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Jim Crow

Harleyman

New Member
I'm trying to find out how "The Crow" flight of locks on the Titford Canal truly got its name. I understand that it was named after the Jim Crow arm, which led off it, halfway up, and fed the Albright & Wilson phosphorus works.

Apocrypha suggests that there was a man called Jim Crow who was a local factory owner or benefactor, but this seems to have spread in the canal community as an anecdote, from an original mention around 50 years ago in the first Nicholson's canal guide, and has self-perpetuated.

Was there a Mr Jim (James) Crow, local benefactor, and/ot what is the origin of the name of the eponymous arm?
 
Jim Crow (Titford Canal) is mentioned in post 6 (24/7/18) in this thread.
 
Jim Crow (Titford Canal) is mentioned in post 6 (24/7/18) in this thread.
Thanks for this, noted and appreciated. But I would still like to know who 'Jim Crow' was. Anyone any suggestions please?
 
Wikipedia says of Titford Pool...This feeder was not made navigable until 1837, with the addition of six locks, nicknamed The Crow, which were adjacent to chemical works owned by Jim Crow. In Post 6 of the thread “Lost Canals” Heartland informs that the name is subject to speculation. The site “What lies beneath Rattlechain Lagoon” gives a very good map of the location, and calls the basin the Crow Arm...

I can’t find any reference to Jim (James) Crow or his chemical works around the “Crow Arm” in any reports, directories, or accounts of the cutting of the Canal. The term seems only to be used by relatively modern accounts. However there is a “Jim Crow Bridge” at Birchfield Lane, Oldbury mentioned as early as 1848 and again 1870, and near Birchey Field Lane and Colliery. This is some distance away from the arm.

(Wiki)...In 1842 Arthur Albright, a trained chemist, became a Partner in the Birmingham chemical firm of John and Edmund Sturge; his sister had married Edmund Sturge who was also a Quaker. The Sturges were already manufacturing potassium chlorate for the match industry, at their chemical works at Selly Oak, adjacent to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. Albright therefore added the production of white phosphorus in 1844. In 1850 the production of potassium chlorate and white phosphorus was moved to Langley Green, Oldbury, West Midlands; and production of white phosphorus restarted in 1851...

...The new site was located next door to the firm of Chance and Hunt in order to obtain access to a supply of sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid; and of coal from the Black Country coal fields. It was also adjacent to two different arms of the Birmingham Canal Navigations,o (the BCN), one leading off the Titford Canal, so it had good transport links.

In 1843 J and E Sturge were at Wheeley’s Lane, Birmingham, and Joseph D Sturge had a chemical works at Park Lane, Oldbury. This is close to the arm and Trinity Street. So if you want to find more about Jim Crow you would have to go back before 1848.
 
Wikipedia says of Titford Pool...This feeder was not made navigable until 1837, with the addition of six locks, nicknamed The Crow, which were adjacent to chemical works owned by Jim Crow. In Post 6 of the thread “Lost Canals” Heartland informs that the name is subject to speculation. The site “What lies beneath Rattlechain Lagoon” gives a very good map of the location, and calls the basin the Crow Arm...

I can’t find any reference to Jim (James) Crow or his chemical works around the “Crow Arm” in any reports, directories, or accounts of the cutting of the Canal. The term seems only to be used by relatively modern accounts. However there is a “Jim Crow Bridge” at Birchfield Lane, Oldbury mentioned as early as 1848 and again 1870, and near Birchey Field Lane and Colliery. This is some distance away from the arm.

(Wiki)...In 1842 Arthur Albright, a trained chemist, became a Partner in the Birmingham chemical firm of John and Edmund Sturge; his sister had married Edmund Sturge who was also a Quaker. The Sturges were already manufacturing potassium chlorate for the match industry, at their chemical works at Selly Oak, adjacent to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. Albright therefore added the production of white phosphorus in 1844. In 1850 the production of potassium chlorate and white phosphorus was moved to Langley Green, Oldbury, West Midlands; and production of white phosphorus restarted in 1851...

...The new site was located next door to the firm of Chance and Hunt in order to obtain access to a supply of sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid; and of coal from the Black Country coal fields. It was also adjacent to two different arms of the Birmingham Canal Navigations,o (the BCN), one leading off the Titford Canal, so it had good transport links.

In 1843 J and E Sturge were at Wheeley’s Lane, Birmingham, and Joseph D Sturge had a chemical works at Park Lane, Oldbury. This is close to the arm and Trinity Street. So if you want to find more about Jim Crow you would have to go back before 1848.

Just to complete the history in 1854 Albright terminated his partnership with Sturge and took John Edward Wilson into partnership in 1856 continuing the business as Albright & Wilson. Since 2000 the company has been owned by the French company Rhodia.
 
Arthur Albright (1811-1900).
In 1881 he was living at Mariemont, Edgbaston. Buried in Witton Cemetery
 
I'm trying to find out how "The Crow" flight of locks on the Titford Canal truly got its name. I understand that it was named after the Jim Crow arm, which led off it, halfway up, and fed the Albright & Wilson phosphorus works.

Apocrypha suggests that there was a man called Jim Crow who was a local factory owner or benefactor, but this seems to have spread in the canal community as an anecdote, from an original mention around 50 years ago in the first Nicholson's canal guide, and has self-perpetuated.

Was there a Mr Jim (James) Crow, local benefactor, and/ot what is the origin of the name of the eponymous arm?

This does not answer your question and I am not making any tenuous suggestion but the term was prevalent in the early 19th century. I have written a little about it at : https://www.midlandspubs.co.uk/birmingham/digbeth/old-guy-inn.htm#Jim-Crow
 
The American slave Jim Crow connection arose to prominence around 1865 after the American Civil War, although it had been known much earlier as a music hall act. However anyone wishing further information should find plenty on the web. The facts are often somewhat different to the myths.
 
Yes Pedrocut has mentioned the plantation connection to the name "Jim Crow" and another link is the term crow bar, which is associated with contracting. The actual " Jim Crow Arm" was a branch off the main Titford Canal, which served Albright & Wilson's Phosphorus Works. Their records mention raw material, phosphates etc, being delivered by canal boat, using commercial carriers. and in their letters to these carriers it is specified that the carriers go to the Crow Arm to make their deliveries.

I did look at the colourful connection with America, but personally thought that crow bar was the best reason for naming this canal arm. If the arm is looked at on a map, the shape of the arm is bent at the top, like a crow bar. It is this top that the arm joins the Titford Locks.

Later with the making of the Oldbury Railway, that railway crossed the Crow near the top, and any observations regarding shape became more difficult to see.
 
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