Birmingham - Perry Barr Flight, Birmingham Canal - top lock - IWA postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Top Lcck, Perry Barr Flight, Birmingham Canal
• Publisher:  Inland Waterways Association c.1980s
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Perry Barr is an inner-city area in north Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Perry Barr ward and the wards of Handsworth Wood, Lozells and East Handsworth, and Oscott, which elect three councillors to Birmingham City Council. Birmingham Perry Barr is also a parliamentary constituency; its Member of Parliament is Khalid Mahmood.

The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line describes the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England.

The name Main Line was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton route from the many other canals and branches built or acquired by the Birmingham Canal Navigations company.

On 24 January 1767 a number of prominent Birmingham businessmen, including Matthew Boulton and others from the Lunar Society,^[1] held a public meeting in the White Swan, High Street, Birmingham^[2] to consider the possibility of building a canal from Birmingham to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near Wolverhampton, taking in the coalfields of the Black Country. They commissioned the canal engineer James Brindley to propose a route. Brindley came back with a largely level route via Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton, Bilston and Wolverhampton to Aldersley.^[1][3]

On 24 February 1768 an Act of Parliament was passed to allow the building of the canal, with branches at Ocker Hill and Wednesbury^[1] where there were coal mines. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire company was given the right to make the connection to their canal if the Birmingham company failed to do so within six months of opening.^[3] On 2 March^[3] Brindley was appointed engineer.^[1] The first phase of building was to Wednesbury whereupon the price of coal sold to domestic households in Birmingham halved overnight.^[2] Vested interests of the sponsors caused the creation of two terminal wharves in Birmingham. The 1772 Newhall Branch and wharf (now built upon) originally extended north of, and parallel to Great Charles Street. The 1773 Paradise Street Branch split off at Old Turn Junction and headed through Broad Street Tunnel, turned left at what is now Gas Street Basin and under Bridge Street to wharves on a tuning fork-shaped pair of long basins: Paradise Wharf, also called Old Wharf. The Birmingham Canal Company head office was finally built there, opposite the western end of Paradise Street.^[4]

By 6 November 1769, 10 miles (16 km)^[1][3] had been completed to Hill Top collieries in West Bromwich, with a one mile summit pound at Smethwick. Brindley had tried to dig a cutting through the hill at Smethwick but had encountered ground too soft to cope with.^[3] The canal rose through six narrow (7 ft) locks to the summit level and descended through another six at Spon Lane. Water was brought from purpose-built reservoirs: Smethwick Great Reservoir (now built upon, holding 1514 locks of water), another smaller pool at Smethwick (holding 500 locks),^[2] and then from Titford Pool^[3] to supply the summit level.^[1]

In 1770 work started towards Wolverhampton.^[1] On 21 September 1772^[3] the canal was joined with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Aldersley Junction via another 20 locks^[1] (increased to 21 in 1784 to save water).^[3][5] Brindley died a few days later. The canal measured 22 miles and 5 furlongs (22? miles),^[1] mostly following the contour of the land but with deviations to factories and mines in the Black Country and Birmingham. A branch led to Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory.

The original Birmingham Canal was extremely successful but there was a problem with supplying sufficient water to the Smethwick Summit. Matthew Boulton's partner, James Watt, had just patented an improvement to the steam engine involving an external condenser which improved the efficiency (and therefore reduced the amount of coal needed to run it). Steam engines were constructed at either end of the Smethwick Summit to pump water used in the operation of the locks back to the summit.^[1] The Smethwick Engine (5 June 1779) pumped water from the Birmingham side of the summit, and another, the Spon Lane Engine (April 1778)^[2] operated from the Wolverhampton side.

In 1784, after two years of counter-productive attempts at legislation, the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company (created to propose a competitive canal from the coal fields to Birmingham and also a link to the Coventry Canal at Fazeley) merged with the Birmingham Canal Company^[3] (ten years later the name of the merged company was changed to the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company) and the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was started. This created an even greater need for water to supply the thirteen locks at Farmer's Bridge and eleven at Aston, all running downhill and taking water out of the Birmingham system.

There were problems of congestion at Smethwick caused by the time taken to traverse the locks and with supplying sufficient water to the summit level. John Smeaton was engaged to advise on a solution. He specified a 1000 yard cutting through the top eighteen feet of the summit, eliminating three locks from each end, and doubling the capacity of the descent at Smethwick locks by building a parallel flight of three locks,^[1] in use until the 1960s. The changes were made in two phases with a new cut to the side to remove two locks from each end and lower the summit by twelve feet, and then another parallel cut another six feet lower, removing another lock at each end and the provision of a parallel set of three locks at the Smethwick end.^[3] In 1790, after 2½ years the cutting was completed. The canal was closed for only 14 days. The lowered summit was at the Wolverhampton Level and simplified water supply. Water was also pumped from several local coal mines. The Spon Lane engine was removed and sold but the Smethwick Engine continued to be used to pump used water from the Birmingham Level.

type=printed

city/ region=birmingham

period=post-war (1945-present)

postage condition=unposted

number of items=single

size=continental/ modern (150x100 mm)