History
A short history of the Dudley Tunnel and Canals 1775 - 1901
1775
Work began on Lord Dudley and Ward’s branch canal from the Birmingham Canal to his Tipton Colliery and a 227-yard tunnel to his limestone mines under Castle Hill.
1776 2nd April
Acts for the Stourbridge Canal and Dudley Canal passed by Parliament.
1776 6th June
The first meeting of the Committee of the Dudley Canal Company. Major shareholders were Lord Dudley and Ward, Thomas Talbot Foley and other local businessmen. One of them, Abiathar Hawkes, was appointed Treasurer and Thomas Dadford Sr was the engineer. The planned route for the new canal was from a junction with the Stourbidge at Black Delph in Brierley Hill, through land owned by Lord Dudley and Ward, to two terminal basins in fields called Great Ox Leasow and Little Ox Leasow and owned by Foley.
1778 1st June
Aris’s Birmingham Gazette reported that the branch from Tipton to Castle Mill is
complete. This was known as Lord Ward’s Canal and Tunnel.
1779 24th June
Original Dudley Canal completed.
1784
Proposals for an extension from the northern end of the Dudley Canal with five locks to raise the level of the canal to about that of Lord Ward’s Canal (the Wolverhampton Level) and to link the two with a tunnel.
1785 4th July
King George III gave his assent to the proposals and the Act for Dudley
Tunnel and locks at Parkhead was passed.
1785 5th July
John Snape and John Bull started to survey the tunnel, including sites of construction shafts (probably 12).
1785 19th September
Aris’s Birmingham Gazette published the specification for the tunnel:
width 9' 3" (2.8m), depth of water 5' 6" (1.68m), head room 7' (2.1m), estimated completion date 25th March 1788. The consultant engineer was again Thomas Dadford Sr and the resident engineer was Abraham Lees. John Pinkerton was employed as contractor to undertake the construction.
1785 October
Work starts at the Parkhead end of the tunnel.
1787 January
Contractor’s work is deemed to be unsatisfactory. Payments to Pinkerton
are suspended and two members of the Dudley Committee (Isaac Pratt and Richmond Aston) are appointed to oversee the work taking place at each end
(Pratt at Parkhead, Aston at Castle Mill).
1787 February
Dudley Company resolves to take over the construction of the tunnel.
Thomas Dadford Sr resigns to take a more lucrative position with
the Trent and Mersey Co. Work starts on the junction between Lord Ward’s Canal and the new tunnel, to be known as Castle Mill Basin. Isaac Pratt assumes overall charge.
1788 October
John, 2nd Viscount Lord Dudley and Ward died. His successor, William,
does not share his enthusiasm for canals.
1789 May
Isaac Pratt lays down his responsibilities and in June Josiah Clowes is appointed as engineer to complete the tunnel for one Guinea per day plus expenses
1792
The Dudley Canal Tunnel is reported open to traffic on 15th October.
1793
The 1791 Act for the Worcester & Birmingham Canal prompted the Dudley Company to extend its canal to Selly Oak, since it would have access to Birmingham without incurring high tolls imposed by the Birmingham Company and to Worcester and beyond. Eventually it would also provide a shorter route to London via the proposed Stratford, Warwick & Birmingham and Warwick & Napton canals, the existing Oxford Canal and the Thames. The Act for the 11-mile Netherton Canal, subsequently known as the Selly Oak Extension or Dudley No.2 Line, was obtained on 17th June 1793 and it was reported on 28th May 1798 that the canal had been completed. Problems with construction of the 3,795 yard Lapal Tunnel, the fourth longest in the country, delayed completion. Dudley Tunnel was cut through solid rock throughout, but much of Lapal Tunnel, which had the same profile, passed through wet and faulted marl and similar material. Repairs were necessary early in 1801, probably due to failure of the walls, and the tunnel continued to collapse from time to time. When 19 ft of side wall failed on 15th June 1917, the BCN Company decided to close it.
1796
The stop lock, which kept the level of the Dudley Canal 6 inches below that of the Birmingham and had been built in the tunnel between Quarry Pit and the branch to Dark Cavern, was moved to Tipton Green Junction, at what is now known as Batson’s Wharf.
1805
A tunnel was built from Castle Mill Basin to a cavernous basin at the East Mine on Wren’s Nest Hill. This was extended in 1815 to an equally large basin in the West Mine, two thirds of a mile from Castle Mill. The surface workings of the West Mine are known as the Seven Sisters.
