West Midlands
BIRCHILLS/LEAMORE AQUEDUCT 1846 HEW 830 SK 009 004 N52o 36' 8.2" W1o 59' 17.3"
This aqueduct carries the Wysley and Essington Canal over the very busy Cannock Branch of the LNWR Railroad line. It was built by Lloyd Foster & Company of Wednesbury in 1846. It is the twin of the Brownhills Aqueduct. Although not particularly impressive from the top beside the canal since the parapets are tall solid iron panels, from the side or from below it is an impressive structure with the usual 19th century boldness of masonry abutments and single supporting column and nice detailing on the outside of the parapet. A screening arch has an XX detail in the spandrels which also masks the stiffening fins along the bottom of the trough.
To find the aqueduct take a small residential road on the east side of Bloxwich Road (B4210) called Forest Lane. Go over the tracks on the road bridge to the end of the close. There is a path there to the canal and the top of the aqueduct. Parallel to the road bridge over the train tracks is a modern foot bridge from which one can see the side of the aqueduct.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
ANGLESEY/OGLEY JUNCTION CANAL BRIDGE 1829 N52o 39' 6.2" W1o 54' 58.3"
This is a classic "Horseley Iron Works 1829" bridge with the extra detailing in very crisp casting as in the other bridges they provided to Thomas Telford's design on the Wyrley & Essington Canal and throughout the Birmingham Canal Navigation. The clover leaf cut-outs below the parapet railing and the raised molding detail around the X openings in the parapet are very satisfying. Their later bridges are simpler and less lovingly detailed although in appearance almost the same.
This bridge can be found by leaving Brownhills at the roundabout with the huge miner's statue on the B4155 Litchfield Road which crosses the canal at a brick road bridge. If you pass the large garden center, you have gone too far. Access to the canal is beside the brick bridge.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
WINSTON GREEN JUNCTION BRIDGES 1848 Birmingham Canal Navigation N52o 29' 28.8" W1o 56' 32.9"
The Winston Green Junction is at the western end of the old Soho Loop where it joins the new main canal, close to the Winston Green Prison. These bridges were cast by the Horseley Iron Works and follow the design of Thomas Telford who made major improvements in the 1820's to the original canal laid out by James Brindley in the 1770's. They are much simpler than the 1820's bridges further along the canal, having only simple cross lattices in the parapet without the gothic cut outs of the 1820's bridges. They are elegant and graceful with a shallow elliptical arch which allows more headroom near the abutments than would a Roman arch. Their purpose is to allow the tow horse to cross the canal to a path on its other side.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
TAME VALLEY CANAL JUNCTION BRIDGES 1844 Wednesbury West Midlands SO977 936 N51o 48' 17.1" W0o 3' 24"
This junction in the modern Birmingham Canal Navigation near Ocker Hill was part of The Tame Valley Canal network that was opened in 1844 to relieve the congestion on the old Birmingham canal system first laid out by James Brindley in the 1770's. The Horseley Iron Company of Tipton had made iron canal foot bridges of Thomas Telford's design for his improvements to the Brindley canals during the late 1820's. The company continued to produce this basic bridge for the next thirty years. They occur throughout the Tame Valley canal system, especially at the junctions where a roving bridge was needed to allow the towing horse to cross the canal to another tow path.
Off a roundabout on the A41 between Ocker Hill and Wednesbury, there is a huge shopping center with an ASDA/Walmart store. Go to the far corner of the parking lot by the Boots where there is a modern foot bridge across the canal. Walk to your right (with your back to the parking lot) along the canal for 20 minutes to the Tame Valley Junction bridges.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
STOURBRIDGE 16 LOCK FLIGHT SPLIT BRIDGES 1779 Audnam, West Midlands
Sixteen locks lift the Birmingham Canal out of the Stour Valley onto the Black Country plateau at Audnam. The canal was completed in 1779. The funding came from "John, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward, the Earl of Stamford, Thomas Foley, John Pidcock and John Foster" according to the information kiosk. These gentlemen all had financial interests in the local glass, coal, brick and iron works of the area. Canals, as James Brindley was proving in the Birmingham area, were the ideal mode of transport for the very heavy raw materials needed for these industries and for the transportation later of the finished products. The locks are of the 'narrow boat' dimension that Brindley pioneered. The engineer for the lock flight was Thomas Dudley Jr.
