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THE DROITWICH BARGE CANAL a short history by Max Sinclair.

For Centuries from Roman times the Droitwich salt producers struggled to transport their blocks of salt to the markets all over the British Isles. Roads became impassable after rain and the River Salwarpe although heavily used (Roman for Salt warping or haulage) was unreliable in summer and winter. in 1762 the salt company proprietors approached James Brindley a brilliant millwright to seek help. He was occupied with the Duke of Bridgewater’s Manchester canal but in 1768 started working to obtain the necessary Act of Parliament and survey the route. Much of his work was experimental with wide locks having self closing gates, mud holes for dredging and self closing flood gates in the event of the large Salwarpe embankment collapsing. When work started with gangs of ‘navies’ digging good progress was made under the direction of Brindleys assistant John Priddey except when the Bricklayers at Ladywood went on strike because they were ‘ill used’. In 1771 the first square rigged sailing trows arrived in the town with twenty tons of coal and there were great celebrations.
Over the years trade grew remarkably and the canal was improved to allow seventy foot by fourteen foot barges to carry sixty tons of salt to the Severn Estuary and far beyond, returning with coal, wheat, and timber. Trade continued until new methods of production near Bromsgrove made Droitwich salt uneconomical, the last barge, carrying hay ricks for the army in France left in 1916.
The system was abandoned in 1939 but in 1959 I started an Inland Waterways Association campaign for restoration following success at Stratford on Avon. After years of bureaucratic sabotage a Trust was formed in 1973 and hundreds of volunteers worked to dredge 300’000 tons of silt with their own railway and rebuild five of the eight locks. After further setbacks a consortium working with British Waterways are planning to complete the restoration. Reopening the canal will be a massive boost for the tourist trade in and around Droitwich.

R.M.Sinclair

Email: thebutty@evemail.net

Above Porters Mill near Worcester.

The Droitwich Barge Canal sailing Trows were restricted to a maximum cargo of about 60 tons by the 5 foot 6inch depth of the Lock cills. For many years before and after the turn of the last century Tom Cartwright, and his son Tom, in his white corduroy trousers, with their donkeys Nellie and Jack worked the canal using the Salt Union narrow boat ‘Three Brothers’. They were employed to operate as a ‘makeweight’ boat carrying 30-35 tons of Salt to Hawford Lock where it was transhipped by shovel and wheelbarrow into a trow.
The addition of an extra 30 odd tons at the River Severn made the journey to Gloucester, Bristol, North Devon, South Wales, the South Coast and French Ports more economical.
The photograph shows the ‘Three Brothers’ returning empty up Lock 4 just above Porters Mill in the 1900’s.In the lock is a barge or ‘cob’ boat used as a tender to the Trows and towed behind them on voyages. Lying in the boat is a broken sweep,the twenty foot long oar used to row the Trows into harbours when the wind failed.In the 1970’s when the salt workers cottages in the Vines were being repaired this relic of the canal age was found propping up a leakey roof. Stamped with Isaac Harris’s name it was placed with the Trusts records at our Hampton Road office and appeared with Nick Yarwood the Canals Manager in the local newspapers. Max

Nick Yarwood outside the late Isaac Harris’s cottage in Droitwich, Worcester. with the broken sweep and the present owner.

The Droitwich Trow “Henry”.

The Droitwich Trow “Henry” alongside a salt works. The great iron pans of boiling brine are to the left under the ventilated roof. As the salt dried it was cast into blocks and dried out in the right hand building ready for the domestic market. Droitwich salt was the purest quality produced anywhere in the world. Max.