1812
Thomas Brewin was appointed Superintendent Agent on 25th December, a post he held until becoming the Company’s Clerk in 1824. Brewin, a local colliery owner, had been a proprietor of the Company since at least 1805 and became a major shareholder. Though not an engineer, he was an astute businessman and was responsible for the success of the company during the latter part of its independent existence.
1836
Owing to continual problems along the original Dudley Canal and in the tunnel due to mining subsidence, embankments and cuttings were avoided on the Netherton Canal. As a consequence, it followed a tortuous route between Parkhead and Windmill End, with a particularly sharp ‘hairpin’ bend at Lodge Farm. Brewin consulted with Francis Downing, principal mining and minerals agent of the Earl of Dudley’s estates, on removing several of the bends and Jeremiah Matthews produced a survey of the improvements. This also included a proposal for a canal between Dudley Woodside and Lodge Farm that was later built as the Two Lock Line. Some of the cut-offs were implemented, but the bends at Lodge Farm were replaced by a tunnel that was called after Brewin. A reservoir was constructed between the diversion and original line.
1838/9
The Limekiln Branch, from the Birmingham Canal to the fine bank of kilns in what is now the Black Country Museum, was built under the direction of the Trustees of the Dudley estates, held in trust from 1833 to 1845.
1841
Brewin introduced an ingenious arrangement near the western portal of Lapal Tunnel to speed up the passage of boats. This consisted of a second-hand steam engine coupled to a scoop wheel that lifted water past a stop gate. The gate was opened to assist boats from Selly Oak. Pumping was discontinued in October 1914, owing to the great age of the engine and a decline in traffic.
1846
The Dudley and Birmingham Canal Navigations companies amalgamated. At the final committee meeting of the Dudley company on 30th June Brewin, then aged about 69, was thanked profusely for his unstinting service to the company over a period of many years. The stop lock at Tipton Green was no longer required and thereafter the two canals were on the same level. The only sign that the lock existed is the narrows at the wharf. A few years later the link from the Limekiln Branch to the tunnel approach was built.
1849
The British Association for the Advancement of Science visited the
mines. The famous geologist Sir Roderick Murchison gave a speech in Dark
cavern with thousands of people present. He had proposed a new geological period called the Silurian era that included the limestone for which Dudley and its mines are among the best examples in the world.
1853
(It is said) a record 41,000 boats used the tunnel during this year. This made the Birmingham Company realise that Dudley Tunnel was just too small to take the number of boats that used it. So the company decided that, rather than
enlarge the tunnel, they would construct a new one two miles away to
the south, near the town of Netherton
1858
Netherton Tunnel, one of the improvements to the Dudley Canal by the BCN Co., was completed. It is 27 ft wide and 16 ft high and has two towpaths. It is about 1¾ miles in length and is slightly shorter than Dudley Tunnel. It was lit by gas and this was later replaced by electric lighting. The power was generated by a turbine at Groveland Aqueduct, Tividale, which carries the Old Main line over the Netherton Tunnel Branch.
1858
The Two Locks Line, envisaged over 20 years earlier, was built between Lodge Farm and Dudley Woodside., reducing the journey via Blowers Green Junction by about 1¼ miles. At the same time Brewin’s tunnel was opened up to form a cutting, exposing an important rock section that is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Coal Measure strata rest on older Silurian rocks, through which dolerite, known locally as Rowley Rag, has been intruded. A bridge carrying Hurst Lane, the road from Netherton to Lodge Farm, was built over the cutting.
1884
The southern section of Dudley Tunnel had been affected by mining subsidence throughout its existence and had been the cause of litigation between the canal company and colliery owners. About 200 yards were rebuilt to larger dimensions in that year. The bore then suddenly reduces to that of the 1792 tunnel and, since the Parkhead portal gives a false indication of the headroom in the tunnel, a gauge has been fitted.
1891
Blower’s Green Pumphouse, the headquarters of the Trust, was built to house the recirculating pump that replaced the earlier one on the Grazebrook Arm. The new pump raised water from the Level Pond to the Birmingham Level or Wolverhampton Level, or between the Birmingham and Wolverhampton levels.
The two locks at Blower’s Green were rebuilt as one deep lock a couple of years later. This is now the deepest lock on the BCN.