A unique biography of Whitby's lifeboat hero Henry Freeman, Storm Warrior by Birmingham authors Ray Shill and Ian Minter describes the gallant Yorkshireman's eventful career.
The sole survivor of the 1861 lifeboat tragedy when a freak wave drowned all his companions, Henry Freeman was a lifeboatman for more than 40 years, 22 of them as a coxwain.
He was an outspoken and controversial figure, clashing with colleagues and superiors, and even the law - a court case almost ruined him. Yet he became a respected ambassador for the lifeboat cause and a prominent spokesman for his fellow fishermen. In recognition of his daring exploits he was awarded the RNLI's silver medal.
Freeman's many rescues during a period when Britain suffered some of its worst weather on record are fully detailed.
There is also new information about Freeman's roots, family relationships and marriages - including a surprise illegal one - hich brings out a gentler side of the man as well as providing a background portrait of working people's lives and fortunes during the Victorian period.
The evolution of a number of local industries - such as jet manufacture and fishing - is also covered
From his death in 1904 until 1986, when schoolboys raised the money for a tombstone, Freeman's grave in Whitby Cemetery remained unmarked. This account is intended as a further monument to Whitby's neglected lifeboat hero.
The Gas Street area of Birmingham lies at the heart of the canal system and is popular with boaters who travel along the network of narrow canals.
Ribbons of water pervaded every nook and cranny to serve carriers' wharves and industrial premises. Grime and gloom was to be seen everywhere.
It is a very different scene today. The towpaths have been repaired and improved and bright new buildings such as the International Convention Centre and the ational Indoor Arena now line the waterfront. Many people now find the walk along this stretch of waterway a pleasing one.
The aim of this book is to investigate the historical features and to suggest a walk around the area so that dramatic changes can be seen. Names, such as the origin of Farmer's Bridge, are explained.
Several plans and maps are included to illustrate where the wharves and warehouses stood. They demonstrate that Birmingham was once an important canal port. Trafic on the canal and the carriers are also discussed.
It is a comprehensive guide to the area and includes many previously unpublished facts so that the reader can relate the past to the present.
The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) lies at the heart of the British canal network and crosses a once heavily industrialised area that is known as the Black Country.
For many years it was an unlovely place. Smoke and soot pervaded the atmosphere and darkened even a summer sky. Workers toiled day and night often on a pittance wage. The canal was part of everyday life. It brought merchandise from afar, moved the coal from pit to factory or homestead and carried the iron to the foundry.
The waterways threaded their way past furnace and pithead to the main towns such as Birmingham and Wolverhampton and conveyed the goods for everyday use. Many were employed to keep the traffic flowing and many more earned a living because of the benefits it provided. The relatively cheap cost of carriage enabled local firms to send their merchandise all over Britain.
Traffic on the Birmingham Canal was therefore both varied and heavy. The aim of this series is to investigate the trade on the waterways with particular reference to the Birmingham Canal. Look at the reasons why the different types of traffic developed and why they ceased.
The first volume deals with the transport of coal, the greatest traffic on the canal. Simple open boats made of wood or iron regularly plied the canals moving loads of coal often for short distances. They were a common sight on the waterways until 1960 when road competition and colliery closures finally caused the trade to cease.
Other volumes will deal with traffic in chemicals, iron and steel, merchandise and the railway basin traffic. Together they demonstrate the importance canals once had as a means of transport as well as their growing interest today both for recreation and study.
This book deals with the traffic generated by the railway interchange basins.It is now a forgotten trade, but one which was important at the time.
It is generally assumed that the canals went into decline after the railways became established. Indeed, many rural canals may have suffered this fate, but canals such as the Birmingham Canal Navigations and adjoining waterways prospered.Industry had developed alongside these waterways and the canal continued to provide competitive transport for many firms and factories.
Railway companies found that working with the canal proprietors increased traffic on their lines. Transhipment basins and wharves were established where goods could be transferred between boat and railway wagon. The peak years were between 1900 and 1910 where over a million tons were handled annually at these interchange points. This trade accounted for about a seventh of the total tonnage carried by the Birmingham Canal at that time.
Each railway company operated themselves, or through an agent, a boatage service which worked to a strict timetable. These railway, or station, boats were once common sights on the canal. They were often noted on the Dudley Canal and the Netherton Tunnel Branch where they worked between the boatage depots and the interchange basins. Most craft were horse worked open wood or iron boats with no protection against the weather. It is remarkable that this type of boat and service continued through to 1958!
Although interchange basins exist elsewhere in the country, the largest concentration of basins were to be found in the West Midlands. It is the intention of the author, Tom Foxon, to explain the factors responsible for the establishment of this trade, its development and final decline. There is also a complete gazetteer of all basins and interchange wharves complete with a brief history and location maps.
By the 1850s, the South Staffordshire Coalfield's boundaries had been located and the question of coal beneath Birmingham created plenty of heated debate. Henry Johnson suggested the sinking of a shaft at Sandwell Park settled this question and created a colliery which lasted into National Coal Board days. Because of this sinking, a second colliery at Hamstead was sunk by another company. Followed by an attempt to find coal near Perry Hall which failed.
The history of Sandwell Park Colliery is studied from the surviving documents, covering the sinking of the first shaft to the development of the underground workings and the problems of a late nineteenth century colliery. By 1900 the need for a new sinking was understood and the development of a new colliery to work coal reserves separated from the original workings had begun. Problems with water and strata are discussed, followed by the development of the new workings which became the Jubilee Colliery. The effects of the Depression of the 1920s are noted and the collapse of the original company charted along with the reconstruction of the company until the final failure in the 1930s. Taken over by the Warwickshire Coal Company, the colliery was extensively modernized and continued operating into the days of the Nationalised industry. Changes in the methods of mining and the introduction of coal cutters are discussed and illustrated. Exhaustion of workable reserves of coal lead to the closure in the late 1960s.
Henry Johnson of Dudley was the leading spirit in the birth of this colliery, followed by the father and son partnership of John and Herbert Hughes who created the Jubilee Colliery. The history of coal mining in the Black Country in the late 19th century owes much to these three Mining Engineers. To their memory this book is dedicated.