Canals around Coventry

The way I saw it. Let's go back to the 18th century. From the north to the east, and to the west, Coventry had many rivers, brooks and streams, fords, and floods. This meant getting goods into Coventry was a hard, long job. For a miller to get one ton of flour into Coventry would take something like a team of six to eight horses almost a day to travel four miles - if the cart was stuck to the axles in mud, ??? But they had found coal in Bedworth - think of how long that took to get to Coventry. A bunch of businessmen in 1768 thought of navigation by digging a canal, and boats, but Foleshill was a county of its own and they didn't like the idea, so they compromised - the canal would go round the boundary to the narrowest point of Foleshill. When they reached Sutton Stop they went west and round to New Inn, then they went east to Stoke Heath in Coventry. Here they built a bridge, called it the Navigation as of the company, for the cart track from Coventry to the Bell Green area. They then turned towards the city, at the Foleshill boundary they turned to the west again, then into the city where they built the basin, wharfs, workers' houses, a large house with many rooms. They installed Thomas Goodhall as agent and to run the show, to employ people to help him. The first two boats arrived in the basin 10 Aug 1769 - the coal was about 20 or more tons - now Coventry could receive goods, twenty-thirty times more than before, employment and wages swept through the town like a forest fire. A baker that had once had flour to bake 1000 loaves a week could now receive enough flour for what he could sell, it was sensational. The baker employed men and had carts to sell his bread. Now few could read in those days, so they made baskets that half a dozen loaves fitted the bottom, a second layer made the baskets to carry a dozen, so they sold by the dozen. To keep count nut sticks (tally) were used, the delivery man cut notches for each basket in both sticks identically, gave one to the shopkeeper who marked the last notch with a pen to avoid mistakes. When the tally was full and paid for, the delivery man stripped off the notches and was ready to start again. They had to have lots of nut tally and baskets, but that was the system. They built water wagons to hold over a 1000 gallons with tap, sold penny a bucket - the whole thing revolutionised the city.

Nice one Kaga! Well written as usual. Merry Christmas

Kaga. You may enjoy these images of the Oxford Canal, including some taken at Thrupp on one of my first outings following my hospital stay earlier this year

Midland Red Brilliant Pictures, Yes I did enjoy seeing them and will do again, everything so much changed, even the boats are bigger and longer, solar panels now replace the beautiful old water jugs and buckets etc, these longer boats must have powerful engines, wonder how long the banks will last with that force of water hitting them?

An often overlooked feature of the Canal Basin is the listed weighbridge and weighbridge office which date from 1810 and are believed to still contain the original weighing mechanism. It is believed that there was originally a second weighbridge on the north site of the office. Regretably the area is now used for storage and the office is boarded up. Peter.

Peter B, Midland Red, Yes, the second one was there in the fifties, it was a normal left one for goods coming into the basin, right for going out. I believe the same office issued tickets for your next trip, destination and goods. Now that building is the same as the weigh bridge next door to the Hippodrome, brick built even, 1800 time, that's why I query the one on Ansty Road as that looks centuries older building?

In the fifties if you wanted to chase your family tree or local history you were on your own, poking round a building for history and you were told "Private property, keep away or be nicked" - most of the books you read today had not been printed back then. Separating Leicester Row from the canal were the wharfs and warehouses of the trading days of yesteryear, now derelict. As a young child I heard many tales of these grand buildings. Now many years later I was old enough to look back at the drama of the late centuries, I knew that my family had a colourful but hardworking past and livelihood in and around these buildings. I was staying a few days aboard one of these old working boats and being a Sunday I walked over to the largest building. The rusty old key in the lock, I teased open the old cobwebby door into the distant past. I fancied I could hear the hustle and bustle. There were lengths of rope, bits of chain, a couple of tea chests with nuts and bolts, on a higher shelf a couple of floral painted water jugs. At floor level there were some curious stoneware vessels that left me puzzled. Climbing the rickety wooden stairs I found, tucked away in a box, several gas respirators, unused - these had two feet rubber tubes like an elephant's trunk that led to to a separate canister in a haversack and separate eyepieces, that I believe were issued to wardens and police? The ones civilians had had a cellophane panel to see through and a canister of filtration crystals in front of the mouth. Had it been a dumping place during the war, or used as a wardens' meeting place? As I closed the great doors, shutting off the past, trapping it back in the dark, no longer a part of our family's lives. The building returned to what it became during the war years. I returned to the boat, the present and the adorable Irene.

New sign and artwork on the Canal at Foleshill Road. .

When I think of the Coventry of two centuries ago, my mind goes to Constable's painting of 'The Lock'. A beautiful painting of what could have been on the Sherbourne instead of the Stour. The Sherbourne had to have been a much greater river as they called it the 'Severn' - it once covered Spon End and West Orchard to the depth of 5/6 feet in a violent storm, trapping the people in St John's Church for some time until rescued by horse and wagon. Although a landscape painter rather than an history painter, it gives a clear view of what old locks were about. He also painted several water mills in the early 19th century so we can imagine what Pool Meadow once looked like - or I can.

"Okay, let's get this monkey into the cut, now its bottom's been cleaned". These are the words I would expect about to be uttered by the guy in the narrowboat (taken about 1880) on post #50, Wyken Slough topic. He owned the repair yard at Tusses Bridge, employed the men in the picture, ten boats and the horses to tow them, a wharf in Coventry Basin, offices in Bishop Street, and a number of houses and a couple of pubs. 'Monkey' was the nickname of a butty boat - cleaned and repaired, the boat is on the slipway ready to be slipped into the cut. His sons, born on the boats, followed his calling - one of his grandsons was the last man to leave working on the cut for Inland Waterways in the Coventry area, the man responsible for stopping the cut from draining between Brinklow and Sutton Stop during the war. In 1855 all narrowboats had to be registered and licensed to trade. The first pleasure boat to berth in Coventry Basin was in 1954, it was towed by hand from New Inn Bridge to the basin, to stop the engine from being fouled.

Sutton Stop, by James Kessell

Does anyone have any images of the coal bunkers at the Basin pre-development or when in use, that today make up 'The Tin' music venue?

NeilsYard, What is your idea of a coal bunker? What are you looking for? Neil, to me a coal bunker/cellar was under the house or road, where people stored their coal for burning - to me there was nothing at the basin to my knowledge except wharves and weighbridges. I think people have the wrong idea. The canal coal business was very small part, it was for heavy goods and mostly water the wharf at Coventry Basin was built especially for, and by a water-carrier, there were more water carriers at the basin than coal people in the beginning for the best part of a century. Now to me the best place to trace the coal chute from pavement to bunker was in Palmer Lane as I posted on that topic but few people seemed interested. The biggest customer in Coventry for coal was Longford Power Station, supplied by train, stored in the open by conveyor belts - the only danger was if the heaps got too hot, so regularly moved around by hand and belts.

Kaga - they were these. They now make up The Tin Music venue.