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Rivers: River Cole

terryb18

terryb18

Gone but not forgotten R.I.P.
Many years ago,while at school, I either read or was told (cannot remember which) that the River Cole in Birmingham is the only river in England to flow north. At the time I just thought "so what". But just recently it sort of came back to me and I thought I would look it up a bit further. I've looked on the internet but can't find anything, so my question is "has anyone else heard of this or was someone having me on," It would be nice to know if its true or not, or does anybody really care? ???


Hanco
 
Project Kingfisher has been responsible for some years for the R.Cole from Small Heath to where it goes under the M6 at Bacons End(where I live).
After this the river runs through private farmland until it reaches Coleshill.

The project headquarters are somewhere in Shard End.
Members patrol the river banks and have been responsible for laying paths and erecting benches along the river,as well as assuring that the water is free from rubbish.In this society this is not always easy as sometimes the river appears to be the local shopping trolley park.

Stepping stones take you across the river to the new estate that replaced the Chelmsley campus.

On a summer morning if it wasn't for the drone of the M6 you could be in the heart of the country.
The fish have come back to the river ,there are foxes, rabbits,voles,kingfishers , a breeding pair of herons,geese and ducks
A Project Kingfisher worker told me that otters have been seen,so I would imagine that it must be pretty clean.
 
I'm so glad that Hanco posted this thread. All the replies.have given a lot of pleasure and a few reminders of years gone by. My grandmother did her courting in that area about the turn of the last century when it must have been all countryside. Good on you all
Lynda
 
That was a nice post from Alberta. I also live close to Bacons End and it has been a long time since I had a walk along the river.Perhaps when the weather brightens up I will go and re-explore the river. I may start off from Cooks lane and work my way round in the direction of Coleshill if its possible.

Hanco
 
The River Cole is a very important location for me.
In the village of Berkswell several of my loved ones have their final resting place. The surrounding land produces a spring contained within a well adjoining the village Church yard. The overflow from this spring fills the ornamental lake of Berkswell Hall before continuing to form a small tributary of the river. By the time it has reached the Stonebridge junction of the A45 close to the N.E.C it deserves it's title The River Cole.
If you do a search using Google Maps UK and select Coleshill you can pick the river up quite easily; switch to the Satellite option and zoom in. If you like you can trace the route from Berkswell through to where it joins the Tame and then further onwards to the Trent eventually discharging into the Sea.
The river does indeed travel Northward for most of its journey.

When the time comes my ashes will be spilt into the discharge of Berkswell well, to follow the path that my trusty Airedale Morgan has blazed before me. A journey I will take, but not yet a while.:)
 
Seeing this post about the River Cole has brought back memories of the time many eons ago, when my siblings and I took our dog for a walk.
We were told quite plainly by mom NOT to let the dog anywhere near the river. He'd just had a bath the day before!

The dog jumped into the river by his own accord and there was not a single thing we could do to stop him...

Were we in trouble when we got home! :shock:
 
Does anybody remember how when there was heavy rainfall how debris used to pile up against the Cooks Lane bridge and turn it into a dam ? It was particularly bad one year 77/78. The river backed up and flooded the fields along Fordbridge.
 
Having been dragged up in the old Part of kINGSHURST, I have many fond memories of the place.
I can remember walking down our road to the farm track that led upto Kingshurst Hall, Now sort of Kingshurst Way, but not quite, upto a gate, where Yorkswood School is now, looking to see if Old Wally Townsend was about, Passed the old Hall and then tentativelly walking on following the track round to where it ran along side Yorkswood, part of the old track used to be still there at the back of the Social Club, Down hill to a meadow and in the distance was Babbs Mill over a stream we knew as Kingshurst brook, the boundry between Birmingham and Warwickshire, with a small two arched bridge, where we caught stickle backs and Tadpoles, No Lake then just a water meadow, always boggy, where Wally Townsend kept a few bullocks and two cows, on further to a small tunnel under the track, we used to love crawling through it at any chance, always dry, onto the River bridge opposite Babbs Mill and across the Cole, Ive always known as a kid as full of sewage, but that didnt stop us kids swimming in it on hot summer days, it being shallow around the bridge, it used to be warm, and if we felt brave there was a deeper part, we called the bomb hole where we learnt to swim.
Bacons End I knew as a farm with buildings across the road where the Ambulance Station now is and just down the road, where the Home is was a row of Cottages.
For those able if you go down Cooks Lane to the Bridge and look under the upstream bit, the old Cooks Lane Bridge is still there, which I remember as a narrow one on my way to School, and further up to the White Hart at the Juction was another Farm and behind the Old Garage was another Farm, used to earn £5 a week there sorting and bagging Potatoes during Holidays and where I learnt to drive a Tractor when I reached 14, a Fergie.
In the Fields around Kingshurst Hall we used to chase Hares and go fishing in the Ponds at the back, Unfortunately I never did see inside the Hall, too scared of Wally and his Sister to do that, I do know it had a moat and a bridge upto the front door and around the side was an outside brick privie, there was also a large Mound with a moat, dry, a very impressive building and a crimminal act to have knocked it down and built two tower blocks in its place. More for another time I think.
 
