What is known as the "Birmingham Canal" is really a perfect network of waterways in and around Birmingham and South Staffordshire, representing a total length of about 160 miles, exclusive of some hundreds of private sidings in connection with different works in the district.
Map of the Canals & Railways between WOLVERHAMPTON & BIRMINGHAMMap of the Canals & Railways betweenWOLVERHAMPTON & BIRMINGHAM[To face page 56.
Map of the Canals & Railways betweenWOLVERHAMPTON & BIRMINGHAM[To face page 56.
Map of the Canals & Railways between
WOLVERHAMPTON & BIRMINGHAM
[To face page 56.
The system was originally constructed by four different canal companies under Acts of Parliament passed between 1768 and 1818. These companies subsequently amalgamated and formed the Birmingham Canal Navigation, known later on as the Birmingham Canal Company. From March 1816 to March 1818 the company paid £36 per annum per share on 1,000 shares, and in the following year the amount paid on the same number of shares rose to £40 per annum. In 1823 £24 per annum per share was paid on 2,000 shares, in 1838 £9 to £16 on 8,000, in 1844 £8 on 8,800, and from May 1845 to December 1846 £4 per annum per share on 17,600 shares.
The year 1845 was a time of great activity in railway promotion, and the Birmingham Canal Company, who already had a canal between that town and Wolverhampton, proposed to supplement it by a railway through the Stour Valley, using forthe purpose a certain amount of spare land which they already owned. A similar proposal, however, in respect to a line of railway to take practically the same route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, was brought forward by an independent company, who seem to have had the support of the London and Birmingham Railway Company; and in the result it was arranged among the different parties concerned (1) that the Birmingham Canal Company should not proceed with their scheme, but that they and the London and Birmingham Railway Company should each subscribe a fourth part of the capital for the construction of the line projected by the independent Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Stour Valley Railway Company; and (2) that the London and Birmingham Railway Company should, subject to certain terms and conditions, guarantee the future dividend of the Canal Company, whenever the net income was insufficient to produce a dividend of £4 per share on the capital, the Canal Company thus being insured against loss resulting from competition.
The building of the Stour Valley Line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, with a branch to Dudley, was sanctioned by an Act of 1846, which further authorised the Birmingham Canal Company and the London and Birmingham Railway Company to contribute each one quarter of the necessary capital. The canal company raised their quarter, amounting to £190,087, by means of mortgages. In return for their guarantee of the canal company's dividend, the London and Birmingham Railway Company obtained certain rights and privileges in regard to the working of the canal. These were authorised by the Londonand Birmingham Railway and Birmingham Canal Arrangement Act, 1846, which empowered the two companies each to appoint five persons as a committee of management of the Birmingham Canal Company. Those members of the committee chosen by the London and Birmingham Railway Company were to have the same powers, etc., as the members elected by the canal company; but the canal company were restricted from expending, without the consent of the railway company, "any sum which shall exceed the sum of five hundred pounds in the formation of any new canal, or extension, or branch canal or otherwise, for the purpose of any single work to be hereafter undertaken by the same company"; nor, without consent of the railway company, could the canal company make any alterations in the tolls, rates, or dues charged. In the event of differences of opinion arising between the two sections of the committee of management, the final decision was to be given by the railway representatives in such year or years as the railway company was called upon to make good a deficiency in the dividends, and by the canal representatives when no such demand had been made upon the railway company. In other words the canal company retained the deciding vote so long as they could pay their way, and in any case they could spend up to £500 on any single work without asking the consent of the railway company.
In course of time the Stour Valley Line, as well as the London and Birmingham Company, became part of the system of the London and North-Western Railway Company, which thus took over the responsibilities and obligations, in regard to the waterways, already assumed; while the mortgages issued by the Birmingham Canal Company, when they undertookto raise one-fourth of the capital for the Stour Valley Railway, were exchanged for £126,725 of ordinary stock in the London and North-Western Railway.
