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Birchills Canal Museum |
A History
The Walsall branch of the Birmingham canal was opened in 1799 to provide an easier and cheaper way of moving goods (coal, wheat, iron ore and limestone) into the town. It was linked to the Wyrley and Essington canal through Birchills in 1841.
The Boatmen's Rest can be found at the top lock in Old Birchills. It was built by the Incorporated Seamen and Boatmen's Friendly Society (founded in 1846 to improves the lives of the men and women working at sea and on the canals) in 1900. There were five in the West Midlands but only Walsall's is still there. Today it houses the canal museum.
The building and furniture were to cost £350. Joel Cadbury (one of the Cadbury family) was chairman of the Society in the Midlands. The following men formed a local committee to raise money and plan the building of the Boatmen's Rest: F J Overton, Arthur Gameson, Alfred Stanley, Cornelius Marshall and J A Leckie. The Mayor of Walsall, W J Pearman-Smith, and Thomas Jones laid the memorial stones on Tuesday 18th September 1900. It was opened to the canal boatmen on 4th March 1901.
The Boatmen's Rest was a mission. Its aims were to promote the social, moral and religious welfare of the boatmen and their families. On the ground floor there was a coffee room, kitchen and caretaker's room. A large room on the second floor was used as a chapel for services and concerts and could seat 100 people. The mission looked after and provided entertainment for the boatmen, who often stayed overnight.
Washing facilities were provided to those waiting to pass through the locks on the canal outside, where many boats congregated. The men were encouraged not to drink alcohol in the nearby public house so tea, coffee, food and tobacco were offered as refreshment. A helper would write a letter as most of the boatmen could not read or write; and for those who did read there were newspapers. Games such as draughts, chess and bagatelle could be played.
Religious instruction was encouraged during a stay. They employed a missionary to hold services, visit people on their boats or at home and a popular Sunday school was held. Some formal education would be offered to the boat children.
Horses were used to tow the boats. They were stabled and fed in a horse shelter, run by the same Society, further along the canal. A blacksmith's yard was at the rear of the Boatmen's Rest.
Adjacent is a cottage that was built in 1841, which would have been lived in by the lock keeper. A toll office was in the front room where the toll keeper collected money from the boats for using the canal. The amount charged depended on the weight of goods that each boat carried.
The Boatmen's Rest probably had to close because of the decline in the use of canals brought about by the development of the railway system. It became a pattern-making workshop in the late 1960s. In the mid 1980s the Caldmore Community Programme Agency turned the building into a boat museum and workshop. During its use by the pattern makers much of the inside had been changed so by the time of its transformation into a museum the kitchen and caretaker's room had gone, along with the original bay window (removed to allow machinery to pass into the building) and the fittings from the chapel. There was originally gas lighting in each room and this was replaced by electric lighting in the 1960s. The bell tower, to call the boatmen to prayer, was left on the roof, although its bell was removed.
The Caldmore Community Programme Agency ended its activities in 1988 and finally Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council took over the museum in 1990, which included a replica canal boat, canal-related objects and wall paintings showing canal scenes. With the help of local enthusiasts, in 1993 the front of the building was returned to its former glory with the bay window reinstated.
The museum now contains two exhibition rooms on the ground floor and an education room in the old chapel.
23rd March 2003
Reproduced from a hand-out prepared by Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
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