canal, or via the Coventry and Oxford canals. The remaining distance to London was on the River Thames and cargoes would have been transhipped into barges like those illustrated.

This type of craft was known as a West Country barge and they were built to ply the full length of the navigable Thames and along the Thames & Severn Canal. They were fitted with a towing mast, which could also carry a yard and sail in favourable conditions, and a primitive stern cabin under cloths stretched over wooden hoops, as shown here. They were a common sight in the 18th century and were often painted and drawn by landscape artists, but by the last decades of the 19th century they had become extinct, with much of the upper Thames traffic carried in narrowboats. This drawing is from Microcosm of Pyne.

Christopher M. Jones Collection

A document has recently come to light containing distance tables covering several canals mainly concentrated on the West Midlands. From the information in the document, it is possible to make an educated guess as to its publication date being about 1792. One fascinating aspect is that it was produced when certain canals had just been built and others were being planned. Contemporary information also shows an explosion of traffic, with both long-distance and local trades benefitting. All this was well over 40 years before the new railways started to make an impact.

The distance tables were just part of a larger document, the bulk of which is ready-reckoner tonnage tables showing the pounds, shillings, pence and farthings for a given weight in tons, hundredweights and quarters over a specific distance measured in miles and half-miles, up to 28 tons over 50 miles. A separate tonnage table was given for one-sixth and one-eighth parts of a mile. There was also a conversion table to reduce 120 pounds per hundredweight (known as longweight) to 112 pounds (known as shortweight or imperial weight). Finally, there was a tonnage table for softwood timber or deals, at 600ft of inches to the ton and 770ft of inches to the ton, again up to a maximum of 28 tons.

At the back of the document there were six distance tables for the Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Birmingham & Fazeley, Digbeth Branch and Fradley canals. The most interesting of the distance tables are of the Birmingham Canal Navigation (in the singular), starting in the town of Birmingham and terminating at Autherley, the specified junction with the Staffs & Worcs Canal (referred to as the Stafford Canal). The reason for this interest is due to the rapidly growing area of South Staffordshire and the exploitation of its natural resources for the iron industries. The industrial heart of the region was the village of Bilston and the surrounding area, and this is reflected in the distance table, as the bulk of entries are confined to places between Tipton and Wolverhampton, with Bilston in the centre. Many of the locations shown in the table between Tipton and Wolverhampton were industrial works, some named after the proprietors of those concerns.

One of the most common craft seen on the Birmingham Canal was the day-boat. The one shown here is based on the drawings of Austrian engineer Sebastian von Maillard who visited England in 1795 ( See Napoleonic-era Narrowboats). The boat was built of softwood and was surely the predecessor of the wooden boats familiar to the BCN in the 19th century. There were several notable constructional differences, such as the lack of internal shearing planks on the hull sides, and the planking was thicker with the sides being 3in and the bottoms 2½in thick. Perhaps the most unusual feature was that the sides were bolted together every 21in through their width, essentially clamping them together. It is shown loaded with pig iron.

Drawn by Christopher M. Jones

The canal was originally built to a distance of 22 miles and 5 furlongs (8 furlongs to a mile) from Birmingham, passing Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton Green, Bilston and Wolverhampton, and on to Autherley. There had already been a degree of rebuilding done at Smethwick prior to 1787 to reduce the original summit level by 18ft.

Birmingham

The canal at Birmingham was cut in 1768/69, after which coal from pits around Wednesbury were transported into the town, thereby halving its sale price. Birmingham was already considered the manufacturing centre of England, with both light and heavy industry, and by 1792 it was connected to all the major towns and ports of England by water. Also, construction of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal had started in 1792 from the Birmingham end, although there is no reference to that canal in the document.

Birmingham was described as a single place, combining principal wharves. These were actually situated at the main wharf behind the canal company offices, later known as Old Wharf, and were surrounded by various iron foundries. There were also wharves on the Newhall Branch against the Crescent alongside Cambridge Street, and wharves facing onto the main thoroughfare of Great Charles Street where the branch terminated. After the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal was opened, new wharves were built facing Snow Hill for steam-powered mills, at Summer Lane serving a hospital and on the Digbeth Branch at Love Lane and Fazeley Street.

During the 1790s several carriers were based in Birmingham, or those located elsewhere had wharves in the town. One was the Burton Boat Co at Love Lane, which mainly served the north from the River Trent across to Liverpool, and also to London three days a week. Another was Thomas Russell & Co, trading as coal and limestone merchants at the Crescent and conveying goods along the Severn Valley, which had about 15 boats in work. Then there was John Wall & Co, also serving the west of England with about six boats. Two more carriers were Worthington & Gilbert and J. Smith & Sons, both working from wharves at Great Charles Street to the north between East Yorkshire and Liverpool.

