Friday 22 March 2013

Lost locks of the BCN?

Lost locks of the BCN
March 2013

A question was posed recently:

How many locks are there on the BCN (fairly easy) and how many locks have been lost (not so easy).

You cant pass up on that sort of question, but neither can you hope to find the answer on your own. So, I enrolled the help of my friends on the CWDF and slowly a list started to emerge.

The problem of definitions soon emerged (as they usually do) with scenarios being ruled in and out of scope. By the time we finished we had a provisional tally of 115. It seemed a shame to lose this bit of information so here is the list as it currently stands - unless, as often quoted by Esther Rantzen, you know better...

Bentley Canal                       10
Sneyd Locks                           5
Essington Locks                     5
Ogley Locks (W&E)     30
Toll End Communication       7
Bradley Locks Branch           9
Old Delph Locks                    9 (its actually 7 - the original top and bottom locks remain)
Two Locks Line                     2
Gibsons  Branch                    1
Smethwick Summit               6
Smethwick duplicates           3
Gospel Oak (Dumaresq)      2
Churchbridge Locks            13
Tipton Green                           3
Blowers extra                          1
Foxyards                                 4
Bradley Marr                           2
Robinsons Tar                        1
Bromford Ironworks                1
Slough Arm                             1

Total                                     115

Those we discounted:

  • Then there are the ones we have discounted, the moved or rebuilt locks like the one at the M42 on the Birmingham and Fazeley or the lost deep lock at the bottom of the Wolverhampton 21 when it was the Wolverhampton 20. 
  • The bottom 4 of the original arm at the bottom the the Bradley Flight became 3 of the current flight.
  • The other ones ignored are the stop locks such as those and Worcester and Warwick Bars plus the one at the start of the Wyrley and Essington at Horsleyfields Junction.


So thats the lost as it stands - are there any more out there which we should add to the list?

Bentley 10, Sneyd 5, Essington Locks 5, Slough 1, Ogley 30, Toll End 9, Bradley 9, Old Delph 9, Two Locks 2, Gibsons 1, Smethwich old summit 6, Smethwick duplicates 3, Gospel Oak (Dumaresq) 2




2 comments:

Mike Orr said...

Old Delph 9 should be old Delph 7. the top and bottom locks are not lost but part of the new Delph 8. 7 old locks were replaced by 6 new ones.

Andy Tidy said...

Mike - you are quite correct, knock two off the total! Mind you, I have since discovered a few more so I fear that this is a never ending quest....