The following article was featured in Boundary Post, the journal of
the BCN Society. It was written by Ray Shill for a series entitled
BCN A-Z.
I thought it would be of great use in this progress to try and keep
the Wharf open.
V is for Valentia Wharf
The name Valencia Wharf, is known to all owners Allen Brothers built
boats as the yard where their boat was constructed. Placed beside the
Old Main Line at Oldbury near Whimsey Bridge, the Allen Boatyard was
a seemingly enduring feature until the Allens Brothers decided to
retire and close the yard in 1997. Les Allen had learnt their trade
building and repairing the Joey and Cabin boats at Salford Bridge,
for Spencer Abbot, but later transferred to Oldbury about 1951, where
he traded as Les Allen & Sons. Bob and Tom Allen assisted their
father to build and repair boats in the yard that had previously been
used by Thomas & Samuel
Element.
Edward Paget Tomlinson's drawing depicts a wooden joey boat on the
bank at Valencia Wharf undergoing repair. With the final decline of
commercial carrying on the BCN in the 1960's the Allen's turned their
skills to building pleasure craft for the growing boating fraternity.
During this period they also changed from making boats of wood to
boats of steel.
Bob and Tom Allen continued the boatyard business after the death of
their father, Les. Valencia Wharf, at this time, comprised two
basins. Boats were assembled on the bank placed between the two arms.
Part of the site included a covered building where the early stages
of construction were carried out and some of the later stages, such
as painting. All stores were kept in a wooden shed constructed from
boat bottoms, which probably dated from the time Elements had the
wharf. When the yard closed this shed was demolished.
Allen's Yard was always a cluttered place where boats under repair
and construction lined the banks and a collection of other craft were
moored along the canalside. Here was a place on the BCN where time
almost stood still whilst all about it was changing. The buildings
beside the towpath at Whimsey Bridge were demolished, the Oldbury
Loop was filled in and Whimsey Bridge itself was eventually rebuilt
as part of the Churchbridge road-widening scheme. Churchbridge
widening also caused the demolition of an old mission building, which
had a foundation stone with the name Walter Showell (the Langley
Brewery owner) inscribed as well of the names of members of the
Element family stamped into the brickwork.
The mission building belonged to a different age when the area around
the canal had brickworks and collieries at work and the spiritual
needs of the workers and miners were looked after by the
ministers
based there. Whimsey Bridge appears to take its name from Whimsey
Colliery that had a number of shafts west of the canal that were
linked by tramroads to basins beside the canal, one of which formed
part of Valencia Wharf, in later times.
Valencia, is a modern name for the wharf, the original spelling was
Valentia and it is version that appears on all ninenteenth century
and early twentieth century maps that show it. The canalside here had
a long and changing history. When the BCN was first made through
Oldbury in the years 1769 and 1770, the route followed a winding
course through the centre of the town. At the spot where Valencia
Wharf came to be made the canal crossed a small stream before turning
eastwards towards Oldbury. During 1820 the BCN proprietors had the
Old Main Line straightened at this point driving a new line of canal
from the aqueduct through to the Brades relegating
the part of the
old line through Oldbury to loop status. The junction became known as
Oldbury Old Turn (East End).
There were ultimately five basins opposite the junction with the
Oldbury Loop. The first pair was established during the early part of
the nineteenth century to serve mines that raised both coal and
ironstone. The others were made later to serve various brickworks and
by 1857 all five had been established. The first basin of the group
(if seen from Seven Stars Bridge) was gradually extended during the
1860's and early 1870's. It passed under Park Street and terminated
near the shafts of the old Whimsey Colliery that had been renamed
Valentia Colliery. Mineral statistics for the period record
Whitehouse & Smith as owners of the mine.
The extended basin became known as both the Valentia Arm and
Churchbridge Branch. In addition to Valentia Colliery, this branch
also served
Churchbridge brickworks and Highfield Colliery.