Other boat-owners were involved in the local trade. Thomas Rock & Son owned ten boats and traded as a factor and coal and coke dealer from Great Charles Street. His boats mainly worked to his wharf after loading at Tipton. Waren & Welch was a coal and coke dealer and iron founder, with its boats being loading at Tipton and Wednesbury. As did Winfield & Laugher, a coal and coke dealer at Bloomfield Wharf. William Taylor was another coal and coke dealer, only he was based at Old Wharf, and had five boats in work, hauling coal from Tipton. John Iddins & Son was a timber merchant at Great Charles Street with five boats, while Thomas Southall was a coal merchant at Old Wharf who owned six boats. James Pickard was a coal and coke dealer and miller, whose steam mill was at Snow Hill; he owned seven boats. There were a number of other boat-owners and traders in the town including several victuallers located near the canal.

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal

The Birmingham & Fazeley Canal came about with the Act of 1783 to construct a cut from Farmers Bridge to Fazeley to join with the Coventry Canal. 11 Another section of the canal between Fazeley and Fradley Heath was executed by the Birmingham & Fazeley and the Grand Trunk Canal (Trent & Mersey) at their joint expense. In the distance tables, the section of the canal between Fazeley and Fradley Heath was shown on a separate table, titled the Fradley Canal. The tolls charged for traffic over that line were divided equally between the two companies.

An Act of 1784 incorporated both the Birmingham Canal and the Birmingham & Fazeley into one company. Then, ten years later in 1794, a further Act altered the name of the Birmingham Canal to the Company of Proprietors of the Birmingham Canal Navigations and provision was made for more collateral cuts on the system.

Bilston

At the time the distance table was published, Bilston was considered one of the largest villages in England with about 1,000 houses, situated on the main London-to-Holyhead road. A main road from Birmingham to Manchester and Liverpool also ran through it, plus there was the Birmingham Canal nearby, making it a prime location to exploit its considerable local coal and ironstone mines, stone quarries, and clay and sand pits to feed large industrial concerns. There were blast furnaces for smelting iron ore, forges and slitting mills powered by steam engines. A slitting mill was the predecessor of the rolling mill where a bar of wrought iron, that had been rolled into a flat strip, was cut or slit by rotating discs into narrow rods. Slitting mills were superseded by the rolling mill proper, where hot iron bars were manipulated into all manner of sectional profiles by passing them through rotating metal rollers several times to achieve the desired shape.

The most notable works in the district was that of iron and coal master, John Wilkinson of Bradley Moor, near Bilston, which consumed some 800 tons of coal per week. Wilkinson was one of the most famous iron manufacturers of the time and he operated a number of works around the country, including Bradley. He started there about 1772 using coal from his estate to fuel his furnace, believed to be the first built at that location. In 1781 the famous engineers Boulton and Watt invented a rolling mill and so Wilkinson ordered a large-scale one to be built at Bradley. Matthew Boulton was already building a large two-cylinder steam engine at Bradley for Wilkinson.

Although dated 1872, this image, described as Monk’s Wharf at Tipton, gives a good idea of what the area around Tipton and a typical boatyard would have looked like in the 1790s. It shows open land dotted with industrial workings and mines, and a boatyard with its ramshackle buildings made out of old timbers and tarpaulins. The brick building with a tiled roof would have been the smith’s forge to enable the bespoke manufacture of necessary ironwork, with the old shed acting as the carpenter’s shop.

In 1872 the yard was run by Samuel Monk based at Tipton, one of a large family of boat-builders widely scattered around the Midlands’ canals. The boat is Sarah Jane owned by Alice Tolley, owner-boatwoman of Wolverhampton. It appears in the surviving records back in October 1857 as Lady Jane owned by William Tolley of Brierley Hill, and passed to his widow Alice, following his death early in 1872.

Canal & River Trust Waterways Archive

John Wilkinson also became famous for being the first man to build an iron vessel, the Trial, launched in July 1787 on the River Severn at Willey in Shropshire. It was built for use on the river and the canals, so must surely be the first iron narrowboat. It was such a success that others followed, including a 40-ton barge for the Severn. Others soon saw the advantages of iron-built craft and started building their own. Interestingly, information suggests Wilkinson had built an iron boat for carrying peat along a short canal in Cumbria many years prior to the Trial, before moving some of his commercial operations to Bradley.

