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Lock keeper’s cottages

All these cottages seem quite large to me for one lock keeper and a family. Did the cottages have an additional purpose - eg storage too ? I notice the Thimble Mill Lane cottage has a cellar. Viv.
 
Referring to my post #9, Primrose Hill, quite a long road in 1871, doesn't seem to exist any longer. Any clues as to what it became? The census reference was RG10/3148 Folio 56 Page 55. It was definite Duddeston/Nechells in the parish of St Matthew. The only current Primrose Hill lised is Cotteridge area.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Referring to my post #9, Primrose Hill, quite a long road in 1871, doesn't seem to exist any longer. Any clues as to what it became? The census reference was RG10/3148 Folio 56 Page 55. It was definite Duddeston/Nechells in the parish of St Matthew. The only current Primrose Hill lised is Cotteridge area.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
Maurice.
I am not certain that it was a street, though it was an area. Primrose hill Farm was apparently where the Windsor St gasworks were built., and this was before 1871 when he was at the lock house.. Below is a map showing where Primrose hill was, and a cutting describing police chasing someone up it.

Birm Post.23.2.1864.jpgmap c 1834A showing primrose hill.jpg
 
Thanks very much for that info, Mike. It appears to be a street on the 1871 Census. Tomorrow I will try to follow it through the censuses, but certainly not that far from the Chester Street lock to which my relative moved no more than ten years later. Most unlikely that the house survived even until 1911, but we shall see.

Maurice :cool:
 
You were spot on again, Mike. This from the Birmingham Mail dated 3 January 1914 describes Primrose Hill as :a large tract of land". Thanks again.

Maurice :cool:
Primrose Hill.jpg
 
Re; my post #37 & the Primrose Hill lock, I thought this one still existed, but had been extensively modernised. First it is properly called Garrison Lock No. 63 and here is the area on the 1902 Alan Godfrey map of Saltley:-
Crawford Street 1902.jpg
The lock keeper's house is pointed to by the red arrow.
The modern satellite view of the same area looks like this:-
Crawford Street 2020.jpg
with the Network Park Industrial Estate replacing the Gas Works. Here are two Google view of lock keeper's house from the canal side:-
Garrison Lock.jpg
and the next from Crawford Street where it is known as 70 Crawford Street:-
Crawford Street.jpg
It's now a freehold 3-bedroom property, though one bedroom is only 8ft x 7 ft, was last sold in 2004 for £139,000, and offered for sale in 2018, but not sold, for £135,000. The Zoopla site has all the details here:-
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/70-crawford-street/saltley/birmingham/b8-1jl/347466
and if you move to Image History further down the page there are images both inside and outside.

But now come conflicting pictures and stories that it had burnt down sometime after 2012 when this picture was taken:- https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3143106 but seems that it was not demolished and the awning over the external staircase and some of the windows had been removed/modified. There are marks in the rendering on the Crawford Street view that suggest that windows may have been removed. Also in a picture take 43 years ago, the embankment between the lock and the pool behind it did not exist, but on the 1902 bank above it doed. What do you think?

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice
I cycle past this one fairly regularly and have noticed it was empty recently. Next time I pass I will take a closer look
 
Cheers, Pedro, my relative was there in 1871 but was at Chester Street by 1881, so that narrows it down a bit :)

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
The lock keeper's house is pointed to by the red arrow.
The modern satellite view of the same area looks like this:-
View attachment 150830
with the Network Park Industrial Estate replacing the Gas Works. Here are two Google view of lock keeper's house from the canal side:-
[
and the next from Crawford Street where it is known as 70 Crawford Street:-
View attachment 150832
It's now a freehold 3-bedroom property, though one bedroom is only 8ft x 7 ft, was last sold in 2004 for £139,000, and offered for sale in 2018, but not sold, for £135,000. The Zoopla site has all the details here:-

and if you move to Image History further down the page there are images both inside and outside.



Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
I remember having a look in there our Maurice. it was full of filth black bags. poo etc a right rubbish dump.shame.:mad:
 
Thanks all for your comments and photograph. It certainly seems very vulnerable and Crawford Street itself looks pretty scruffy. Otherwise the views along that bit of canal there are quite nice and the footpath has been redone not so long ago. The one weak link is that flight of steps at the side of the house, which I guess is a public right of way and cannot be locked and gated. A large aggressive rottweiler might be the answer! :)