Chance & Hunt chemical manufacturers also established a boat dock
beside the Valentia Arm where they maintained their fleet of boats. A
Belfast Roofed shed covered one part of the yard, which bordered the
south side of the arm near the junction with the Old Main Line. The
once independent chemical manufacturing firms of Chance Brothers
(Oldbury) and Hunts & Sons (Wednesbury) had combined in 1898 to form
Chance & Hunt. Part of the Chance & Hunt fleet comprised craft
specially adapted for the carriage of gas water or tar water from the
gas works to their chemical works where it was processed. Other more
conventional craft carried muriatic and sulphuring acid in carboys to
canal side metal works and rolling mills, where they were used to
clean ferrous and non-ferrous metals following annealing. Chance &
Hunt was also an early user of
motor tugs on the BCN. They had a pair
of tugs called the Hector and Stentor. Walker Brothers, of
Rickmansworth completed the first of the pair in 1916.
Much of the land around Valentia Wharf was later owned by ICI, who
took over the chemical interests of Chance & Hunt, and then Joseph
Holloway. Elements leased Valentia Wharf from ICI and sub let the
wharf to Les Allen & Sons. Following colliery and brickyard closures,
the Valentia Arm was eventually filled in throughout its entire
length. It was the next two basins, which became part of Allen's
Boatyard and the modern Valencia Wharf. The first of the Allen basins
had been constructed to serve the needs of Radnalfield (sometimes
called Radnall Field) Brickworks and Colliery, which at one time was
owned by Wood & Ivery. The mine, established first, covered some 30
acres of mineral property that had seams of Brooch, Heathen, New Mine
and Thick Coal as well as Gubbin and New Mine Ironstone. The surface
plant included a steam winding engine, pumping engine, pit head
gear , but little else. 600 yards of horse drawn tramway linked the
pithead with the canal basin wharf, where the different grades of
coal and ironstone were sorted into boats by the loaders. The
brickwork's was constructed after 1876 to work a layer of good
quality surface clay. After the brickyard opened the tramway was used
to bring bricks down to the wharf for loading into boats
The second of the Allen Basins, and the third of the group, served
the glassworks of W.E Chance. Known as the Oldbury Glassworks, this
works made it their speciality to produce glass lampshades. Basin
No.4 served the Churchbridge Tube Works that belonged to the firm
Accles & Pollock. Accles had previously been involved with
ammunition, cycle and motorcar making at the Holford Mills,
Witton,
but when this business failed, in 1901, had transferred to the
Churchbridge Works. Accles & Pollock were later to enlarge their
business through the construction of the Paddock Tube Works, on
former brickyard land north of Whimsey Bridge. J & S Tonks used basin
No.5 as a coal wharf. These Birmingham based coal merchants carried
coal to Paddock Tube Works from the Cannock Chase Collieries.
Beyond the five basins was Park Hall Wharf that served Morris's
Brickworks, a Hay Wharf and finally Whimsey Bridge. The firm of T & S
Element still have their road haulage depot at Whimsey Bridge.
Elements, who ceased canal carrying during the 1960's, once had
several canalside wharves in the Oldbury area. Their stables at
Whimsey Bridge were latterly used by Caggy Stevens, but have now been
demolished.
It seems that every inch of the canalside around Whimsey Bridge had
some canal
function. Adaptation was the theme of many BCN wharves and
basins that ensured their longevity. Thus it was that mine wharves
were adapted for other purposes. Boatbuilding was the last canal
related trade carried on here.
Why the name changed from Valentia to Valencia may have been the
result of someone seeking to form a link with the Spanish City. This
City and Region has no obvious association with Oldbury, but the
original name Valentia appears to have a more logical connection with
Ireland. Irish labourers frequently found employment in Black Country
mines. When the mine owners christened their colliery, Valentia, it
may well have been done to remember Valentia on the coast of Southern
Ireland. The bleak and windswept Irish Valentia coastline has more
similarity with industrial Oldbury than the sun drenched orange
groves of Spanish Valencia.
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