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Cadbury: Canal Boat History

Radiorails

Radiorails

master brummie
In another thread Mike, you mentioned starting a thread. I pushed the boat out.
There is probably quite a fair amount of information on the web about Cadbury canal operations which continued until 1929 but then they passed their boats and operations to two other canal companies. Canal deliveries continued until February 1961.
https://www.workingboats.com/cadbury.htm
 
Thank you Alan. That has provided much information than I did not have. The reason that I was going to start the thread was because I was excavating my loft. The following are the purchase orders and some paperwork for two boats which were in two purchse order books I rescued from being thrown away many years ago. The first is from 4th April 1912, and must be for the boat on th elist marked BHAM1259.
purchase canal boat,4,4,1912.1.jpg purchase canal boat,4,4,1912.2.jpg purchase canal boat,4,4,1912.3.jpg purchase canal boat,4,4,1912.4.jpg
 
You will note that the latter order specifies that they use the old Bolinder engine from Bournville no 1. Why is not clear, but a month later they order a new Bolinder engine. Maybe the one they were going to use was found to be clapped out.

purchase new Bolinder engine 12.2.1915.jpg
 
Very interesting Mike, I had reservations about opening up this thread but you have risen to the cause. In the first £150 boat (April 1912) I see no mention of engine and assumed it would be horse drawn. As the second £350 boat (January 1915) got a new Bolinder eventually I wonder if the spare one mentioned was fitted to the April 4th. one?
It was also interesting to read that the April 4th. boat was requited finished and delivered within one month otherwise a loan boat was required. One presumes that Perry & Sons had a good workforce as they could well have had other orders besides the Cadbury one.
Post 4, the supply of Bolinder engine from a London company, makes it remarkable at the cost of such an engine and fittings. No wonder horses continued to work for many more years with No.1 owners who did not have the financial resources at hand.
 
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That is very useful from a historical point of view.
BOURNVILLE III was supplied to Cadbury in May 1912 and registered Birmingham 1259. The builder had not been recorded although Perry did build a number of wooden boats, including some for the Severn & Canal Carrying Co. Fellows, Morton & Clayton built their own at Saltley, Birmingham or at Uxbridge.

BOURNVILLE No 1 was built by Fellows, Morton and Clayton in June 1915, No 2 followed in July 1916

The original BOURNVILLE I was built by Orr Watt of Motherwell and supplied in June 1911

BOURNVILLE 3, Cadbury's 7th boat, BOURNVILLE 7, Cadbury's 11th boat were purchased from Fellows, Morton & Clayton in June 1915, BOURNVILLE 8 was purchased from FMC in November 1915, whilst BOURNEVILLE 9 & 10 came from FMC in August 1916.

All these acquisitions are consistent with Cadbury's increasing the transport of goods as well as opening a new depot on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.
 
I hope this works, its a pdf file from Cadburys customer relations team relating to thier use of the inland waterways. Ive had this document some time for some recrch I did on the Purton Hulks in Gloucester
 

Attachments

  • Cadbury's use of the inland waterways.pdf
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Hi everyone, I came across this conversation via a link Heartland shared to a canal forum. Im the curator of www.workingboats.com and am at present rewriting the site to make it a little more user friendly as well as improving the content and accuracy. Is there any chance I could use some of the information from this thread in the new site? I would love to include digital copies of the documentation if that is acceptable too. When finished each boat will have their own page with images and any other information I can find regarding the boats concerned.
I would of course respect any restrictions and preferences the owners of the information requires.
Many thanks
Andy
 
Bourneville I the donor boat for the Bolinder engine that was replaced per the order book shown, differed greatly from the working canal boats many are familiar with these days. It had twin rudders, had a decked hold rather than sheets and wheel steering, its contemporary, Bourneville II was conventionally designed and followed the look of the steamers of the time.
The documentation would back up the claim that 'I' was not at all popular with the boatmen and it would seem as if Cadbury were cannibalising it for parts by 1915 a mere four years after construction.
Here is the boat in all its glory, photo was found on the Volvo website within an old brochure, sadly the links I had saved are now dead.Bournville1.png
 
You are very welcome to use any of the information. There is also some orders for wharf building, as I remember it at Knighton, which I intend to also scan and add , but I expect those are of no interest to you
 
Thank you, I am very interested in anything like this. The wharf building items would go nicely in the main Cadbury page which will preface the boat listings. I used to regularly pass Knighton as we had our boat at Bilbrook and the Shroppie was our regular trip for a weekend, luckily my family were ex working boat people so I was enthralled by stories of what things were like back in the day.
 
This is the Severn Collier. It was also worked as a Cadbury boat, bringing coal to the Cadbury factory in Gloucester. From what I have been told, the coco beans were unloaded at the factory in Gloucester, then bought up to Birmingham on narrowboats.

It is now hulked at the ship graveyard in Purton
122_2283.jpg
 
Thanks, folks. It would have been nice to preserve them, but they are too far gone now. The view taken about the people who look after the hulks (about 84 of them), is to as it is effectively a shop graveyard, to leave them to rest in peace and let nature take its course.

Well worth a vist if anyone wants direction.

Some more photos here https://flic.kr/s/aHsjBnPuBu

A short video here

The Friends of Purton website https://www.friendsofpurton.org.uk/
 
Lyn,

I'm sure there was no intention to preserve it, as Mort says, it's effectively a dumping ground, and there are many of these scattered around the world for boats/ships and aircraft. I'm also sure that if it had any scrap value at all, it would have gone long ago.

Maurice
 
From research the Purton hulks were placed as an effort to protect the embankment of the Gloucester and Sharpness canal from erosion, the two metal boats in the still shown on Mort's video arent part of this plan. They are the Wastdale H and the Arkendale H the two boats who played a pivotal (no pun intended) role in the Severn Railway Bridge disaster.
 
The Cadbury History was prepared by the late Stanley Holland, who had a particular interest in canals both local or otherwise, writing articles for various magazines.

It is quite a useful summary
 
carolina said:
View attachment 127640
Click to expand...
I know this post is a couple of years old now, but I wondered if you knew anything about the Cadburys family historically using the Grand Union canal from Knowle. I understand there is/was a wharf there near Bakers Lane, did canal boats operate from there at all? Are there any pictures or old records you may know of? Thank you for your time, regards.
 
A discussion about canals and Cadbury, and Knowle, appears here in connection with seaweed...

Seaweed imported to Warwickshire

Thanks for the suggestion. The question is whether untreated seaweed was imported into Bournville by Cadbury during the late nineteenth century. It's possible, but only an industrial historian is likely to have the answer. Thank you Andrew, while I never worked for Cadburys, I have worked for...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
The only cargoes I can find mentioned relating to the two wharves at Knowle are coal and lime. The five wide locks, prior to 1930 there were six narrow locks, are the last wide locks in the Birmingham direction on the line from the south.
 
The canal through Knowle was originally owned, and built for, the Warwick & Birmingham Canal Company.

North of Knowle was Copt Heath Wharf, bridge 76, Kixley Bridge 72 had a wharf, Knowle Top Lock had a wharf. there was a wharf, Heronfield, at bridge 70. The carriage of coal was important, but these wharves also had a use for the local agricultural community. The conveyance of night soil was once an important cargo in boats from Birmingham. Sea weed had use as a fertilizer and it would be of interest to find out if this was the reason for transport to Knowle.
 
Morturn said:
This is a document given to me by Cadburys outlining their use of the inland waterways.

enjoy
Click to expand...
Mort, this is a very good article. i am watching "Cruising the Cut" by David Johns and the article was most helpful.
When I went back to look at it a second time it would not open.
 
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