From reading the various canal websites, a lot of the high walls of derelict factories have now been torn down, but recently on that set of locks, it was necessary to close the whole flight of locks because one tall wall was in danger of collapse and the owner was refusing to comply with orders to remove and make safe. The replacement of the gas works with a modern industrial estate on the other side of the canal has helped. Obviously the current owner of the house wishes to sell, but with all the problems he's not getting any takers and the future of the lock keeper's house doesn't look good. Any mass attempt to rejuvenate the area would probably result in its demolition despite Grade II listing.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Thanks all for your comments and photograph. It certainly seems very vulnerable and Crawford Street itself looks pretty scruffy. Otherwise the views along that bit of canal there are quite nice and the footpath has been redone not so long ago. The one weak link is that flight of steps at the side of the house, which I guess is a public right of way and cannot be locked and gated. A large aggressive rottweiler might be the answer! :)

From reading the various canal websites, a lot of the high walls of derelict factories have now been torn down, but recently on that set of locks, it was necessary to close the whole flight of locks because one tall wall was in danger of collapse and the owner was refusing to comply with orders to remove and make safe. The replacement of the gas works with a modern industrial estate on the other side of the canal has helped. Obviously the current owner of the house wishes to sell, but with all the problems he's not getting any takers and the future of the lock keeper's house doesn't look good. Any mass attempt to rejuvenate the area would probably result in its demolition despite Grade II listing.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
our Maurice crawford st was the pits. scrap yards and rubbish dumps.took over. the house was used for allsorts of iffy goings on.as for a dog i dont think so. it might catch some thing nasty.
 
Unusual Dennis. But is it a lockkeeper's cottage. Most of these would have been built at the time of the canals, and while it is shown on the 1906 map, it does not appear on the larger scale 1880s map. Of course , it might have been missed off/
ScreenHunter 2182.jpg
 
Mike Jee is correct to question the building in Bowyer Street. This structure was canal company owned and was at a distance from the Warwick & Birmingham Canal. The building was adjacent to the pumping engine house which once held a Boulton & Watt beam engine. This site deserves an archeological investigation to see what foundations exist. The same can be said for another Boulton & Watt pumping house beside Edgabston Reservoir close to Icknield Port.

The house in Bowyer Street is best described as a pumping engine attendants house, and indeed the house in Icknield Port that remains was also built for that function.

As to toll keepers buildings on the Warwick & Birmingham, there was one small building at the top of Camp Hill flight locks opposite Sampson Road Wharf. This 1st o/s map mentions the owners as the Birmingham Canal, when actually the owners were the Warwick & Birmingham Canal Company (Later Grand Union).


Bowyer St.jpg
 
mikejee said:
Unusual Dennis. But is it a lockkeeper's cottage. Most of these would have been built at the time of the canals, and while it is shown on the 1906 map, it does not appear on the larger scale 1880s map. Of course , it might have been missed off/
View attachment 150953
Click to expand...

obviously a very old building mike as suggested by all the brickwork and the steps...could be an elderly person lived or lives there hence the hand rails who could have lived there many years...just hope it does not end up in the skip..i would certainly live in it and the first job would be to tidy up around the property...

lyn
 
mikejee said:
Unusual Dennis. But is it a lockkeeper's cottage. Most of these would have been built at the time of the canals, and while it is shown on the 1906 map, it does not appear on the larger scale 1880s map. Of course , it might have been missed off/
View attachment 150953
Click to expand...


My first thoughts too......but as it was captioned thus...I took a chance....! Can't remember where I first saw it.....very frustrating....thanks for your input.......
 
There was a toll office, as stated at the top of Camp Hill Locks. In this 1955 view the building is on the towpath side of the canal.711306.jpg

It is a view as seen from the Railway Bridge.

With respect to canal side buildings (toll houses etc) in the Birmingham area, there are those that belonged to:

(1) Birmingham Canal Navigations (includes Dudley Canal buildings)
(2) Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal
(3) Warwick & Birmingham Canal
(4) Worcester & Birmingham Canal

The BCN operated a numerical system for cottage rentals which was first arranged in District sequence order and then later combined into one numerical sequence. These rentals covered toll house cottages, wharfingers cottages, reservoir keepers cottages and engine house staff cottages.

Then there were the independent properties such as private wharves where a cottage or house may be associated with.
 
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Present 3D Google Earth view of the above picture from 1955.

Perhaps the last few comments are of particular interest for the Thread “Canal Toll Houses“ ? Edit - copied to the Canal Toll Houses thread.

854926B1-0742-46EC-B5D1-AF4E03283688.jpeg
 
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The Bentley Canal was a canal made by the BCN to link the Wyrley & Essington Canal, at Wednesfield, with the Ansons Branch. It passed through Willenhall and provide the navigation link for Fletcher, Solly & Urwicks furnaces there. This image is at the top of the locks near Wednesfield. The final number for this cottage was 245.

I think one of the more attractive cottages is at the far end of Edgbaston reservoir, no 29

649825.jpg
 
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