Some have speculated as to how these first iron narrowboats were built. The available information shows they were constructed of wrought iron and rivetted together like 19th-century boats, only with wooden stem and stern posts. The iron plates were 5/16ths of an inch thick and were most likely hammered into shape as plate rolling had not then been used. The engineer, James Watt, had built a substantial tilt hammer for Wilkinson’s wrought iron works, so it’s not inconceivable that it, or something similar, could have been used for hammering these plates. The vessels were said to have been well built with no leaks, indicating the use of the same techniques and skills as employed in steam-boiler and watertank construction.

In contrast to the heavy iron industry at Bilston was the smaller light manufacture of buckle catches or chapes, plus japanned and enamelled goods. Japanning used varnish which was made locally. Wilkinson was the first to coke coal in closed ovens which produced a by-product of tar. This was refined to make varnish for the japanners and also tar and pitch. These were produced at the tar works of Lord Dundonald at Tipton, transported by boat to Stourport and transhipped for onward delivery via the Severn to the coastal dockyards of the Royal Navy, where they were used for shipbuilding and repairing.

One of the largest boat-owners was the Birmingham Coal Co, which was a coal masters near Bilston with about 25 boats. Others were Richard Cross, working as a farmer, boat-owner and carrier to Birmingham; and Bickley, Best & Bickley, coal and iron masters and wharfingers at Bilston. Prominent among them was William Bickley who was an iron master, japanner and maltster. Bickley’s coal works was on the distance table in the Ettingshall area. Another was Edward Best, japanner and iron founder at Bilston. Coal proprietor Loxdale & Co’s works appears on the distance table in the area of Bradley. John Taylor & Co was another firm of boat-owners at Bilston.

Tipton

Situated at Tipton about 2 miles from Wednesbury was the soap factory of James Kier & Co in the vicinity of several iron works, forges, lime works, collieries and other works. Kier’s works appeared on the table as ‘Capt. Kair’s manufactory at Hurt’s Lane’, judged the same distance as Lord Dudley’s Foxyard’s Colliery, which was in the area of the later Bloomfield Junction.

Wednesbury

Surprisingly, the Birmingham Canal distance table is rather limiting in that it doesn’t show any of the collateral branches other than the Digbeth Branch Canal. The main collateral cut was a branch to Wednesbury, 4½ miles long with three locks descending 18ft. In a contemporary source it was stated that this cut had extended into the parish of Wednesbury by about half a mile to some coal mines that had not yet opened, and the nearby iron works of Samuel & John Hallen. They were iron masters and their works was one of four iron forges in the locality. In 1783 an Act was obtained to extend the Wednesbury Branch from Rider’s Green to Broadwater Engine, making six collateral cuts.

The distance table described the canal at the southern end of the Oxford Canal as ‘Oxford Wharf, the Junction with the River Isis’. At the time the canal junction with the Thames was a barge-width flash lock, as shown here with this 1790s watercolour sketch. It depicts the northern side of High Bridge (later called Hythe Bridge) over the Isis with the flash lock at canal level on the left, above which is a wooden towpath bridge and a stone canal bridge behind leading to the main goods and coal wharves. This arrangement caused problems when used due to the rush of water as a barge was winched up into the canal or descended down into the Isis stream. Shortly after, the Oxford Canal Co decided to build a barge-sized pound lock where the present day Isis Lock is located, opened in 1797. This was reduced in size to a narrow lock in 1844. The old flash lock at High Bridge was removed and replaced by a waste weir.

Originally the Oxford Canal was 92 miles to its junction at Longford, which was later reduced to just over 77 miles.

R&CHS/Bodleian Library Collection

Coal was a staple product of the area and was reputed to be the best for use by smiths due to its extreme heat. The fuel was laid in various veins and strata, varying from 3 to 14 yards thick, which yielded £100 to £300 per week in sales for its owners. The miners had many curious and idiosyncratic names for each strata of coal, such as DunDicks, Roof-Floor, Top-Slipper, BottomSlipper, Slip-Bat, Great-Patch and several others including Humphry’s. Even the local iron ore had its own name, ‘blond metal’, and was used for heavy tools such as hammers and axes, plus nails and horseshoes.

There seemed to be a thriving manufacturing industry around Wednesbury with various men making guns, coach springs, coach harnesses, iron axle trees, saws, trowels, edge tools, bridle bits, stirrups, nails, hinges, wood screws and cast iron goods. Although there were trades involved in horseharness manufacture at Wednesbury, it was Walsall that was already established as the centre of the trade but the canal had yet to reach the town.

Wolverhampton

Apart from Birmingham, Wolverhampton was the second largest town along the route to the Staffs & Worcs Canal. The heavy iron industry that later became a major feature during the Industrial Revolution was yet to appear, although the coalmining industry was well established. This coal was noted for burning with a bright flame into white ashes, and a strata of it lay 14 yards deep. It was considered a good investment, with coal-bearing land being sold at between £100 to £150 an acre, and, in the latter case, £500-worth of coal was mined out of one shaft alone.

