• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Rivers : Forgotten Streams or Brooks of Birmingham

gingerjon

gingerjon

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
help needed are there any engineers out there who work out the restriction in the Aston Brook culvert there appears to be a run off flume upper left side of photograph.
Could this have been used by Martindales for a power water supply or some other reason or was it a pressure release when the Brook was running at an high level.
As you can see from the brickwork it appears to have been put there to restrict the water flow, the culvert runs on for about one hundred yards then turns left and runs level with the factory which it self runs level with Alma street before going under the buildings and crossing Alma street to carry on to Newtown Row.
There are photographs and diagrams on the Martindale thread.
there is a gradual smooth bend just at the back of this photograph
 
There are some streams and brooks, which have been covered over and lost in the development of Birmingham.

Examples include Edgbaston Brook whose course once ran through the valley at Icknield Port, and was covered by the Reservoir when Thomas Telford planned the water supply improvement to the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It then ran through the low lying land, which the BCN filled up for industrial development on the inside of the Icknield Port Loop. It then went on by Eyre Street and joined up with Hockley Brook.

Then there is the Stich in Stechford which is covered and flows into the Cole.

Some do not appear to have names. There was one that flowed down the valley north of Great Charles Street and the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. This stream originated near the Colmore Estate and flowed under Water Street and passed under the canal near Honduras Wharf and then flowed down to join up with Hockley Brook, on a section that was called Aston Brook.
 
We used to go to the back garden of my pals house in Hurlingham Road where there was a 'brook' over the fence at the bottom.

We hopped over the fence and played at damming it, we also found our way through the tunnels at each end, one way went to the overflow of the pool in Finchley park the other took us to the island in Warren Farm Road between the prefabs.

I don't know if it had a name, to us it was just 'The brook'.

We did ghost noises through the slot at the park Wooo! :)
 
Pete, I don’t know of a map that dates back that far, but my understanding is Spark Brook was the boundary with Spark Hill. You can follow the boundary mark on this map to where the brook emerges by the lodge on Golden Hillock Road.

Spark Brook.JPG
 
No matter really as we only have a few rivers in the Birmingham area ? I can only think of the Rea, Tame and Cole.
 
The one that fed the Witton Reservoirs, the Lakes and Brookvale Park, I believe was Hawthorn Brook ?
 
chrissweep said:
There used to be one through Witton, I think it was the River Ray ?, once voted the most polluted water way in the UK.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it was the river Tame that rises in the black Country then it went through Witton then on to Salford Bridge where it was joined by Aston Brook. The River Rea cut through Bordsley and Nechells then joins the Tame at the far end of the old Tame and Rea Drainage board sewage works just East of what is now Star City.

As you correctly say, it was one of the worst polluted rivers in the UK. As a kid I recalling it sinking like hell. They used to say you would die of the pollution before you drowned.

I was looking at the Tame today at Salford Bridge and telling a friend how polluted it used to be. Today it looked spotless.
 
Presumably a stream or brook was a river some way down the line ? So would most of the streams and brooks originate from the few rivers around Birmingham ? Viv.
 
Pedrocut said:
Hawthorn Brook
Click to expand...

There was a Hawthorn Brook quoted as supplying Birmingham with drinking water, but I am not sure if it’s the same as the one that feed Witton Lakes. It suffered a pollution incident that made it unsuitable for the water supply.

My recollection is there were three small streams that fed into Witton lakes.

One rising at Kings Vale not far From Kings Vale Pluming Station near to Kingstanding circle.

One rising in Finchley Park, joining the Kings Vale stream just south of College Road.

The third used to rise in the vicinity of Station Road Erdington and ran West to join the others in Witton lakes Park.

Coincidently, I also rode through Witton lakes today, following the course of the Finchley Road spring
 
An interesting subject. I’m now wondering when does river turn into a stream or brook? Why isn’t it still a river ? And is it down to volume of water/size etc ? Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Presumably a stream or brook was a river some way down the line ? So would most of the streams and brooks originate from the few rivers around Birmingham ? Viv.
Click to expand...

From memory Viv the watershed is on the Wasely Hils at Rubury, so all rainfall, steams, brooks and rivers tend to flow to the East across Birmingham and eventually drain into the River Tame, then the Trent and then the Humber.

The definition of Steams and Brooks are a bit vague, but brooks are small, then stream and then rivers.
 
  • Google Search

  • Streams are fast flowing water bodies that originate in mountains because of rain water or melting glaciers.
  • When two streams meet, the smaller one is called a tributary.
  • The place, where many streams meet to form a large water body called river, is referred to as confluence.
  • Streams are shallower than rivers.
 
There are many more terms for streams and brooks, depending on which part of the country you happen to be. Becks, Gills, Rills etc.
 
Are there other forgotten streams or brooks in the Kingstanding and Perry Barr area ? Way back in history there were, I think, a number of water mills.

And we had a long discussion some years ago about Pool Farm, Kingstanding and I vaguely remember the area being marshy. There must have once been a stream (or streams) there to form the ‘Pool’ which was on maps. But to my knowledge there are no streams around that area.

Viv.
 
Viv the stream from Pool farm is now culverted and first sees daylight at the island on Warren Farm Road, where the prefabs used to be
 
Vivienne14 said:
Are there other forgotten streams or brooks in the Kingstanding and Perry Barr area ? Way back in history there were, I think, a number of water mills.

And we had a long discussion some years ago about Pool Farm, Kingstanding and I vaguely remember the area being marshy. There must have once been a stream (or streams) there to form the ‘Pool’ which was on maps. But to my knowledge there are no streams around that area.

Viv.
Click to expand...
As a For instance then; where does Marsh Hill come from ?
 
Just checked out the Pool (Poole) Farm Cottages thread and for info the pool was called Lodge Pool. Viv.
 
As I said, “I am not sure if it’s the same as the one that feed Witton Lakes.” I have never been able to find the name of the Witton Lakes Feed so this may confirm it, or not.

What I am unable to reconcile is The Birmingham Waterworks Company presented a bill to Parliament in 1821 to extract water from the Tame and Hawthorn Brook. It then goes on the say that the Hawthorn Brook was never used.

This effectively would have mad ethe Witton Lakes system redundant, yet we know that it was used up until the commissioning of the Elan Valley scheme. It in the back of my head somewhere that there may be another Hawthorn brook.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top