Lock 4 Droitwich Barge Canal.
basil | 11/13/2005 | 1:46 pm
Droitwich Barge Canal lock four.
When the Canal was legally abandoned in 1939 it was in a remarkably
good condition. If the vandalised Lock Beams had been restored and a
little bit of dredging had taken place the canal would have been
navigable to Droitwich.With fuel in short supply the town could have
benefited from cheap transport.
When the American forces arrived at Westwood Park they asked Droitwich
Town Council if they could restore the canal as a D- Day preparation
recreational use and tourist income have been lost, as well as the
mooring basins in the town centre which would have provided a visitor
attraction. Max
Canal Piles.
While excavating the new canal line through Vines Park,Droitwich a line of piles was unearthed. These were of elm construction and each one
was fitted with a blacksmith made iron pointed shoe for driving into the
ground. Alongside was the Upwich Pit used in medieval times for salt
production.
Max
Barge kettle.
During the dredging of thousands of tons of mud from the canal we recovered quite a lot of local beer bottles and various pots. However the most interesting discovery was this copper Barge Kettle. Made to fit on a coal fired boat stove of the type made by Hardy and Padmores it had a spigot on the bottom which would be the same diameter as the cast iron lid on the
hotplate which was removed to shovel in the coal. It would heat up quickly and not slide off when the barge rocked in a storm. Perhaps fortunately we didn’t recover the boatmans language when it fell overboard. Max