The Birmingham Canal Company was able down to 1873 (except only in one year, 1868, when it required £835 from the London and North-Western Company) to pay its dividend of £4 per annum on each share, without calling on the railway company to make good a deficiency. In 1874, however, there was a substantial shortage of revenue, and since that time the London and North-Western Railway Company, under the agreement already mentioned, have had to pay considerable sums to the canal company, as the following table shows:—
Year1874£10,5281801875nil.18764,796109187736179187811,37057187920,22505188013,534196188115,0289318826,8267118838,87947188414,19679188525,4601910188635,16996188731,491141188815,350101118895,341193189022,06998189117,62623189229,50842189331,618194189427,93589189539,065152189622,994010189710,186197189810,286133189918,470181190034,075196190162,64428190227,64523190334,04746190437,83258190539,860130
The sum total of these figures is £685,265, 2s. 11d.
It will have been seen, from the facts already narrated, that for a period of over twenty years from the date of the agreement the canal company continuedto earn their own dividend without requiring any assistance from the railway company. Meantime, however, various local, in addition to general, causes had been in operation tending to affect the prosperity of the canals. The decline of the pig-iron industry in the Black Country had set in, while though the conversion of manufactured iron into plates, implements, etc., largely took its place, the raw materials came more and more from districts not served by the canals, and the finished goods were carried mainly by the railways then rapidly spreading through the district, affording facilities in the way of sidings to a considerable number of manufacturers whose works were not on the canal route. Then the local iron ore deposits were either worked out or ceased to be remunerative, in view of the competition of other districts, again facilitated by the railways; and the extension of the Bessemer process of steel-making also affected the Staffordshire iron industry.
These changes were quite sufficient in themselves to account for the increasing unprofitableness of the canals, without any need for suggestions of hostility towards them on the part of the railways. In point of fact, the extension of the railways and the provision of "railway basins" brought the canals a certain amount of traffic they might not otherwise have got. It was, indeed, due less to an actual decrease in the tonnage than to a decrease in the distance carried that the amount received in tolls fell off, that the traffic ceased to be remunerative, and that the deficiencies arose which, under their statutory obligations, the London and North-Western Railway Company had to meet. The more that the traffic actually left the canals, the greater was the deficiency which, asshown by the figures I have given, the railway company had to make good.[6]
The condition of the canals in 1874, when the responsibilities assumed by the London and North-Western Railway Company began to fall more heavily upon them, left a good deal to be desired, and the railway company found themselves faced with the necessity of finding money for improvements which eventually represented a very heavy expenditure, apart altogether from the making up of a guaranteed dividend. They proceeded, all the same, to acquit themselves of these responsibilities, and it is no exaggeration to say that, during the thirty years which have since elapsed, they have spent enormous sums in improving the canals, and in maintaining them in what—adverse critics notwithstanding—is their present high state of efficiency, considering the peculiarities of their position.
One of the greatest difficulties in the situation was in regard to water supply. At Birmingham, portions of the canal are 453 feet above ordnance datum; Wolverhampton, Wednesfield, Tipton, Dudley, and Oldbury are higher still, for their elevation is 473 feet, while Walsall, Darlaston, and Wednesbury are at a height of 408 feet. On high-lands like thesethere are naturally no powerful streams, and such is the lack of local water supplies that, as every one knows, the city of Birmingham has recently had to go as far as Wales in order to obtain sufficient water to meet the needs of its citizens.
In these circumstances special efforts had to be made to obtain water for the canals in the district, and to ensure a due regard for economy in its use. The canals have, in fact, had to depend to a certain extent on water pumped from the bottom of coal pits in the Black Country, and stored in reservoirs on the top levels; the water, also, temporarily lost each time a canal boat passed through one of the many locks in the district being pumped back to the top to be used over again.
To this end pumping machinery had already been provided by the old canal companies, but the London and North-Western Railway Company, on taking over the virtual direction of the canals for which they were financially responsible, substituted new and improved plant, and added various new pumping stations. Thanks to the changes thus effected—at, I need hardly say, very considerable cost—the average amount of water now pumped from lower to higher levels, during an average year, is 25,000,000 gallons per day, equal to 1,000 locks of water. On occasions the actual quantity dealt with is 50,000,000 gallons per day, while the total capacity of the present pumping machinery is equal to about 102,000,000 gallons, or 4,080 locks, per day. There is absolutely no doubt that, but for the special provisions made for an additional water supply, the Birmingham Canal would have had to cease operations altogether in the summer of 1905—probably for two months—because of the shortage of water. The reservoirson the top level were practically empty, and it was solely owing to the company acquiring new sources of supply, involving a very substantial expenditure indeed, that the canal system was kept going at all. A canal company with no large financial resources would inevitably have broken down under the strain.