Far be it for me to challenge you regarding the source of the River Cole Langstraat but its source is well west of Berkswell as can be found here.

I played in it as a Kid down the Dingles and at the Ackers (not the famous one but mine out towards Whitlocks End where the Stratford Canal crosses the R Cole) and I never heard of Berkswell until I was in my early twenties.

I think it more likely that the River to which you refer is the Blythe.

Or maybe I have misread your post?
 
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Hanco I remember the Bailey Bridge at Shard End.I used to live in Hurst Lane and could hear the clattering of the Bridge from my bedroom.
 
Bernie d'Boult's link to the Acocks Green historical site is very helpful, but I notice that the hand-drawn map by J M Jones which is included does not quite tally with the current 1:50 000 OS map so far as the sources of the river Cole is concerned. Going up the river from the crossing under the railway it continues SSW for about 1.5 km until it passes under it again, just due west of Fulford Hall, and continues in the same direction for nearly 3km, passing under the A435 before it divide near Birch Acre and continues southwards towards Newlands but fizzles out (it's very close to the top of that ridge then), while the other branch turns NNW for about 3km and gets back to Headley Heathand finishing about 500m north of Forhill, again close to the top of the ridge.
Peter
 
Bernie you are quite correct in what you say, as someone who has walked the course of the Cole as it disappeared into the Arrow, the Blythe flows into the Cole (flowing north) I tracked it as far as the Roman Rd near Beoley...Berkswell does not come into the picture only as the Well that feeds the lakes and other streams... an area I know quite well and walk it often
 
Having spent my first 13 years in Maxstoke, we frequently walked the 3 miles to Coleshill, along the side of the Cole before climbing the hill to the town.
As a boy, my brother chucked a woodbine packet he found on the road into the river and we often wondered whether it ever reached Brum.
Can anyone tell us?
Bestie
 
As the Cole flows away from Brum at that point it seems highly unlikely:D
 
Loveley posts about the River Cole.

I remember as Iddav does the debris making the river come over the banks.

A few years ago when all rivers seemed to be flooding it turned to our advantage.Travellers had camped on the riverbank between the motorway and the duel carriagway,they were making the site an absolute mess,rubbish old cars,tied up dogs etc.They were going around the area cutting down conifers for people and then dumping the conifers by the river.
One night the river flooded making the site even more of a mess and they decided to leave,they got into difficulties trying to get off thesite and the police were called.They got a tractor and the caravans were pulled off and thankfully they have never been back.

Also enjoyed the post from bobbyb,the home is at the top of my close.
Although I have lived on Chelmsley for 40 years I have only lived here at Bacons End for 10yrs.I have time and time again heard the story that it was called after a pig farm that was built here in the late 1800s but I once came across an historical record and the persons birth was about 1790 and was Bacons End ,Coleshill.

Do you remember when the now garage at the Bacons end roundabout was just a shack and 2 petrol pumps.
 
Bernie D'Boult said:
Far be it for me to challenge you regarding the source of the River Cole Langstraat but its source is well west of Berkswell as can be found here.

I played in it as a Kid down the Dingles and at the Ackers (not the famous one but mine out towards Whitlocks End where the Stratford Canal crosses the R Cole) and I never heard of Berkswell until I was in my early twenties.

I think it more likely that the River to which you refer is the Blythe.

Or maybe I have misread your post?
Click to expand...

Yes Bernie you have misread my post.
I didn't say that the river Cole's source was at Berkswell. My post illustrated that the water from the Berkswell spring passes through the Meriden cap via the Blythe a tributary of the Cole,which in turn joins the Tame before the Trent and North Sea. It was to show a route to the sea using the Cole and to merely add a personal interest to the Cole thread.
 