Three split bridges were built too, each of them very slightly different: at Lock 4 (N52o 28' 48.8" W2o 8' 53.1"); between Lock 9 and 10 (N52o28' 39.2" W2o 9' 11.5"); and at Lock 11 (N52o 28' 37.8" W2o 9' 17.0). These little foot bridges are cantilevered so that the two ends do not quite meet in the middle, leaving a space for the tow rope to be passed through. Note that the railings also fail to meet in the middle and there is a projecting guide to keep the passed rope from binding.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
SPON LANE LOCKS SPLIT BRIDGE 1829 Birmingham Canal Navigation N52o 30' 24' W1o 59' 43.9"
The Horsely Iron Works supplied this split foot bridge. It is cantilevered from the lock walls with a space in the center of the bridge where the two halves do not meet, as do not their parapets so that the tow rope can be easily passed through the resulting slot. This idyllic spot lies under the M5 motorway today.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
SMETHWICK ENGINE ARM AQUEDUCT 1829 Thomas Telford Staffordshire HEW492 SP024 888
This 8’ wide cast iron trough aqueduct carries the Rotton Park feeder at the 473 foot level of the Birmingham Canal over the lower line which was constructed at the same time. The feeder trough is supported by a single arch of 52 feet with five ribs. Three ribs support the trough and the 4’ wide tow paths on either side are supported by a decorative cast iron arcade of gothic motifs. The spandrel bracings re of the radial kind intersected by a continuous arched member.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
RABONE JUNCTION CANAL BRIDGES (aka Smethwick Junction) 1828 Thomas Telford/Horseley Iron Works HEW 1197 SP 029 890 N52o 29' 55.5" W1o 57' 29.8"
Thomas Telford was commissioned in the 1820's to shorten and improve the Birmingham Canal originally laid out along the contour lines by James Brinkley in the 1770's. Telford cut off some loops of the old canal to shorten the route and for these junctions he needed a number of footbridges and roving bridges. He designed a basic iron bridge which spanned fifty two feet with an arch rising nine feet in an elliptical curve which gave more headroom close to the abutments than a Roman arch. The Horseley Iron Works cast the iron as they proudly say on each bridge. The earliest ones are the most elaborate and have whimsical cut out decorations in the parapets. Gradually, the design is simplified such that the later ones have only a simple XXX pattern.
These two graceful roving bridges are at the junction itself and the single roving bridge is nearby at the Soho Loop where Matthew Boulton's foundry was located. The ribs and the parapets are integrated in one casting of opposing halves which are bolted together. The cast iron decking once had raised ridges to contain the earth composing the walkway for the tow horses, but today brick has been substituted for the bicylists and joggers. Brick and masonry abutments complement the Regency feel of the diamond lattice balustrades and decorative detail under the handrails.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
OLD TURN/DEEP CUTTING JUNCTION, Birmingham 1825 N52o 28' 44.4" W1o 54' 52.8"
There are two bridges at this junction on the Birmingham Canal Navigation in the heart of downtown beside the Sea Life Center (whose coordinates are above) James Brindley's original canal of 1769 was improved by Thomas Telford in the late 1820's by straightening the canal and eliminating some of the locks. To do this, he cut through the loops of the old canal which followed the contour lines and lowered the new canal to join the lowest level of the old canal by making (deep) cuttings. The result was a number of junctions between the old and the new lines which all required roving bridges.
This junction is at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. Not only were the ore and coal and finished iron products transported on this canal, but nearby were the Soho Works of James Watt and Matthew Boulton where their precision, high pressure steam engines were made and shipped all over the world.
Thomas Telford designed a handsome elliptical curved footbridge which the Horseley Iron Works cast. Versions of this bridge are represented here and all over the Birmingham Canal Navigation and other canal systems. One of those here looks very modern, but is marked "Horseley Iron Works Staffordshire 1827" Another is delightfully detailed with 'gothic' cutouts and an XXX design in the parapet.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
EASTNOR CASTLE BR. 1820'S SO735 368 N52o 47'30.2" W2o 1' 45.3"
This delightful bridge is a wrought iron bridge designed by a Ledbury architect, T. Holland, and made by a Ledbury blacksmith, Mr. Sealy, to mimic a cast iron bridge of B. Trinder p. 93). It is approximately 30 feet in length between the masonry abutments and 50 inches wide. It has been re-enforced with a concrete deck.
On close examination, one can see how Mr. Sealy has used bar lengths of wrought iron to fabricate the diminishing circles and the strapping of the spandrels as well as the parapet brackets. The bridge carries the lakeside foot path over the stream created by the over-flow weir on the far side of the lake.
To find Eastnor Castle, take the A449 out of Ledbury to the northeast and in a few miles take a sharp right turn on the road to Eastnor. This is a private home, so be sure that you plan to go in season when it is open to the public.
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- Category: Herefordshire