We were soon underway after a couple of boats passed heading to pass down the locks.
We were soon at the 'tunnel'. You can just see through the tunnel to the next bridge with the visitor moorings on the right. Just through the bridge, on the opposite side to to the tow path was Morris's Wharf. In October 1889 he was taken to court by the local sanitary board as he had two boat loads of manure and ashes on his wharf after having being told to clear it. This is the night soil that was collected from outdoor privys and highly prized as fertiliser for the fields. It was brought out from Birmingham and district in the boats and at the various wharves transferred to carts to spread on the field. Apparently it had been going on at Morris' wharf for over 33 years. However the the Sanitary inspector wanted it shut down and there had been complaints from the three cottages and bakery within 50 yds of the wharf. After a long hearing the Justices decided that the wharf should no longer be used for night soil and this cargo should not be handled near to houses. They could use Lord Norton's Wharf, Dunton Wharf, or Tatton's Wharf ( who funnily enough was one of the complainants) for night soil. I can see no sign of this wharf on a contemporary map. It is said to be over 100 yards away. The next wharf I can see is at Cuttle Bridge which is 1000yds. When I was a Humber pilot they were bringing liquid effluent from the sewage farm near leads to Goole where it was pumped into a little tanker, the 'Reedness' that then went out to sea at the mouth of the Humber and dumped it!
A little further on is this odd winding hole. I have always suspected that it was an old arm as it was on the tow path side of the cut.
This was the basin for the Minworth Sewage Farm. You can see it originally had a bridge over the arm.
You can see it had an extensive wharf on the canal too. The system of sewage disposal was becoming overloaded by the 1880's as Birmingham and District expanded. Land was bought here in around 1877. Before that close by had been a point where water was extracted and pumped to Birmingham. A new method of treatment came in around this time and in 1898 they started building filter beds. By 1903 the first ones were in use and such was their success that the old method of spreading the night soil was stopped altogether. The basin was built about this time. You can see from this 1923 OS map that it was a very extensive site with miles of tramways around the site. What you can't see is that the tramway bottom right crosses the road to a huge area of filter beds etc with the tramway serving around the site. The canal was used to bring building material and the ash from local power stations for use in the filter beds.
After Minworth the road is never far from the canal but the cut seems to maintain a disdain for it as much as it can and wraps you in green, even if the water hides plenty of dangers for the propeller, going astern in particular.
Having discovered that canal companies employed their own police force I have discovered that not only were they employed to prevent theft etc, but to save the precious water resources of the company. In 1886 Constable George Humphris took a boatman to court for drawing the paddles before the gate was closed and for allowing his craft to strike the gates causing damage. He had been taken to court previously. It was interesting to see that the lock keeper repaired the damage himself. The boatman was fined 40s and 5s costs. George Humpris was born in Oxforshire boat married a girl from Fenny Compton. In 1881 he was in the census as a police officer, by 1881 it was as a Canal Police constable. It must have paid okay as they had 9 kids. Mind you the eldest two were out working. In 1924 there were a couple of more case heard, each for drawing the paddles before the gates were shut and so wasting water. Fines didn't seem to rise, but the costs certainly did. The cases in 1924 were brought by a traffic inspector rather than a constable. He was William Edward Harper and lived in Sutton Coldfield. He had worked as a clerk with the canals since leaving school. His elder brother did the same, but on the railways! Albert Fullwood of Wolverhampton was fined 10s. In 1911 he was the Master of the Shropshire Union Co. narrow boat 'Westminster' that was at Audlem. He had his wife Mary and two children Annie and Albert, 8 and 5. On the form it stated they went to school (occasionally). He signed the form with a cross.
Could fining lock users for the improper use of the locks and damage to them be a new funding stream for C&RT. I was told that despite partially collapsing Meadow Lane Lock in Nottingham last year and closing the canal for a week or two the culprit was not penalised in anyway. I wonder if he was insured either.
