Canals around Coventry

A bit more Tusses Bridge information. I think the year is around 1947, taken from a small pamphlet about Coventry Waterways. First published in 1972 Before the bridge and opposite the Elephant and Castle public house was Sephton's boatyard, one of two local boatyards with the same name. Nothing remains of the yard, it having been landscaped by the C.E.G.B. and obliterated. This boatyard had a sideslip and was well known for producing good quality boats at a keen price. Work was normally undertaken for owner boatmen, but their decline, particularly between the wars when stiff competition from larger carrying companies undercut rates, yards like Sephtons went out of business. The 1841 census shows that at Tusses Bridge there were approximately 11 houses for boatmen, their wives being weavers.The boatmen were all born locally, and were probably involved in the local coal trade. Some local buildings are built of a distinctive blue brick, partly made from colliery waste, which is not unlike Staffordshire blue. Further along the Bulkington Road is the footpath entrance to the old tramway route that led to the Coventry Canal by Neales Bridge. It probably linked Parrott's Canal, that pre-dated the Coventry Canal, with the Exhall Fields coal mines at Bedworth Hill.

1947, that was the awful winter when all were snowed in.

Heathite, that was one of the photo's we had until the seventies when we lost the lot. That looks awfully like my old man at the tiller, can't remember what they told me when I came home. Your picture is at Sutton Stop. I think they were iced in for almost six weeks, they certainly didn't get along the Oxford Canal from there. The bars you see in the middle, three or four men would stand either side of, holding the bar and proceed to rock the boat, it was that that broke the ice, probably the guys under the bridge. But that looks to me a fairly recent boat, as the one I knew as a kid was like a steel large rowboat. At Tusses Bridge, before the turn of 19th century, the dockyard belonged to the Simpsons, a repair yard, there's a photo of the owner on his own boat at Tusses Bridge on the 'slough' topic. The dockyard at Sutton Stop belonged to Sephtons who built boats, but as I have posted before, they merged through marriage. Hawkesbury was a little used name, it was Sutton Stop for the boats, and Hawkesbury Halt for the trains. Hawkesbury Hall was the far end of Parrotts Grove. Grove Farm was opposite the hall, both occupied at some time with my relatives. Parrotts Grove was named after a guy named Parrott. Heathite, could you please look for the date (1939?) of the clearance by the CEGB It would be of great interest to me, if someone could tell me the date of the bombing of Sutton Stop.

Hi Kaga. I can't see any reference to when Sephton's yard was cleared (landscaped) but I'll try some research elsewhere. Meanwhile, since you mentioned Parrott . . . from the same pamphlet, When the Oxford and the Coventry Canals were built, they both closely followed the line of the exposed coal fields, in order that transport costs could be kept to a minimum. Before the building of the canals, transport costs had been prohibitive. In 1684, Hawkesbury coal was selling for 7 1/2d to 8d per cwt, in Coventry, whilst Bedworth coal, 3 miles further from Coventry, cost 10d to 12d per cwt. Presumably, squelchy clay on the roads made transporting coal a long and difficult job. It was no coincidence that this stretch of canal passed very near to the coalpits owned by Richard Parrott, who also happened to be a keen supporter of the local canal construction. However, in 1828, a scheme to shorten the canal by the building of a mile cut from Wyken Wide to Neales Bridge, was opposed by the Parrotts as it would have cut through their coalfield.

Heathite, thank you, what good information, to recap, I was not here for the 1947 winter but in 1948 when I did return, my family tried to explain it to me, showing me a bunch of photo's, one was similar to the one you posted, another one was my brother-in-law riding a motor cycle along the canal, pulling a sledge with one of my younger brothers on it. Our drinking water at that time was from a spring well about 300 yards from the house, we donned a yoke across the shoulders with buckets on chains to carry the water. The well had a lid and daf had to cover the well with bales of straw. You mentioned blue bricks, dead right, the whole of the Elephant and Castle yard was blue bricks, so was the floor of the stables, so was the paths of the fishing tackle shop on the other side of the bridge, so was our yards and pathways and most of the paths around Tusses Bridge. The power station cleared all the shrubbery and debris from the field you see on the other side of the canal, from Tusses Bridge to Lentons Lane and right back to the cooling towers, they then filled it with a mountain of coal, the whole field about twenty to thirty feet deep, this took a long time, and it was interesting how they did it to me. But the date eludes me. Thank you once again for your help. Regards, Kaga.

