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Droitwich Barge Canal locks.

When James Brindley designed the Droitwich Barge Canal he, like his contemporary builders, did not have total confidence in mass brickwork. He incorporated a timber frame in to the structure to anchor it back to the bank behind. Old local Churches have timber lintels in the brickwork, and the City Guildhall has quite a lot of timber, this was not to save bricks which were cheap, but to spread the load. My late brothers house at Norgrove Court, Bentley is reputed to be one of Britain’s first all brick houses.
When we started restoration and removed the hundreds of tons of silt it was discovered that large areas of the facing brickwork were softened by winter frosts and had to be removed.
Bricks made at Salwarpe were not fired to high temperatures and were of a poor quality.
At Porters Mill Lock the house residents have been running their sewage into the ground behind the lock wall for over sixty years and now the frame has collapsed and the wall is falling inwards. No doubt their insurance company will fund the restoration.
In the 1850’s the locks were extended at the top end. here the brickwork is excellent and holds the structure solidly.
All the lower lock gates are tapered and lean downstream from the top, this was Brindleys method of creating a self closing gate. Never having created a structure of this size he built a lock in his garden at New Hall, Staffordshire, but sadly it was destroyed by developers.
The Droitwich Locks are a historical monument to the brilliance of Brindley. Max

Brindleys site office.

This is where they all started, this lovely building was James Brindley and the Duke of Bridgewater’s site office to oversee the construction of the Bridgewater Canal. To the right the canal ran into the coal mines for many miles to load coal straight into the boats which were called ‘starvationers’because their ribs showed. To the left went to Manchester where the price of coal came tumbling down when the boats started. The water is blood red from the iron ochre’s in the tunnels but the local council is trying to clean it up after two centuries, so another piece of history will be lost. ‘Spitfire’and ‘Vesta’ were on their way to Manchester, Wigan, Blackburn Skipton and Leeds, Then to the Trent at Keadby and back up through Nottingham Burton Birmingham and back toWorcester.

In Skipton they wouldn’t believe we came from Worcester and turned out in crowds to see us, a lovely Yorkshire

welcome. Max