The distinctive stable block as mentioned in the recent detailed email from
Tony Harvey- deserve further comment regarding the historical information.

It should be pointed out that the wharf and block lie alongside the canal as
improved by Telford. The original Brindley Canal followed the course of what
is now termed Oozells Loop, but curved back towards Sheepcote Street at a
place known as Sandy Turn. This was a narrow part of the canal, where boats
frequently grounded. The kink was smoothed out and straightened about 1800.

Much of the land at this place belonged to the Governors of King Edwards
School and lady Caroline Colmore. In 1821 there was a plan to cut a new
waterway with a single towpath from Sandy Turn to Deep Cutting Junction.
Thomas Telford modified the plan to include a double towpath. Creating a
double junction at Deep Cutting and the other near Sandy Turn and St Vincent
Street Bridge.

Any chance of forming a wharf of the nature that was developed by the Public
Works Department would have been after the completion of the Telford
improvements. Indeed surviving map evidence would seem to corroborate that
there was no wharf here at this time.

Corporation records originally show that Sheepcote Street Wharf was used as
a stone-breaking yard. In the days when road were covered with broken stone,
instead of tarmac, stone would arrive, usually by boat from local quarries.
For Birmingham they bought stone from quarries such as Hartshill (Coventry
Canal) and Rowley Regis (Dudley Canal). The stone was broken down and people
were paid to do this, take it to the roads in need of repair and spread it
on the surface using hand or horse rollers.

Trials for a steam road roller were conducted in 1870 and 1871 and
eventually an Aveling & Porter Roller was purchased for this task

Ray Shill
19th May 2007