I have been browsing the forum. There were two canal basins, I think people get them mixed up. We know the original canal wound round the Boat Inn and Eburns Bridge, Deedmore Road right by the collieries, so why did they not load the coal there on to the narrowboats rather than build the basin half a mile away?

Midland Red, re canal offices, the way I knew it was the Coventry Canal and the Oxford Canal had separate offices, paid wages and ran their own co. but somewhere around the war 'Inland Waterways' appeared and ran both from Rugby or Hillmorton, so I have no idea about the house at the basin.

In his book "Coventry", part of the "Britain in Old Photographs" series, David McGrory includes, on page 40, a view 'Looking up Bishop Street c.1904', beneath which he states that " . . The white building at the top is the eighteenth-century Canal House, which was the administration centre for the nearby canal basin". According to British History Online it was built in 1788.

The canal or wharf office is referred to many times in the newspaper archives as being in Bishop Street in the 19th century. The references after that, and not all the newspapers are on line, mention Market Street.

Because I use the Slough a lot I have taken an interest in the local history of the canals and mines and it looks like the basin at the back of the Slough (now used by the Coventry Canal Society) was next to the Victoria Farm mine shaft. This basin was at the end of the canal branch which you mention. The branch joined the main canal by the Jolly Colliers bridge. I cannot remember what the original `set up` was with the other basin (accessed from Lentons Lane).

Hi all. Above the Slough, very close, about ten yards from the blunt end of the basin, was a vertical shaft that had been enclosed by a brick dome structure. This wouldn't be a winding shaft as it was only about 10ft in diameter. At some time the dome had been damaged and we occasionally dropped bricks and stuff down the shaft. It wasn't hugely deep, probably no more than 100ft. Close by was a group of cottages that I assume were once miners' homes. I have no idea where the winding shaft was but it must have been close by.

MR and Annewiggy, thank you for the replies. Maybe the house address was Bishop Street, there's no doubt it was a hive of industry back in the 19th century, but certainly had nothing to do with the basin at Wyken Colliery, that was Oxford Canal in those days. Greg, in the 19th century, the canal ran through the double bridges up the side of the clod banks, around the Boat Inn and down past the cemetery to the bridge on Woodway Lane. The canal basin you know was added at the double bridges, I know not why, when the canal ran very close to both pits. The path to Lentons Lane was less than half a mile distance. The end of the basin was over half a mile either to the Victoria or Craven pits, the run up to the basin was a single boat width so must have caused a lot of bottle-necks. Why I didn't ask these questions 70 years ago I now regret. For my old man was a boat boy and knew all the workings. But why they built the basin intrigues me?

Well, well, look who's turned up here! My wife bought me a jigsaw from a boot sale and the picture is my dad's old mate Joe Skinner. Not on his own boat, not even his nephew's boat but on a pleasure power boat. The last time I saw Joe was April 1948 when he delivered us 10 cwt of coal, my young brother and I wheeled it in barrows into the coal shed while Joe and my dad shovelled it out the boat into the barrows. Both of them were bitching about the power boats, Joe because they didn't slow down when they met him and dad because too much wash ripped the banks apart. Joe vowed he would never step on a powerboat. Yet here he is on a powerboat, with modern shirt and tie, 'not Joe at all'. We all know the story on Joe, but when everyone jumped on the bandwagon Joe got scared, he was made guest of honour at a dinner, but Joe had hardly ever stepped off his boat, so he came to see my dad, the only way he would attend the dinner was if my parents would attend, so it happened, but the two couples were in different worlds to the rest of the people. Dawn to dusk almost from when they could walk they would walk behind their horse guiding and working the ropes, in all weathers talking more to the horse than to people, a hard life we can hardly understand but all part of our history.

Kaga, no excuses, you should have this jigsaw finished in record time! I read somewhere that the canal preservation people in the 1960's used to take Joe and Rose to canal rallies around the area. They could not take their own boat because Joe didn't have a horse so the canal enthusiasts took them about on their motor boats. I didn't know Joe to speak to but recall him being in the background at Sutton Stop when something of interest was happening. On one occasion Olive, the landlady at the Greyhound, was giving a bunch of young people on a hire boat some sound advice as to why they should not steal her 'Brew Eleven' pint glasses. The language used was very impressive and used a variety of Anglo Saxon phrases. At that time, in the early or mid - 1970's, Joe and Rose had one of the cottages at Sutton Stop and his boat 'Friendship' was moored close by. The boat was covered in tarpaulins to keep the weather out. It was reputed that Rose slept in the house but Joe could only sleep on a boat. In recent years I have seen 'Friendship' at the boat museum at Ellesmere Port.