Jump to content

Birchills (Walsall) Toll Stop


pearley

Featured Posts

The 'Blue Book' on the BCN shows Birchills Toll stop as being under Green Lane road bridge with a toll house between the bridge and junction. However, I've just bought the facsimile copies of the 1902 OS maps of the area where the narrows of Pratts Mill aqueduct are marked 'Birchills Stop' with a small building on the offside just to the north of the aqueduct. So which is correct? Or was it in one place then moved, Green Lane being more easily accessed than the aqueduct.

There is a further complication in that Robert Davies book 'Boats, Smoke, Steam and Folk' has a picture of Birchills Junction with no date but from the text possibly '50s, is captioned as 'Birchills Toll House in the background'. Except the photo is taken from around where the Sainsburys moorings are, looking over the railway towards the junction. So yet another location.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just looked in my IWA 1984 BCN Cruising & Walking Guide (1984), and have found no mention of a stop house.

This link should take you to the OS 1892 - 1905 series. It's quite the clearest of the various maps of the area:

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=52.5989&lon=-1.9989&layers=168&b=1

Change the opacity by sliding the blue button in the control panel on the left from right to left to see todays view.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Derek R. said:

Just looked in my IWA 1984 BCN Cruising & Walking Guide (1984), and have found no mention of a stop house.

This link should take you to the OS 1892 - 1905 series. It's quite the clearest of the various maps of the area:

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=52.5989&lon=-1.9989&layers=168&b=1

Change the opacity by sliding the blue button in the control panel on the left from right to left to see todays view.

That's the same OS map as I have. In my Blue Book I've added in a comment about the toll house so presumably read it somewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The aqueduct stop preceded the one under Green lane, the tying up bollard is still set in the towpath edge under the Green lane road bridge at Birchills Jcn. Whilst I remember most of the area before the massive changes I cannot recall a toll building.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Laurence Hogg said:

The aqueduct stop preceded the one under Green lane, the tying up bollard is still set in the towpath edge under the Green lane road bridge at Birchills Jcn. Whilst I remember most of the area before the massive changes I cannot recall a toll building.

https://sites.google.com/a/bcncottage.co.uk/bcn_cottage/home/index-to-cottages

lists a BCN cottage at the junction. There would be no other reason other than to house the toll collector, would there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, pearley said:

https://sites.google.com/a/bcncottage.co.uk/bcn_cottage/home/index-to-cottages

lists a BCN cottage at the junction. There would be no other reason other than to house the toll collector, would there?

The location of "Green lane" would suggest a normal house of which there was plenty in earlier times. Many BCN houses are not next to the canal but in streets nearby, examples existing of these are the line of 4 at Cupfields avenue Ocker Hill and the ones on the A5 near the Anglesey branch and in Birmingham Rd Lichfield. I have long believed the number list is not a complete list of BCN properties, for example there is an existing group of buildings in Darnford lane Lichfield known as Darnford marsh farm which were on the towpath and of distinct style yet are missing off the list.

Edited by Laurence Hogg
info added
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

In answer to Laurence there were rental properties which were numbered and un-numbered. The BCN owned a variety of properties over time and allocated these to different districts, who boundaries also changed with time as the network was altered and as other canals were brought into the fold. Green Lane was in the No 4 District. There are lists at the TNA that list rental properties and there are some good 1860's Cotterill Maps that show the canal routes. These 1860's maps were at Gloucester and are now Ellesmere Port. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.