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Pensnett Canal
The Pensnett Canal, also called Lord Ward's Canal was a private long canal near Brierley Hill, West Midlands, England, which opened in 1840 and served the industrial enterprises of Lord Dudley's Estate. The engineer was Mathew Frost. Since its closure to navigation in 1950, much of it has been lost by overbuilding, but a small section at its junction with the Dudley Canal was restored in 1995, and the section through Brierley Hill remains in water, although it is polluted and not navigable. History In the early 1800s, the Earl of Dudley owned a large number of mines, from which coal, ironstone, limestone and fireclay were extracted. Although many were leased to other operators, there was a trend to bring control of them back to a central agency. John William, who had been Earl of Dudley since 1827, died in 1833, and control of his estate passed to his executors, of which the Earl of Stafford was one. The mineral agent at the time was Francis Downing, but he was replaced by Ric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dudley Canal
The Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh network of connected navigable inland waterways and forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route. The first short section, which connected to the Stourbridge Canal, opened in 1779. This was then connected to the Birmingham Canal system in 1792 via Dudley Tunnel. Almost immediately, work started on an extension, called Line No. 2, which ran through another long tunnel at Lapal to reach the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. This was completed in 1798 but significant trade had to wait until the Worcester and Birmingham was completed in 1802. In 1846, the company amalgamated with the Birmingham Canal Navigations and various improvements followed including the Netherton Tunnel. This was of a similar length to and parallel to the Dudley Tunnel but it was much bigger with towpaths on both sides and gas lighting. It was the last canal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Round Oak Steelworks
The Round Oak Steelworks was a steel production plant in Brierley Hill, West Midlands (formerly Staffordshire), England. It was founded in 1857 by Lord Ward, who later became, in 1860, The 1st Earl of Dudley, as an outlet for pig iron made in the nearby blast furnaces. During the Industrial Revolution, the majority of iron-making in the world was carried out within 32 kilometres of Round Oak. For the first decades of operation, the works produced wrought iron. However, in the 1890s, steelmaking was introduced. At its peak, thousands of people were employed at the works. The steelworks was the first in the United Kingdom to be converted to natural gas, which was supplied from the North Sea. The works were nationalized in 1951, privatized in 1953 and nationalized again in 1967 although the private firm Tube Investments continued to part manage the operations at the site. The steelworks closed in December 1982. History The Round Oak Iron Works The Ward family, Lords of Dudley Castl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stourbridge Canal
The Stourbridge Canal is a canal in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It links the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (at Stourton, Staffordshire, Stourton Junction, affording access to traffic from the River Severn) with the Dudley Canal, and hence, via the Birmingham Canal Navigations, to Birmingham and the Black Country. History The Stourbridge and Dudley canals were originally proposed as a single canal in 1775, with a primary purpose of carrying coal from Dudley to Stourbridge. Robert Whitworth (canal engineer), Robert Whitworth had carried out a survey, which was approved at a meeting held in Stourbridge in February, at which the estimated cost was promised by subscribers. The chief promoter was John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward, Lord Dudley, but the bill was withdrawn from Parliament following fierce opposition from the Birmingham Canals. Two bills were presented in the autumn, one for each of the canals, with the details largely unchanged, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Steel (1967–1999)
British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated from the nationalised British Steel Corporation (BSC), formed in 1967, which was privatised as a public limited company, British Steel plc, in 1988. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The company merged with Koninklijke Hoogovens to form Corus Group in 1999. History The Labour Party came to power at the 1945 general election, pledging to bring several industries into state ownership. In 1946, it put the first steel development plan into practice with the aim of increasing capacity. It passed the Iron and Steel Act 1949, which meant nationalisation of the industry, as the government bought out the shareholders, and created the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain. American Marshall Plan aid in 1948–50 reinforced modernisation efforts and provided funding for them. However, the nationalisation was reversed by the Conservative government after 1952. The industry was re-nationalised in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessie Black Country Living Museum - Geograph
Bessie is a feminine given name, often a diminutive form (hypocorism) of Elizabeth, Beatrice and other names since the 16th century. It is sometimes a name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People *Bessie Abott (1878–1919), American operatic soprano *Bessie Barriscale (1884–1965), American actress *Elizabeth Blount ( 1498/1502 – 1540), mistress of Henry VIII of England * Bessie Braddock (1899–1970), British politician * Bessie Christie (1904–1983), New Zealand painter *Bessie Coleman (1892–1926), American civil aviator * Annie Elizabeth Delany (1891–1995), American civil rights pioneer *Bessie Drysdale (1871–1950), British teacher, suffragette and birth control campaigner *Bessie Alexander Ficklen (1861–1945), American poet and artist * Bessie Blount Griffin (1914–2009), American physical therapist, inventor, and forensic scientist *Bessie Head (1937–1986), South African writer *Bessilyn Johnson (1871–1943), wife of Chicago milli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arup Group
Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. It employs about 17,000 people in over 90 offices across 35 countries, and has participated in projects in over 160 countries. Arup was established in 1946 by Sir Ove Arup as Ove N. Arup Consulting Engineers. Through its involvement in high-profile projects such as the Sydney Opera House, it became well known for undertaking complex and challenging projects. In 1970, Arup stepped down from actively leading the company, setting out the principles which have continued to guide its operation. Arup's ownership is structured as a trust whose beneficiaries are its employees, past and present, who receive a share of its operating profit each year. History Founding the firm The company was founded in London in 1946 as ''Ove N. Arup Consu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parkhead Viaduct
Parkhead Viaduct is a railway viaduct in Dudley, West Midlands, England. The original viaduct was a wooden structure erected in 1850 to carry the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway over Parkhead Locks on the Dudley Canal, near to the southern mouth of the Dudley Tunnel. The current brick viaduct was built in 1880 and it is believed that the original wooden structure is still encased within its successor. Use of the viaduct had fallen by the late 1960s due to the closure of passenger stations on the route, but the line remained open until 19 March 1993, when the section of the railway between Walsall and Brierley Hill was closed. The most recent train believed to have crossed the viaduct was a cable laying train on 1 July 1993, nearly four months after the line's closure. The section of track over Parkhead Viaduct was removed in about 1995, with most of the track between Highgate Road and Blowers Green Road following in 1998 due to the construction of a new road bridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Country Living Museum
The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, west of Birmingham. The museum occupies of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns, canal arm and former coal pits. The museum opened to the public in 1978, and has since added over 50 shops, houses and other industrial buildings from around the metropolitan boroughs of Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, Dudley, Sandwell and Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton (collectively known as the Black Country); mainly in a specially built village. Most buildings were relocated from their original sites to form a base from where demonstrators portray life spanning 300 years of history, with a focus on 1850–1950. The museum continues to evolve, as further buildings and other ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dudley Tunnel
Dudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today. ( Standedge Tunnel is the longest, at , and the Higham and Strood tunnel is now rail only). However, since the Dudley Tunnel is not continuous this status is sometimes questioned: (the main tunnel is , Lord Ward's tunnel is and Castle Mill basin is ). In 1959 the British Transport Commission sought to close the tunnel but this led to an Inland Waterways Association-organised massed protest cruise in 1960. The tunnel was however closed in 1962; and was further threatened with permanent closure by British Railways who wished to replace a railway viaduct at the Tipton portal with an embankment and a culvert.Gittings, Derek A. (1973). "The Restoration". Chapter 3, in: ''TRAD 1973''. However, this never happened as the railway was closed in 1968 and the disused bridge demolished in the 1990s. The tunnel was reopened ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolverhampton Level
The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), a network of narrow canals in the industrial midlands of England, is built on various water levels. The three longest are the Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Walsall levels. Locks allow boats to move from one level to another. Heights given are nominal elevation above sea level in feet relative to the Ordnance Datum Liverpool. 533 ft Essington Branch A former branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal, the Essington Branch was abandoned before 1904 and is now filled in. It was the highest level on the BCN. 511 ft Titford Summit The highest canal currently in BCN, 1 mile of which remains navigable. It was fed from the 18th century Titford Reservoir (now under Junction 2 of the M5 motorway) originally by feeder, and since 1837 by the Titford Canal. A feeder from the Tat Bank Branch (also known as Spon Lane Branch) supplies water to Edgbaston Reservoir. 491 ft Brindley's Smethwick Summit A historical level, no longer existing. The highest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Canal Navigations
Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and operated by the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company from 1767 to 1948. At its working peak, the BCN contained about 160 miles (257 km) of canals; today just over 100 miles (160 km) are navigable, and the majority of traffic is from tourist and residential narrowboats. History The earliest mention of the Birmingham Canal Navigation appears in ''Aris's Birmingham Gazette'' on 11 April 1768. Here it was reported that on 25 March 1768, the first general assembly of the Company of Proprietors of the Birmingham Canal Navigation was held at the Swann Inn, Birmingham, to raise funds to submit for an act of Parliament. The first canal to be built in the area was the Birmingham Canal, authorized by the (8 Geo. 3. c. 38) and built from 17 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staffordshire And Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the The Midlands, England, Midlands of England. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywood Junction by Great Haywood. History Creation James Brindley was the chief engineer of the canal, which was part of his "Grand Cross" plan for waterways connecting the major ports at Kingston upon Hull, Hull (via the River Trent, Trent), Liverpool (via the River Mersey, Mersey), Bristol (via the River Severn, Severn) and London (via the River Thames, Thames). The act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament authorising the canal, the (6 Geo. 3. c. 97), was passed on 14 May 1766. This created "The Company of Proprietors of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Navigation", which was empowered to raise an initial £70,000 (equivalent to £ in ),, with a further £30,000 (equivalent to £ in ), if needed, to fund ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
