BCN Branches and Byeways
by Ray Shill
10. Bickley Canal
Bilston is now part of Wolverhampton, but there was a time when it was independant. This community comprised a range of houses strung out along the length of the turnpike roads that passed through this district. The Old Line of the BCN also followed the borders of the town weaving in and out between Bilston Parish and the neighbouring parish of Sedgley. There were many branches and basins serving mines and ironworks on the stretch from Pothouse Bridge to Millfields.
At first there were just coal and ironstone mines, some long at work long before the canal was cut through this district during the years 1770 and 1771. Mine owners included Robert Barbor, John Bickley, Lord Dudley & Ward, Penn & Pearsall, and Thomas Tomkys. Coal was the principal product raised and this commodity was placed on boats to sent to wharves at Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
The iron trade came to the bank of the canal once satisfactory links had been made with other waterways and a fledgling canal network had been established. Developments in engineering and the way iron was made (the puddling process) coincided with the improved navigation. Steam engine technology and important local supplies of undeveloped coal and iron led to the establishment of a major ironworking industry.
John Bickley began with coal mining and extended his business to include ironworking. A set of distances from Birmingham provided with the 1778 Map of the BCN (Original with BW Archives Gloucester and a copy with Birmingham Library archives) mentions that John Bickley had a wharf for his colliert at a point nearly 16 1/2 miles from Birmingham and a canal just past the 18 mile marker.
In common with his contempories John Bickley formed partnerships with others to run the mines and iron business. A blast furnace was established beside the private canal about the year 1789 with a partnership involving the Bickley and Gibbons families that became known as William Bickley and Co. The name of Bickley was also associated with canal carrying and a coal merchants wharf at Wolverhampton. Both Bickley and Gibbons had family members living in Bristol, where they traded as merchants. Barges trading along the BCN and Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal and Trows on the River Severn became an integral part of their carrying business. In 1795 William Bickley and Co of Bilston Furnaces had 6 boats, which worked along the canal to Birmingham, Stourport and Preston Brook
The carrying side traded variously as Bickley and Molineaux, Bickley and Co, Bickley, Whitehouse & Co, and Bickley Danks & Co. The last named survived until sale of the business to Crowley. Partners included Benjamin Bickley, Edward Best, Abel Whitehouse and Samuel Danks.
Bickleys Canal joined with the Birmingham Canal saouth of the Turnpike Bridge at Millfields and originally split up to a "W" shaped canal, with the Furnace located near the junction with the BCN. An ironworks for working pig iron up to bar iron was built at the far end. These works were known as New Mill, or Bilston Mill. The Bilston Furnace partnership included William Bickley, Benjamin Bickley and Benjamin Gibbons and with the death of William Bickley, Benjamin Bickley Bickley and Benjamin Gibbons alone.
The catastrophic fall in iron prices that accompanied the victory over the French at Waterloo, in 1815, had a drastic effect on iron making. The Gibbons family who also operated furnaces at Brierley Hill fought several battles to retain solvency with their creditors. They and surviving members of the Bickley Family elected to pass on their Bilston operations to others. William and John Sly Sparrow then came to operate both the furnace and ironworks. The Sparrows subsequently built a new group of furnaces at Stow Heath and linked these furnaces to Bilston Mill by a tramway. Bilston Furnace was also enlarged and improved by the Sparrows. Eventually four blast furnaces stood on this site.
John Sly Sparrow died young, but brother William had a long life and successful business career. He was also responsible for working another set of furnaces at Osier Bed near Bilston and Lane End, near Longton in North Staffordshire. About 1840 William Sparrow allowed George Jones of Shakerley to take over Bilston Furnace. Jones was already working the nearby Coseley Furnaces, which were leased from Lord Dudley & Ward. George Jones also operated the Spring Vale Ironworks, which were on another private branch of the canal. Jones arranged for a tramway to cross the BCN to link Bilston Furnaces with Spring Vale Ironworks. Bilston Mill continued to be an integral part of the operation conducted by Sparrow. George Jones and his son John built up an extensive mining and iron working empire at Bilston, Birchills (near Walsall) and Coseley. George Jones died in 1857 leaving son John, of Ruckley Grange, in charge. Unfortunately several years of bad trading led to bankruptcy for John Jones and the piecemeal sale of his estates.
