Details
895-1/5/10012
24-AUG-95
CHILLINGTON STREET
MONMORE GREEN
CHILLINGTON WHARF CANAL RAILWAY INTERCHANGE BASIN
II
A canal-rail interchange basin and canopy, 1902-c.1940s, with travelling crane by Babcock and Wilcox, 1940s.
CANAL BASIN : The Canal Basin is of blue engineering brick with stone dressings, and has a two-span gabled roof, asbestos sheet covering and boarded gable ends. The long basin, running east-west, is partly covered by the twin-span canopy. The basin is connected by a narrow channel under a towpath bridge to the Wolverhampton Level of the Birmingham Canal Navigation.
CRANE : A Babcock and Wilcox overhead crane, on a six-bay framework of concrete posts and top rails, with additional diagonal members, which are situated in bays three and five. The crane runs along steel rails surmounting the concrete top rails, and consists of control room with suspended cab and large jib with hook.
HISTORY: Chillington Interchange Basin, also known as Monmore Green, was rebuilt in 1902 by the London and North Western Railway Company (LNWR), which acquired the site from the bankrupt Chillington Iron Works. The iron business had used the basin, which is connected to the Wolverhampton Level of the Birmingham Canal Navigation, to transfer goods between the canal and its own narrow gauge railway. The ironworks and railway had been constructed to the designs of J. U. Raistrick in 1829. There was originally a single long basin, but this was enlarged by the addition of a second, shorter basin in c.1848, the date recorded on the side bridge over the basin. LNWR took over the site in 1885/6, and new work to construct sidings and a branch railway began in the early years of the C20. The basins were remodelled to provide two of equal length, as canal traffic continued to flourish. By 1930, the basins were in the control of the London and Midland Railway (LMR), which removed one arm of the basin. Soon afterwards the company installed the travelling crane, by Babcock and Wilcox, on the former site of the second arm of the basin. The canal-rail interchange continued in use into the 1960s, but latterly the majority of goods moved between rail and road; and after the third rail line to the basin was removed, road transport directly accessed the site of the travelling crane, which continued in use on the site until c.2000.
SOURCES: T. Foxon, The Industrial Canal: Volume 2 - the Railway Interchange Trade (1998)
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: In the early C20, Birmingham was unique in having a large number of canals in a compact area, and developed its own particular style of canal-rail interchanges. Chillington Wharf, situated in Wolverhampton on the Birmingham Canal Navigation, is the last of some thirty similar canal-rail interchanges in the area to retain evidence in its fabric of all the stages of its development : the canal basin dating from its use by the Chillington Iron Works, before being taken over by the LNWR, which added the railway interchange, and latterly, the travelling crane which allowed three-way movement of goods between canal, rail and road. On the grounds of its historical and technological interest, intactness of the structures, rarity and group value, Chillington Wharf with its canal-rail interchange and travelling crane, is of national interest.
Listing NGR: SO9255998048