Then the London and North-Western Company are actively engaged in substituting new pumping machinery—representing "all the latest improvements"—for old, the special aim, here, being the securing of a reduction of more than 50 per cent. over the former cost of pumping. An expenditure of from £15,000 to £16,000 was, for example, incurred by them so recently as 1905 at the Ocker Hill pumping station. In this way the railway company are seeking both to maintain the efficiency of the canal and to reduce the heavy annual demands made upon them in respect to the general cost of operation and shareholders' dividend.
For reasons which will be indicated later on, it is impossible to improve the Black Country canals on any large scale; but, in addition to what I have already related, the London and North-Western Railway Company are constantly spending money on small improvements, such as dredging, widening waterway under-bridges, taking off corners, and putting in side walls in place of slopes, so as to give more space for the boats. In the latter respect many miles have been so treated, to the distinct betterment of the canal.
All this heavy outlay by the railway company, carried on for a series of years, is now beginning to tell, to the advantage alike of the traders and of the canal as a property, and if any scheme of State or municipal purchase were decided on by the countrythe various substantial items mentioned would naturally have to be taken into account in making terms.
Another feature of the Birmingham Canal system is that it passes to a considerable extent through the mining districts of the Black Country. This means, in the first place, that wherever important works have been constructed, as in the case of tunnels, (and the system passes through a number of tunnels, three of these being 3,172 yards, 3,027 yards, and 3,785 yards respectively in length) the mineral rights underneath have to be bought up in order to avoid subsidences. In one instance the railway company paid no less than £28,500 for the mining rights underneath a short length (754 yards) of a canal tunnel. In other words, this £28,500 was practically buried in the ground, not in order to work the minerals, but with a view to maintain a secure foundation for the canal. Altogether the expenditure of the company in this one direction, and for this one special purpose alone, in the Black Country district, must amount by this time to some hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Actual subsidences represent a great source of trouble. There are some parts of the Birmingham Canal where the waterway was originally constructed on a level with the adjoining ground, but, as more and more coal has been taken from the mines underneath, and especially as more and more of the ribs of coal originally left to support the roof have been removed, the land has subsided from time to time, rendering necessary the raising of the canal. So far has this gone that to-day the canal, at certain of these points, instead of being on a level with the adjoining ground, is on an embankment 30 feet above. Dropsof from 10 to 20 feet are of frequent occurrence, even with narrow canals, and the cost involved in repairs and restoration is enormous, as the reader may well suppose, considering that the total length of the Birmingham Canal subject to subsidences from mining is about 90 miles.
I come next to the point as to the comparative narrowness of the Birmingham Canal system and the small capacity of the locks—conditions, as we are rightly told, which tell against the possibility of through, or even local, traffic in a larger type of boat. Such conditions as these are generally presented as one of the main reasons why the control should be transferred to the State, to municipalities, or to public trusts, who, it is assumed, would soon get rid of them.
The reader must have fully realised by this time that the original size of the waterways and locks on the Birmingham Canal was determined by the question of water supply. But any extensive scheme of widening would involve much beyond the securing of more water.
During the decades the Birmingham Canal has been in existence important works of all kinds have been built alongside its banks, not only in and around Birmingham itself, but all through the Black Country. There are parts of the canal where almost continuous lines of such works on each side of the canal, flush up to the banks or towing path, are to be seen for miles together. Any general widening, therefore, even of the main waterways, would involve such a buying up, reconstruction of, or interference with extremely valuable properties that the expenditure involved—in the interests of a problematical saving in canal tolls—would be alike prodigious and prohibitive.
There is the less reason for incurring such expenditure when we consider the special purposes which the canals of the district already serve, and, I may even say, efficiently serve. The total traffic passing over the Birmingham Canal system amounts to about 8,000,000 tons per annum,[7]and of this a considerable proportion is collected for eventual transport by rail. Every few miles along the canal in the Black Country there is a "railway-basin" put in either by the London and North-Western Railway Company, who have had the privilege of finding the money to keep the canal going since 1874, or by the Great Western or the Midland Railway Companies. Here, again, very considerable expenditure has been incurred by the railway companies in the provision alike of wharves, cranes, sheds, etc., and of branch railways connecting with the main lines of the company concerned. From these railway-basins narrow boats are sent out to works all over the district to collect iron, hardware, tinplates, bricks, tiles, manufactured articles, and general merchandise, and bring them in for loading into the railway trucks alongside. So complete is the network of canals, with their hundreds of small "special" branches, that for many of the local works their only means of communication with the railwayis by water, and the consignments are simply conveyed to the railway by canal boat, instead of, as elsewhere, by collecting van or road lorry.
