• 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

Canals of Birmingham

Tardebigge Lock

i recall as a kid being taken to Tardebigge to see Gt Uncle Jim Knight who wa either the lock keeper or ran the pub there.
Bestie
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Knight & Canal

My KNIGHT's were all around Small Heath - Watery Lane, Westley Place etc. In 1901, they ran a coal yard in Westley Place but have not yet found the right location.
During my research at Bham Library, I came across the boat inspection records which licenced operators for the number of people to live on the boats. Attached is a picture of one of Thomas Knight's entries for the "Emily" showing he was licenced to carry manure - hey my ancestor was a s--t shoveller!View attachment 8991
 
Bestcover if he ran the pub at Tardebigge their was only one on the Tardebigge flight and that was about halfway down and was a farm Halfway house farm it sold beer as well as milk eggs etc
 
Bestcover I was amused to see the occupation of your ancestor. Can you tell me whether Birmingham Central Library holds the Inspection Books for other areas besides Birmingham. I have an interest in Wolverhampton Canal System. Perhaps I should look there first.
 
Bestcover In Kelly's Dir. 1907 Frank Knight,Coal Dealer had premises at
77 Alum Rock Rd & 28 Cato St
 
Knight

This was he family in 1891 (by 1901, Ann Knight was at 6 Glover St)

1891 census
218,124 Glover St,
Ann Knight,Head,W,,50,Coal Haulier,Employer,Banbury
Thomas Worley,Sonlaw,M,24,,Coal Carter,Employed,Birmingham
Charlotte Worley,Dau,M,,23,,,Banbury Oxfordshire,
Harry Worley,Son,S,3,,,,Birmingham Warwickshire,
Thomas Worley,Son,S,1,,,,Birmingham Warwickshire,
Thomas Knight,Grnson,S,13,,Scholar,,Birmingham Warwickshire
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Canal Inspection books

I onl looked at the Bham ones - BUT a boat had to be licenced by the canal authority that the boats passed through - therefore. some Worcester and wolves one were included in the BCN
 
Last edited by a moderator:
bare knuckle

story of my Curly Knight gt Grandad used to fight on a saturday night - winner took the purse but loser had hands tied behind back and had to swim to next canal bridge. (allegedly)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the link Alf, I have had a quick look, must go back as it seems to have a wealth of information on canal life. May find more out about Ray's ancestors, and my.g.g.g. grandfather who was a boatman around Chilvers Coton/Foleshill, Coventry.
 
tammie

My g.g.g. grandfather was the lockkeeper at aston locks... I would really like to know how he came to marry a woman from Sheffield and so did his son who went on to be the manager of Curzon St railway station,??? he lived at 64 cato st.
 
Valbetts, a big welcome it looks like you have some great family history. I am sure someone will come up wth some info. Perhaps if you post the names in the names thread who knows!
 
Valbetts.. Aston Lock was my old stomping ground played round their most of my youth in between Thimble Mill Lane and Avenue Rd
But surely you must know that if he was a lock keeper folk from all over the country came down the canal so he must have fell for a bargees daughter
 
Coal dealers and canals

I am new to thread idea, so bear with me. Having had great success with one of your regular contributors I am looking for help in tracking down coal dealers in the 1820's to 1860's named William Norton, David Norton and Thomas Harrison. I believe David was at Soho Wharf, I cannot find this on canal maps, but is this now called Hockley Port? A family story says David was also a barge owner, is there a register of boats?
 
Soho Wharf

Thank you for the location, will try to visit and add a photo to the tree.

Sorry the Harrisons you sent are not mine, but I am so impressed with the details, makes my early efforts seem a bit thin.

Thanks once again

Jane
 
My Great Great Grandfather, John Charlesworth, was a boatman and in the 1841 census his address was given as Towing Path, Ladywood.
Would this have been Cambridge Wharf, and did they sleep on the boats?The next set of addresses in the census was Sheepcote Street.
In the 1851 census he was running the Tindal Arms in King Edwards Road. There's a Tindal Bridge over the canal now, so I assume the pub was approximately where Sea Life is now.
Any info the esteemed Cromwell (or anyone else) could provide would be very welcome!
 
Charlie, the boatmen never slept on the towpath but always moored if carrying cargo on the opposite side to the towpath so thieves could not get on the boat, when the boat was empty they moored on the towpath side but I suppose in the good weather if there was a few on board some slept outside, you are roughly in the right area with Tindal St Bridge as 1883 map shows, and regarding where he was born Towpath Ladywood it could be anywhere inbetween Gas St and north west of the vicinity
(the canal in the Ladywood Area )
 
Thanks for the reply Cromwell, 'preciate it.
I would assume then that when the census was taken, they were moored on the towpath : John, wife + four children, the youngest of which was only two! How on earth did they manage with a family on board those boats?
 