Alfred Hickman then acquired Bilston Furnaces. Hickman took the opportunity to rebuild and improve them. Bickleys Branch Canal served an important role in bringing materials to Hickman's Furnaces and Sparrow Bilston Mill. In certain ways this new venture was a gamble for Alfred who had survived a bankruptcy case with his older brother George Haden. In 1861 the Hickmans had been in charge of the Bilston Brok Furnaces, Stonefield Furnaces and Ironworks and Groveland Ironworks, when creditors pressed for payment. They lost all but Groveland, which George then worked on his own account.
Years of working the local mineral supplies had depleted much of the coal and ironstone and a greater dependence was placed on the canals and railways for the transport of the coal, ironstone and limestone required for iron making. Hickman, who acquired Bilston Furnaces during 1866 decided to arrange for a railway siding link, which was put in about the year 1872. Alfred Hickman also renamed the furnaces Spring Vale, whilst the ironworks of that name passed through a group of other owners until purchased by Stephen Thompson, who decided to call these ironworks, Manor.
Alfred Hickman assisted the development of Mild Steel making in the Black Country between 1882 and 1884 culminating with the opening of a Staffordshire Steel and Ingot Iron Works near the Furnaces and also the private branch canal. The Sparrow family continued with the tenancy of the Bilston Mill Ironworks through to the end of the 1880's. They closed Stow Heath Furnaces, but replaced production of pig iron with the tenancy of Millfields Furnaces. They ceased ironmaking after 1890 and Bilston Mill Ironworks was then demolished. Even then Bickleys Canal remained serving the needs of Alfred Hickman, who used both canal and railway transport to the fullest extent. Alfred, later Sir Alfred Hickman, became a Conservative MP for Wolverhampton and used his position to argue for more favourable transport rates.
Hickmans furnace plant was increased to 6 in number. One group of furnaces had an incline that was built across Bickley Canal and there were sheds that lined the canal that provided covered accommodation for unloading and loading boats. Coke brought by boats from local gasworks became a popular canal cargo. Bickley's Canal remained in water well into the twentieth century and seemingly existed as long as canals were used for transport for the iron and steelworks. Hickman's works passed to Stewarts & Lloyds during 1921. The site was considerably enlarged as vacant mining land was purchased. The Steelworks came to occupy the land bordering the canal as far south as Deepfields and a strip on the offside of the BCN, all of which was adapted for new mills, slag tips etc. They made major alterations to the internal railway system and the blast furnaces during the 1950's and around this period the private Bickley Canal fell into disuse. Parts were filled in and gradually the whole was lost with expansion of the steelworks site.
Stewarts & Lloyds became part of British Steel who ceased iron making in 1978. The last steel was cast in 1979 and derelict works demolished between 1981 and 1983. The property was then worked as an opencast mine to get out the remaining bits of coal. If any trace of Bickley's Canal had survived then it must have been lost during this opencast work.
The arm that served the Old Spring Vale Ironworks has all but gone, only a piece remains now as an ornamental pool. Joseph Sankey acquired Thompson's Manor Ironworks, formerly known as Spring Vale Ironworks. Traffic in rolled sheets was sent by canal boat to the Bankfield Works. Sankeys themselves became part of the GKN who between 1934 and 1936 funded the building of a new transformer strip shop at Bankfield. Strip continued to be sent from Manor to this new shop in holds of canal boats. The works at Bankfield have been recently the subject of concern by local historians as much of the Sankeys works are about to be demolished. The Bankfield property includes includes an unusual bridge link built in the 1920's that used to transport goods and materials between the main press shop and the railway warehouse.
Whilst all tangible traces of the Bickley waterway were destroyed in the 1980's it would seem another bit of the local iron industry is about to disappear.