On the left side was a tube works and on the right hand side was a mangle works. Sometime in the 1970's it seems they joined up and the canal was built over to provide more space and to link the two. Although there are no the rumbles of industry coming from above, I do like the light and the way the water ripples through this part of the canal.
The area where the motorway is now built was once another of Birmingham's sewage farms as large almost as at Minworth. On the other side of the M6 motorway was Fort Dunlop. the Dunlop Rubber Co was set up in Birmingham in 1901 to make cycle and then motorbike tyres. It was well placed when the demand for rubber tyres on road vehicles increased during WWI and Fort Dunlop was started in 1916. It opened in 1917 and eventually covered 120 hectares. By 1919 it had developed so quickly with around 3000 workers and running three shifts every day their own fleet of buses could not manage to convey all workers to the site from Birmingham. They started a canal passenger service from the bottom of Aston Locks to the factory. They had one boat with a 10HP motor that could carry 100 passengers and was able to be covered in bad weather. The cost of fitting out a boat and running it was comparable with running a motor bus, and in any case there were no new buses to be had just after the war. The experiment went so well that they were looking to add three more boats to the fleet. I wonder how long the service lasted?
We usually break our jorney up to Birmingham at Saltley and Aston University, but this time we were doing it in one and decided to use Aston Locks for a change. After passing Cukoo Wharf, or Lichfield Wharf as it used to be known as, and under Cuckoo Bridge the first lock is in sight. It must have been a very busy place with all the factories running on coal and parts made in one place being moved to another to be finished and for fabrication.
The two towpath bridges that you can see lead to the two basin on the 1886 OS Map. On the upper basin is the Aston Coach Works where they had a timber yard as well as the iron works. The Plume Works had a bvig fire in 1870 and the opportunity was taken to add to the brass foundry that was there. Strangely they started up a match and cartridge company on the site as well. There were bankruptcies but by the time of the map it was being run by the Peerless Seamles tube company that were making bike frames as there was a huge surge in their production. It later became the site of the Verity Co. who manufactured electric motors, fans and fittings until the end of the 1950's.
The BCN houses No. 70 are painted a nice blue at the second lock up the Aston flight, A little way on you can see another tow path bridge. This was the basin serving the Aston Paper Mill that used waste paper to make new. It was going from at least the early 1870's and I believe it was still going in 2012 and still recycling paper. I had better stop looking at every side arm off the canal as there are so many of them it would be a book, not a blog.
The works in its heyday. I think the open ended long shed at the far end of the works, to the left of the chimney covers the basin.
It isn't the Caen Hill flight but working up these narrow locks is in the sun and a pleasure. In the past down the left hand side were a cycle fitting works, Armstrong's Umbrella Factory, Albion Sawmills, Phosphor bronze foundry and up the right hand side was the gas works, mitre wire and rivet works, a granary and just behind the trees to the right a school. All life was here.
From the top of the Aston flight it is straight on to the Farmer's Bridge Flight. The canals are much more clear of rubbish than they used to be since the plastic bag ban, and people being more careful with bottles and cans. At Least on the surface. These locks are always a pleasure to work. Always people about and open and close easily. Helen is in Lock 6. Below that is a towpath bridge over what was obviously an arm of the canal. I thought it would just be into a factory but it goes along way and is called Whitmore's Arm It used to extend to an area of sand pits near New Hall. The sand was used for building but also for moulds for casting. Whitmore also had a foundry
We got to the top of the locks and there was out berth right next to the lock at Cambrian Wharf. The actual Cambrian Wharf is where the pub is now, on the extreme right along where the flats are now was a large wharf called Crescent Wharf. Behind where we are moored there was another canal, the Newhall Branch Canal that also had another arm of it that led via a lock up to wharves, one called Gibso's Arm, that was found under What is now the east end of Centenary Square. When I was a kid my Dad worked near Bingley Hall, where the theatre is now and we weren't allowed to come down by the canals as they were all dark and sinister. Not now though. We love Brum.
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