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Ha ,ha Alberta, now the sight of those anti-social trogs, called travellers being washed out of their campsite I would have loved to see. I presume you are talking about the pretentiously named "nature reserve" or as we always knew it as kids the ER after the queens initials were carved into the hill in 1977. After my first visit back in 18 years I noticed that the ER was heavily fenced off, was this because of those travellers ?

There were many things that used to come down the Cole but the weirdest thing we found was a small catamaran floating at Fordbridge one day. We sailed this thing around for a while until it was sunk/nicked or just went on it's way.
 
The fencing of the ER is more to do with off-road motorbikes ,but they still get in.
I walk my dogs there most days and it really is quite a 'nature reserve' now.Sometimes if it wasn't for the drone of the M6 you could think you were in the country.
Strange things still get washed down the river but the Kingfisher project wardens walk the riverbank and deal with any problems.
 
We used to take our 3 daughters thier for summer picnics. We would often walk to Coleshill on Bank holidays.
 
Sorry if I sound a bit cynical about the nature reserve, it was only in it's infancy when I left, and I tended to think it was a ridiculous idea by Solihull Council who never really seemed to understand/care about Chelmbo. I grew up in Tower Croft from 1970-1989, the ER and the River Cole provided us with endless entertainment as kids. I have lived in various parts of Southern Britain, some nice places, but what would I give to see a proper fall of snow just like the way it used to come down there, under the Sodium streetlights.
 
Hi Bobbyb

I remember all the things you described in Kingshurst, even the tunnel between Social club and Babbs Mill, I lived in Kingshurst Way from 1960 through to 1977 , Mom carried on living their until mid 1980's.

Old Wally Townsend - used to scare the life out of me on a regular basis !

Dianne
 
I lived in Cole Valley Road which runs parallel to the river and the Dingles for over thirty years. I loved to walk my dog there and my children spent happy times playing in the Dingles. We would walk to Sarehole Mill following the river and think of JRR Tolkien getting his inspiration for his books from the Mill, the Dingles and Moseley Bog. His home was opposite the Mill as I am sure, most of you know.:)
 
The bridge over the River Cole at Hay Mills, which carried the Coventry Rd had a wooden block surface and in times of flood they would forced up makeing the bridge impassable circa pre WW2 & post WW2 until they took them up and laid cobblestones but even those got forced up.
 
Alberta said:
I have time and time again heard the story that it was called after a pig farm that was built here in the late 1800s but I once came across an historical record and the persons birth was about 1790 and was Bacons End ,Coleshill.
Click to expand...

Bacons End was so called .....because it was Simon and John Bacon who in the middle ages established a settlement on the edge of the wood ........where Bacons End is today
By the 18th century Bacons End Farm was 395 acres ...the largest farm in the area
 
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We were really done down by the boundary changes in the 70's, I still think chelmbo would be better of in Brum.

But back to memories, I saw much of the open spaces around Bacons End disappear through the 70's and 80's. There used to be an old well on the space over the road by the ambulance station/unigate dairy, fortunately it was filled in, otherwise I am sure one of us kids would have ended up down it. An industrial unit is now sitting on it built in 1981. All the green space around Tower Croft and Waterloo Ave was our playground, I wonder what the kids use now.
 
Re: Chelmbo

Don't forget it was originally built in Nth Warwickshire so outside Birmingham's boundary. I feel it would have fared a lot worse if the original county boundaries still stood.
 
There was some weird arrangement that, although the Wood was in Warwickshire, the housing stock was in Brum, this is discussed in other threads here. I distinctly remember the Warwickshire crest (bear chained to log) on my primary scoolbooks in the early 70's. The tory government of ...I think, 1974 removed Chelmbo (solidy Labour) from Brum, and brought Sutton Coldfield (solid tory) to make the city politically more marginal. Didn't work, and the Sutton snobs no more consider themselves Brummies than chelmbo considers itself Solihull.

I no longer live there but even when I did I was a Brummie in exile, as is all of Chelmbo I believe.
 
It certainly is a long convoluted and complicated history.

However, I have checked out the Kingfisher project and it looks as if the authorities are taking the issue of the enviroment seriously. I have to say that when I last had a look around there this time two years ago everything seemed surprisingly green and healthy. When I was growing up most of the trees were skinny saplings surrounded by wire, but time has worked it's magic and they were mature and in full bloom. I must get back there and have a look at the old ER and see if that has matured too.
 
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