Tipton Gauging Station

I have heard that the proposed redevelopment of the Gauging Station for
residential purposes has gained fresh interest.

Should this go ahead, and despite the conditions to preserve the inside
fittings, the alternative use as a DCT Dock will be lost forever.

Whilst it would be some advantage to preserve the building in the form of a
group of homes. Another conversion away from canal use will make the BCN the
poorer.

Developers have so much scope elsewhere on vacant plots of canal land, why
then should their corporate greed be unleased to destroy what little
heritage remains.

The Dudley Canal Trust had a fine proposal for the the gauging station that
included the reopening of the basin. Has all the effort to carry this plan
through been wasted.

Also what help has English Heritage been in this matter ? They seem to have
little regard for West Midland Waterways apart from protecting certain soft
options of locks and bridges.

Some have commented that English Heritage is the puppet of the developer,
and perhaps this this true, for apart from the listing of Monmore Green
Interchange, what have they done in recent years? Perhaps contributors to
this site might like to list what they have and NOT done. Is it time for
another organisation, voluntary or otherwise, to be set up to promote our
canal heritage?

Do we need to preserve anything? For an alternative argument might use Spon
Lane Glassworks as an example of "eyesore listing". Year upon year the
former Chance's glassworks have been left to crumble and decay. The argument
for the demolition of 16B Union Mill Street, Wolverhampton, is that it has
fell into disuse and and full of bird excrement.

If listing leads to abandonment, the whole purpose of "preservation" is
lost. The value is the recognition of the structure and the educational
assets that might acrue.

With Tipton this is certainly the case, for readers might recall the reasons
this gauging station needs to be preserved in tact and not broken up into
pieces. Tipton was built as part of an improved means to gauge boats and
reduce the practice of longweight/shortweight that was prevalent on the BCN
and certain linking waterways.

The whole purpose of gauging is encapsulated within this structure and it
is a structure that deserves better.

Ray Shill

Industrial Historian