Last October we were coming up to the end of out time on the canals for the year and were near the bottom of the Stourbridge Canal when we set off for another day.
Like all the best October days there was a special light and the sun was shining but still a little chill in the air. All it really needed was more brown and gold leaves on the floor and the smell of wood smoke in the air. The bottom end of this canal is quiet and pretty.
We were soon at the Stourton Locks, the first gives a lovely view for the gardens of the houses below it. The second ducks under the main road.
The third and fourth are in a lovely setting and with the junction being a little below makes a great spot for a bit of gongozzling.
I have often wondered if folk really need signposts on the canals? There are not that many turnings or junctions so you wont have to put up with 'third on the left and the second right after the pub' stuff, never mind that most seem to go about glued to their phones these days anyway, on the GPS etc.
The aqueduct over the River Stour may not appear to be over a major watercourse but can be a torrent in winter. Just by here is also the confluence with the Smestow Brook that the canal follows closely for a good period. The land that you can see is part of the Prestwood Estate. The house can not be seen from the canal, or at least I haven't, but it was an old established estate that belonged to the Lords of Dudley Castle until the 1550's. It was then sold to Sir John Lyttelton and then eventually sold on to Thomas Foley, the iron master. He settled it on to his son Philip. He rebuilt the house and the family lived there for the next 250 years. It was sold out of the family in the 1920's and became a tuberculosis sanatorium and later an old folks home with 40 beds. The other buildings around the main hose also seemed to have been converted to the same and are now under one management.
Just before the next lock is Gothersley Round House remains.
The Smestow Brook valley was the location of many forges from Medieval times as there was a copious supply of charcoal. Smestow used to be spelled Smestall untilthe 1800's and comes from the Anglo Saxon for 'Place of the Smiths'. The brook was the power for waterwheels and there seems to have been an iron works here since the mid 1650's rather than just a small forge. At this time it was part of the Foley Iron Empire. It developed further once Dud Dudley a great name for the illegitimate son of the 5th Baron of Dudley) had started the process of smelting iron using coal/coke rather than charcoal which was in short supply. It increased further when the Staffs. And Worcs. canal was built as the movement of coal limestone and iron ore and the finished products were much easier, so cheaper.
Gothersley Iron Works in 1903 showing the Round House by the canal.
In 1825 they were still puddling iron as they advertised for an overseer. It was to let as a wire rod mill a few years later but it stated that it could still be used for the charcoal iron trade and had a complete train for sheet metal and mechanical guide iron trade. (Does this mean rails for the railways, the first of which opened in 1825?). It was sold in 1833 and seems to be predominately a sheet iron producer. In 1838 a workman was killed by a piece of the flywheel that shattered and hit him in the head. The inquest found that the flywheel had been in poor repair for a while. Does this indicate that the upkeep of the works was not as it should be? The flywheel features in another incident in 1851 when a youth, who was employed to oil parts of machinery that were only accessible by somebody small, went missing. It was thought by the other men there that he had been sent on an errand by the foreman as happened. After four hours a search was made and he was eventually found at the bottom of the flywheel bit in a puddle of cold water. The flywheel was stopped and he was recovered, and found to be unconscious. This was very fortunate as if he had tried to escape the pit he would have been crushed by the wheel. He had had a part of his clothing snagged in some machinery and flung into the pit. He was recovering, so had obviously survived. In 1853 Joseph Maybury went bankrupt working the iron works at Gothersley, but it was still working as a sheet metal mill in 1877. In 1888 a woman was committed for stealing watercress from the mill pond where it had been planted as another source of income. Once more in 1890 the works was up for sale again. The wheel was described as a 25 HP breast driven water wheel with a fly and speed wheel. A sheet iron rolling train was there along with shears and moulding out and annealing furnace warehouse and other buildings.. It seems that it became redundant not too long after this and on the OS map of 1921 there is no trace of the works at all.
These are the remains of the Round House in 1989.
It was built around 1805 and was for the wharfinger to live in to watch over the works wharf on the canal. As can be seen on the map above attached to the right hand side of the tower was another building that added to the accommodation. It must have been a busy place at one time as the Smestow Brook was so important that when James Brindley drew up the canal route he was prevented from interrupting the flow of the Brook and meant that he had to carry it it over the canal at Dunstall, Bridge 63. In Victoria's reign there were still 30 water wheels operating on the brook. The round house continued to be lived in after the works closed and up until the 1920's when it was left to decay. It was the site of nefarious acts so in the end it was made safe and the base left as a sort of picnic area.
The delight of this canal is enhanced by the regular outcrops of the sandstone of the area and after Gothersley Lock is Rocky Lock, well named
Next comes Greensforge Lock which reveals in the name past industry. There is also a chance to see one of the old mills on the other side of the Brook. We stopped for water but didn't stay for a visit to the Navigation pub that has been here for a few hundred years. We stopped the other side of Hinksford Lock where ther is a pumping station that access the aquifer of the sandstone to provide water for Bilston when built.
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