Botterham bridge and locks with adjacent circular weir, Wombourne, Staffordshire

Summary

A canal bridge, two-lock staircase and circular weir c.1770, designed by James Brindley.

Description

A canal bridge, two-lock staircase and circular weir c.1770, designed by James Brindley.

MATERIALS: the bridge and lock chambers are constructed of red-orange bricks laid in English bond with blue brick and ashlar dressings. The lock gates have timber balance beams and iron gears.

PLAN: the lock chambers are arranged along a north-south axis and are rectangular on plan with splayed flanking walls at either end. The weir to the west of the upper lock is circular on plan.

DESCRIPTION: the lock staircase is composed of two lock chambers with three lock gates. The lower gate of the upper lock forms the upper gate of the lower lock. The upper lock chamber is closed at its head with a single gate and there are double gates to the head and tail of the lower lock, all with balance beams. The iron paddle gear at the top lock is reused from the Birmingham Canal Navigation. The lower gates have modern beams and mechanical gears.

The lock chambers and gate quadrants are paved with red and blue engineering bricks and have diamond-patterned pavers to the waterside edges. The lower lock chamber has a brick overflow weir arcing from its east side and rejoining the canal to the south. There is a shallow cast iron footbridge with low latticed sides spanning the lower lock to the south of the lower gates. The circular weir to the west of the upper lock has a low brick parapet with half-round coping and central domed cage.

The bridge is orientated roughly east to west and crosses the lower lock from the south end of Botterham Lane to reach the tow path running along the west side of the canal. The south side of the bridge has a ramped parapet with half-round coping which curves south and slopes down to the edge of the lower lock chamber. The upper courses of brickwork appear to have been rebuilt. There is a cast iron bridge plate to this elevation that reads ‘Botterham/ No. 42/ Bridge’. A barrel vaulted tunnel passes through the bridge which has quoined imposts supporting brick voussoirs and a stone hood band. The north side of the bridge is at the same level as the upper lock chamber and there is a low engineering brick wall between the middle lock gates and bridge.

History

The C18 saw water travel revolutionised by the creation of an expansive network of canals which linked major centres of commerce and industry. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire (Staffs and Worcs) Canal was designed by the engineer James Brindley who is widely credited with being a pioneer of the canal age. Brindley had made his name as a canal engineer on the Bridgewater Canal (1759-1761) and this encouraged a number of separate investors to implement his vision for a ‘Grand Cross’, a series of canals linking the four main river estuaries: the Mersey, Trent, Thames, and Severn.

Proposals for the Staffs and Worcs Canal were put forward by James Perry, a businessman from Wolverhampton and capital was provided by several landowners along the proposed route, headed by Earl Gower. The Parliamentary Act for the Staffs and Worcs Canal was passed on 14 May 1766. Brindley was employed as the principal engineer, assisted by Hugh Henshall, Samuel Simcock and Thomas Dadford. When the canal opened in 1772 it navigated just over 46 miles from Stourport Basins to Great Haywood Junction.

Like many of Brindley’s canals, the Staffs and Worcs Canal was narrow and followed the contour of the landscape to avoid cuttings and embankments, requiring a series of 43 locks to navigate the undulating topography. A double lock or ‘riser’ was built at Botterham in around 1770 to navigate a rise of just over six metres. It is believed to be an early example of a lock staircase where three lock gates create two lock chambers large enough for a single vessel to enter. These are sequentially filled or emptied of water allowing the vessel to rise or descend the staircase. Botterham bridge is one of 109 bridges built by the time the Staffs and Worcs canal opened. It is an accommodation bridge, carrying the lane from Bridgenorth Road over the locks. The bridge plate was added c.1835.

The lock staircase design at Botterham appears to have been experimental. It is not known if the large overflow weir to the bottom lock was part of the original design or if was added retrospectively due to the potential for the lower lock to be overfilled. While lock staircases were widely used on early canals, due to their inefficiency with water and their potential to cause bottlenecks many of these were later replaced with conventional pound locks, as at Bratch, listed Grade II. Subsequent advancements in canal engineering meant that the Staffs and Worcs Canal was outdated soon after it was built though it underwent little modification in the following years. The Company was nationalised in 1948 and coal traffic was withdrawn after 1949. It is now principally used by pleasure craft.

Reasons for Listing

Botterham bridge and locks and adjacent circular weir, Wombourne are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well-constructed and largely unaltered accommodation bridge, lock staircase and circular weir which exemplify the architectural character of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal;

* for their association with the engineer James Brindley, who is widely considered to be a pioneer of the canal age.

Historic interest:

* for their survival, illustrative of the great period of canal building during the late C18;

* as an early example of a lock staircase which was a forerunner to later developments in canal building.

Group value:

* as part of an attractive group of canal features at Botterham as well as other listed structures along the canal.

External Links

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