Charlie here is a great pic of the coal coming from the wharfs outside the Canal Company Office at Broad St.(your kin could have delivered that)
If you notice something different from other pics of the canal office its because gas has just been installed in the building and the pipes are on the outside walls
 
Another brilliant photo Graham also an interesting thread. I remember when we went for a holiday on the canal the security was a slight worry!
 
That's a wonderful photo Cromwell, I'll take a copy and send it to my cousin, if that's OK.
Would that be the canal office that's still on the towpath near where the Fiddle and Bone used to be? It's now a Canal Tourist Office and there are stables nearby (sadly gated off, so you can't get in there for a rummage!).
I've convinced myself that they are my rellies on that photo anyway.
Many many thanks
Charlie
 
Charlie is was demolished long ago the location of it was right opposite Paradise St in Suffolk St ...Curzon Hall was next door
 
Found this site with pictures of Canal repair and damming at a bridge. Stopping the water not cussing.

https://feeds.feedburner.com/RetirementWithNoProblem

Keep paging down and you will see it.

P.S. I see from reading the above link that Mike Stevens of the narrow boat Felis Catus has died. Such a wonderfull and informative website that he has left. I don't know if his wife Wendy reads this forum but I would like to say how sorry I am.
 
I know this is deviating from the present thread slightly but I feel I must tell you this. Earlier, I did put this in a post about schooldays. It was about the canal at Lincoln Rd Acocks Green. during the late forties and early fifties a group of us used to play in the cut and would swim and walk all the way to Catherine De Barnes and back. The cut water was always cleaner then and many of the canals were well stocked with fish. My dad used to take us fishing along that canal, anywhere from knowle to Hatton. As you watched the float, it would slowly move one way or the other, Dad would say,"a boat is coming" and sure enough five minutes later a barge loaded to the gunwhales would go chugging past. Flasks were expensive so we took two pop bottles full of tea which were cold when we drank them.
 
Stitcher what happy days. When we were first married we saved like crazy for a house deposit. We made it and moved to Franche village Kidderminster. Couldn't afford much especially when our twin boys came along. Our evenings out in the summer were to walk to Cookly canal with a picnic and fish the cut. We would end the evening with a drink in the canal side pub [the name won't come to mind at the moment] shows we prefered the fishing. Another night I would walk to Kidderminster cut with the twin pram and fishing tackle over the handles. Pete worked on the Worcester road at that time and we would meet half way. One night one of the lads threw his brand new shoe in. Hadn't much doe but what good days. TTFN. Jean.
 
Gee Gee Jean, how times and attitudes change. Can you see a young couple being in the remotest happy to do what you used to do? My Mom and Dad were both married before and had children from their first marriages. Dads eldest son and his wife celebrated last month. One day she was 88, next day he was 89 and the following day was their 65th anniversary. Forgive me for going off the story. When they were younger, they would ride a tandem with a double child sidecar and a trailer attached all the way to Stratford On Avon. They would camp in a field by the river and he would fish for a fortnight and she would take the kids walking around Stratford. They loved it.
 
Re: Canals of Brum

sylviasayers said:
One of my g.g. grandfathers was a Boatman at Foleshill near Coventry on the 1841 census.

Ray's family were also boat people from Darlaston, they were a tough lot, raising seven daughters and and an "adopted" son on the barge, his g. grandad used to fight bare fisted until one of them was exhausted just for money thrown into a hat. .‚..Sometimes he was so badly hurt he couldn't work for a couple of weeks. .‚..They only packed up when their horse slipped on ice into the canal and died, the family then walked from Darlaston to Birmingham pushing all their belongings on a handcart.
Click to expand...
Very Much like my family there ... They were the Smiths and all were on the barge in the 1901 cencuse .. Thomas Smith 42 Elizabeth Smith 42 and 9 kids !! I also had a bare fist fighter in my mum saide of the family .. Chaney Weston . So i know where u are coming form :)
Jean
 
Re: Canals of Birmingham-Boatmen/women

Hello all,

I have a copy of my great grandparents' marriage cert. George Cutler married Mary Ward on 25th December 1907 at St Matthews Church in Dudley. His father is shown as Charles Cutler-Boatman and her's as Edward Ward-Boatman (dec'd). I have found both fathers & families on several census (plural??) and am in the throws of ordering certs to try to backup my research.

Just as an aside, the witnesses were William Haden and Dorothy Westwood, not sure if they may have been canal folk or not.

Anyway, I am curious to know if anyone can confirm why my relatives got married on Christmas Day. I am presuming that Christmas day would have been one of the only days they may have had off work. Or was it common for anyone, not just boat people, to get married on Christmas Day back then?

Your comments, suggestions would be appreciated. Also any recommendations on books regarding the history of boat people in the Midlands would be appreciated.

Thanks
Tydavnet
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top