Its local trades were mainly locksmithing with the manufacture of brass and iron locks, also buckles and steel toys, and japanware. Interestingly the iron work used in these trades was not just made in the town, but in the outlying villages by local farmers. Each farm had its own forge so, when there was little work to do in the fields, they worked as smiths producing worked iron that was bought up by tradesmen in the town market, who transported it to London for export to Europe. This would have provided cargoes for boats as the town was already connected by canal to the main rivers of the North West and the North East, and south to the River Severn. The Oxford Canal provided the means to access the River Thames and on to London. This was in addition to regular stagecoaches for mail and passengers, and road waggons for heavier cargoes.

Oxford Canal

A year before the Oxford Canal was opened, Staffordshire coal was taken to Stourport and transhipped into Severn trows. It was then transported downstream to the Thames & Severn Canal at Framilode, then transhipped again at Brimscombe Port into Thames barges to be taken eastwards. The Thames & Severn was fully opened in November 1789 and the first Staffordshire coals reached Lechlade Wharf in December. In 1790, when the Oxford Canal was fully opened, riverside towns started to benefit from the southbound coal trade via the Coventry and Oxford canals. Eynsham received these coals at their wharf within half a mile of the village by narrowboat, directly from the colliery without transhipment, and were carted by road to Witney and Burford.

With the Oxford Canal now open, there was a direct route between the Birmingham Canal Navigation to London, avoiding the River Severn. The Grand Junction Canal had yet to be built. Cargoes from the Midlands could be transhipped and navigated down the River Thames from Oxford. There were a number of barge-owners and proprietors involved in this trade; one of those noted at the time was Mary Wyatt & Sons of Grandpont, Oxford, working between London and Oxford, then on to Lechlade and Brimscombe Port. She owned six barges in 1795. Another carrier was bargemaster Richard Grain, also of Grandpont, who owned four barges. Freight charges from Oxford to London were one shilling per hundredweight.

Based on contemporary sources my drawing shows a wooden boat used on the Coventry Canal in the 1790s. It has been fitted with a small shelter cabin as it was most likely used for day-boating work, carrying coal from the pits around Bedworth into Coventry for domestic heating and light industrial use.

Similar day-boats were in use on the Coventry up until World War I, and they also had large wooden knees and small cabins such as this, with the addition of a sliding hatch in the roof. It is likely some long-distance craft had a similar appearance to this boat, only they would have been fitted with cloths to protect cargoes of merchandise and sundry items, such as timber and small goods packed in crates and barrels.

Drawn by Christopher M. Jones

Banbury was another major town on the Oxford which received coal from the Midlands. The main industry in the town was the manufacture of plush or shag cloth, giving employment to a great many people. Most of this cloth was exported to Portugal. There were three timber merchants based there that would have used the canal trade.

Although Rugby became a notable town after the arrival of the railways, at the time of these distance tables the place had no industries and was just a market town. Coals brought in via the Oxford Canal had spawned at least one coal merchant there: John Coppock.

Coventry Canal

Coventry is the only sizeable town of note on the canal that bears its name, the main industries of which were cloth, silk ribbon, worsted and woollen manufacturing. With the canal terminating there, it generated a large canal trade, both in coal from pits around Bedworth and trade from the north via the Grand Trunk Canal at Fradley Heath. Contemporary sources note that upwards of 200 boats were employed in the northern trade south to Coventry and places in neighbouring counties. Interestingly, these merchandise cargoes were not taken on to London by water but transhipped at Coventry into Pickfords’ waggons for delivery by road. Pickfords had large warehouses on the terminus wharf at Coventry for this purpose. Such was the growth in trade that Coventry Canal shares had increased from £38 each to £300 based on this traffic. At the time an intended canal from Braunston (or Branston as it was called) to London was being contemplated, and this was already noted as a potential gold mine in terms of profits from trade.Other places along the line of canal had a similar trade to that of Coventry. Both Nuneaton and Atherstone’s industries were mainly silk ribbon weaving, with the latter also famous for hats. They had the advantage of the nearby canal with boats carrying cargoes from Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Burton-on-Trent passing daily for Coventry and Oxford. A regular stage boat ran from Atherstone to Coventry every Friday morning, before returning on the Saturday.

On the Coventry Canal distance table it was the various coal-mining locations at Exhall, Bedworth Hill and Sir Roger Newdigate’s works at Griff that dominate.

Staffordshire and Warwickshire coals were taken over the Coventry and Oxford canals to various intermediate places such as Fenny Compton, Banbury or all the way to Oxford. Some of these boats were steered by their owners while others were owned by carriers with several boats.