Search results

The relocation of services and other work led Metro workers to discover a tunnel whose date and origins are unknown leading to cellars of the Old Crown. Some have suggested a role as a coal chute, others have extended into the roles of fantasy

This is probably the wrong moment to discuss success. The West Midlands Metro story began with failure as Phil Bateman and his team was unable to progress the original scheme through Hodge Hill. Then began the gradual reconstruction of infrastructure along the route to Wolverhampton replacing in...

There was a stop lock on the Dudley Canal at Selly Oak with cottage alongside, but that section was eventually abandoned once the traffic to the brickworks ceased. The part through Lapal Tunnel had ended finally in 1917, but the detached section at the Selly Oak lasted longer. Much of the...

That one was the Birmingham Canal Navigations at the Heart of the British Canal System ISBN 7524 2767 9 The latest BCN book will be launched by author Phil Clayton at the Titford Pump House in May- That new book is the publishers Crowood. I did a book for them on the Trent & Mersey Canal last...

The detachable engine for canal craft was detailed on page 78 and 79 of my book Birmingham Canal Navigations published by Tempus in 2002. This was a scheme proposed by Arthur Hook for the Watercraft Installation Ltd in 1917.

It is said that Birmingham was a city of a thousand trades, but I seem to believe that there were more. The businessmen of the town or the later city grasped invention and pursued new trades aided first through being the centre of a canal network and then a railway network. The diversity of...

Pitt's account of Joseph Heydon is indeed a useful description of how steel was made using Spanish or Swedish iron encased in fireclay and heated by burning coal in a furnace. Perhaps such a method was used by Carless / Careless and the Kettles in Birmingham. There was a decree of secrecy in the...

I finally found a map of Birmingham, dated 1731, which does show Kettle's Steel Houses which are two in number. They are evidently works for the conversion of iron into steel. They are not marked as such on the 1755 map, but there are shapes on that map which correspond Not far away on the...

The Cast Steel furnace is not in Steel House Lane, but the bottom of Fazeley Street, and as noted by the advert was owned by someone outside the West Midlands and yes I agree it became the site of the New Steam Mill. The Kettle property in Steel House Lane may not have been a location for...

It was Hutton in his History of Birmingham published in 1795 that explained the involvement of the Kettles as beginning in the 17th century. It seems that William Kettle was associated with land purchases in the early 18th century including Whitehall Lane, as it then was. The Kettles are...

I did discuss the ironmaking in this area in my book South Staffordshire ironmasters, with the History Press and an article has been submitted to the Black Countryman for possible future publication on Steel Making. But the details of the early steel house in Steelhouse Lane are hard to come by...

The aspect of steel making in central Birmingham probably deserves further research. Joseph McKenna in his Streets of Birmingham mentions that Steelhouse Lane was previously known as Prior's Coneygree Lane(- the lane leading to Prior's rabbit warren) and later Whitehall. later still it became...

The narrow gauge railways serving the sewage works were NOT classed as MINITURE that definition applies to gauges usually less tham 18 in and has power also in miniture

The Jacot Railway Locomotive is shown here

Does anybody recall the Jacot Railway in Handsworth which was in the garden There was a locomotive called Redgauntlet

I saw the trams on trial on Friday and I gather they started to run to the Library on Saturday 12th February. So far have not heard of the reason for the delay this time, but at least they are running now and the next extension will be to Five Ways. The route is still a linear one, but the...

Yes Brown Marshall were initially an independent railway carriage builder. Then part of Met Cam then the site was taken over by Wolseley at a time they started to expand their site. Later it was Morris Commercial. It was an interesting and complex history.

In the 1950's I recall that the moat at Perry Hall had a form of boat that could be hired. By then the hall had been demolished, Does anybody remember this ?

I think you will find that Saltley Viaduct over the Midland Railway, replaced the previous level crossing there. Railway companies in towns started to improve road communications through making viaducts to replace level crossings a contemporary example would be the London & North Western...

Round Oak Steelworks was the last industrial development on the site at Brierley Hill. The closure of the steel works led to demolition and its replacement with the Merry Hill Shopping Centre.