The number of these railway-basins—the cost of which is distinctly substantial—is constantly being increased, for the traffic through them grows almost from day to day.
The Great Western Railway Company, for example, have already several large transhipping basins on the canals of the Black Country. They have one at Wolverhampton, and another at Tipton, only 5 miles away; yet they have now decided to construct still another, about half-way between the two. The matter is thus referred to in theGreat Western Railway Magazinefor March, 1906:—
"The Directors have approved a scheme for an extensive depôt adjoining the Birmingham Canal at Bilston, the site being advantageously central in the town. It will comprise a canal basin and transfer shed, sidings for over one hundred and twenty waggons, and a loop for made-up trains. A large share of the traffic of the district, mainly raw material and manufactured articles of the iron trade, will doubtless be secured as a result of this important step—the railway and canal mutually serving each other as feeders."
"The Directors have approved a scheme for an extensive depôt adjoining the Birmingham Canal at Bilston, the site being advantageously central in the town. It will comprise a canal basin and transfer shed, sidings for over one hundred and twenty waggons, and a loop for made-up trains. A large share of the traffic of the district, mainly raw material and manufactured articles of the iron trade, will doubtless be secured as a result of this important step—the railway and canal mutually serving each other as feeders."
The reader will see from this how the tendency, even on canals that survive, is for the length of haul to become shorter and shorter, so that the receipts of the canal company from tolls may decline even where there is no actual decrease in the weight of the traffic handled.
In the event of State or municipal purchase being resorted to, the expenditure on all these costly basins and the works connected therewith would have to betaken into consideration, equally with the pumping machinery and general improvements, and, also, the purchase of mining rights, already spoken of; but I fail to see what more either Government or County Council control could, in the circumstances, do for the Birmingham system than is being done already. Far more for the purposes of maintenance has been spent on the canal by the London and North-Western Railway Company than had been so spent by the canal company itself; and, although a considerable amount of traffic arising in the district does find its way down to the Mersey, the purpose served by the canal is, and must necessarily be, mainly a local one.
That Birmingham should become a sort of half-way stage on a continuous line of widened canals across country from the Thames to the Mersey is one of the most impracticable of dreams. Even if there were not the question of the prodigious cost that widenings of the Birmingham Canal would involve, there would remain the equally fatal drawback of the elevation of Birmingham and Wolverhampton above sea level. In constructing a broad cross-country canal, linking up the two rivers in question, it would be absolutely necessary to avoid alike Birmingham and the whole of the Black Country. That city and district, therefore, would gain no direct advantage from such a through route. They would have to be content to send down their commodities in the existing small boats to a lower level, and there, in order to reach the Mersey, connect with either the Shropshire Union Canal or the Trent and Mersey. One of these two waterways would certainly have to be selected for a widened through route to the Mersey.
Assume that the former were decided upon, and that, to meet the present-day agitation, the State, or some Trust backed by State or local funds, bought up the Shropshire Union, and resolved upon a substantial widening of this particular waterway, so as to admit of a larger type of boat and the various other improvements now projected. In this case thecruxof the situation (apart from Birmingham and Black Country conditions), would be the city of Chester.
For a distance of 1½ miles the Shropshire Union Canal passes through the very heart of Chester. Right alongside the canal one sees successively very large flour mills or lead works, big warehouses, a school, streets which border it for some distance, masses of houses, and, also, the old city walls. At one point the existing canal makes a bend that is equal almost to a right angle. Here there would have to be a substantial clearance if boats much larger than those now in use were to get round so ugly a corner in safety. This bend, too, is just where the canal goes underneath the main lines of the London and North-Western and the Great Western Railways, the gradients of which would certainly have to be altered if it were desired to employ larger boats.
WHAT CANAL WIDENING WOULD MEAN.WHAT CANAL WIDENING WOULD MEAN.(The Shropshire Union Canal at the Northgate, Chester, looking East.)[To face page 70.
WHAT CANAL WIDENING WOULD MEAN.(The Shropshire Union Canal at the Northgate, Chester, looking East.)[To face page 70.
WHAT CANAL WIDENING WOULD MEAN.
(The Shropshire Union Canal at the Northgate, Chester, looking East.)
[To face page 70.
The widening of the Shropshire Union Canal at Chester would, in effect, necessitate a wholesale destruction of, or interference with, valuable property (even if the city walls were spared), and an expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Such a thing is clearly not to be thought of. The city of Chester would have to be avoided by the through route from the Midlands to the Mersey, just as the canals of Birmingham and the Black Country would have tobe avoided in a through route from the Thames. If the Shropshire Union were still kept to, a new branch canal would have to be constructed from Waverton to connect again with the Shropshire Union at a point half-way between Chester and Ellesmere Port, leaving Chester in a neglected bend on the south.
On this point as to the possibility of enlarging the Shropshire Union Canal, I should like to quote the following from some remarks made by Mr G. R. Jebb, engineer to the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company, in the discussion on Mr Saner's paper at the Institution of Civil Engineers:—
"As to the suggestion that the railway companies did not consider it possible to make successful commercial use of their canals in conjunction with their lines, and that the London and North-Western Railway Company might have improved the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal between Ellesmere Port and Wolverhampton, and thus have relieved their already overburdened line, as a matter of fact about twenty years ago he went carefully into the question of enlarging that particular length of canal, which formed the main line between the Midlands and the sea. He drew up estimates and plans for wide canals, of different cross sections, one of which was almost identical with the cross section proposed by Mr Saner. After very careful consideration with a disposition to improve the canal if possible, it was found that the cost of the necessary works would be too heavy. Bridges of wide span and larger headway—entailing approaches which could not be constructed without destroying valuable property on either side—new locks and hydraulic lifts would be required, and a transhipping depôt would have been necessary where each of the narrow canals joined. Thecompany were satisfied, and he himself was satisfied, that no reasonable return for that expenditure could be expected, and therefore the work was not proceeded with.... He was satisfied that whoever found the money for canal improvements would get no fair return for it."
"As to the suggestion that the railway companies did not consider it possible to make successful commercial use of their canals in conjunction with their lines, and that the London and North-Western Railway Company might have improved the main line of the Shropshire Union Canal between Ellesmere Port and Wolverhampton, and thus have relieved their already overburdened line, as a matter of fact about twenty years ago he went carefully into the question of enlarging that particular length of canal, which formed the main line between the Midlands and the sea. He drew up estimates and plans for wide canals, of different cross sections, one of which was almost identical with the cross section proposed by Mr Saner. After very careful consideration with a disposition to improve the canal if possible, it was found that the cost of the necessary works would be too heavy. Bridges of wide span and larger headway—entailing approaches which could not be constructed without destroying valuable property on either side—new locks and hydraulic lifts would be required, and a transhipping depôt would have been necessary where each of the narrow canals joined. Thecompany were satisfied, and he himself was satisfied, that no reasonable return for that expenditure could be expected, and therefore the work was not proceeded with.... He was satisfied that whoever found the money for canal improvements would get no fair return for it."
The adoption of the alternative route,viâthe Trent and Mersey, would involve (1) locking-up to and down a considerable summit, and (2) a continuous series of widenings (except along the Weaver Canal), the cost of which, especially in the towns of Stoke, Etruria, Middlewich, and Northwich, would attain to proportions altogether prohibitive.
The conclusion at which I arrive in regard to the Birmingham Canal system is that it cannot be directly included in any scheme of cross-country waterways from river to river; that by reason alike of elevation, water supply, and the existence of a vast amount of valuable property immediately alongside, any general widening of the present system of canals in the district is altogether impracticable; that, within the scope of their unavoidable limitations, those particular canals already afford every reasonable facility to the real requirements of the local traders; that, instead of their having been "strangled" by the railways, they have been kept alive and in operation solely and entirely because of the heavy expenditure upon them by the London and North-Western Railway Company, following on conditions which must inevitably have led to collapse (with serious disadvantages to the traders dependent on them for transport) if the control had remained with an independent but impoverished canal company; and that very little, if anything, more—with dueregard both for what is practical, and for the avoidance of any waste of public money—could be done than is already being done, even if State or municipal authorities made the costly experiment of trying what they could do for them with their own 'prentice hands.