Heritage under the hammer
Geoff Courtney reports on the latest canalia auction scene that includes a piece of canal and railway history that went under the hammer for £1000.
A RAILWAY totem sign from Paisley Canal station sold for £1000 in a live online auction held by Great Central Railwayana on September 3.
Two reasons for the high price are that totem signs, which were a familiar sight on stations throughout the BR network in the 1950s and 60s, are currently riding the crest of a wave, while this particular example is believed to be the only station to ever include ‘canal’ in its name. The station was opened by the Glasgow & South Western Railway in July 1885, closed by BR to passengers in January 1983 and reopened on a nearby new site seven years later.
The 11-mile Paisley Canal linked Port Eglinton in Glasgow with Johnstone via Paisley. It opened in two stages in 1810 and the following year and cost £130,000 to build, with partial funding from Hugh Montgomerie of Coilsfield, the 12th Earl of Eglinton (1739-1819).
Until the arrival of railways it was both a commercial and passenger success, with the latter transported by boats pulled by six horses. Sadly it was also the scene of Britain’s worst canal boat disaster, when in the year of opening a day-trippers’ craft capsized, leading to the deaths of 84 people.
The canal was taken over by the GSWR in 1869 and closed in 1881, with much of the route being converted into a railway line. This line was closed in 1983 but was subsequently reopened between Glasgow Central and the new Paisley station and is known as the Paisley Canal Line. The price for the totem sign excludes buyer’s premium of 15% (+ VAT).
Another piece of inland waterways history that went under the hammer was a Norfolk Broads railway carriage print that sold for £180 (+ buyer’s premium of 18% inc VAT) in a live online GW Railwayana auction on July 8. It was from the LNER post-war series issued in 1947 and came in its original frame.
The artist was Hartlepool-born Frank Mason (1875-1965), whose work included maritime and shipping paintings. He was educated as a cadet on the naval school ship HMS Conway, was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1904 and was Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve shipping artist in the First World War. His work has been exhibited at a number of locations, including the National Maritime Museum.
As ever with auctions, there are sometimes bargains to be had with memorabilia several centuries old, and this is illustrated by an Act of Parliament that featured in the quarterly email and postal sale held by the transport paperwork auction house Paperchase from July 14-August 2.
The Act, dated 1774, authorised the construction by Sir John Ramsden of a canal from the River Calder at Huddersfield, and the price for this 248-yearold piece of canal history was just £16. The canal, which is just under four miles long, is now the Huddersfield Broad Canal and is popular with leisure traffic. The Canal & River Trust lauds it as “a place to nurture your own health and happiness in the heart of urban Huddersfield.”
In the same auction, two Mersey & Irwell Navigation consignment notes dated 1841 and 1845 sold for £11, a price matched by five BR Western Region timetable leaflets dated between 1954-67 for River Dart trips. Prices exclude buyer’s premium of 12½%.
THE HS2 ( Crewe– Manchester) Bill received a second reading on June 20 and was referred to an HS2 Select Committee to hear petitions from those directly and specially affected.
This bill for Phase 2b West affects the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal, the Trent & Mersey Canal, and the Ashton and Rochdale canals in Manchester. IWA’s main objection to the plans is the absence of adequate noise mitigation measures for canal users.
The plans include (i) the Crewe North Rolling Stock depot and three adjacent viaduct crossings of the Middlewich Branch, (ii) three separate viaduct crossings of the Trent & Mersey Canal north of Middlewich, and (iii) a main construction compound in Manchester. At each of these interfaces the canals would be subject to excessive noise unless better mitigation is provided.
IWA has responded to several previous consultations, including the National Infrastructure Commission and the Transport Select Committee, criticising the choice of route through an area prone to brine subsidence, and its adverse effects on the canals’ landscape, environment and heritage.
This pet i t i on concentrates on the major impacts of noise on canal users and is closely based on IWA’s response to the Environmental Statement consultation. ( See: HS2 Bill threatens tranquillity of waterways around Middlewich and Lymm, 11/4/2022)
IWA is particularly concerned that the residential use of boats is not adequately assessed, and the noise mitigation measures proposed are therefore inadequate where HS2 crosses or runs near to each of the affected canals.
Noise mitigation
Our canals are major heritage assets, wildlife sites and recreational corridors, valued for their tranquillity and each HS2 affected location is used by tens of thousands of people each year.
Noise levels close to HS2 bridges will be extremely high without acoustic barriers and the noise of passing trains will propagate over a wide area. Although this is intermittent, it is the peak noise levels that cause maximum disturbance, and any form of averaging noise levels is misleading.
HS2 automatically includes noise barriers, earthworks or fencing to protect residential properties but continues to misrepresent all canal users as ‘ transitory’ and thus not worthy of consideration. A few canal crossings benefit from the proximity of inhabited buildings, but most crossings in rural areas are given no protection and will be subject to intolerable levels of noise.
IWA’s petition explains in detail the wide variety of ways in which people use and reside on the waterways, and the vulnerability of moored boat occupants to external noise. Canal boats are residences, and while not always permanently occupied and capable of moving, wherever more than a few boats are moored, permanent l y or intermittently, it is likely that people will be living there for significant periods, so their acoustic environment should be protected.
Parliament failed to address this issue for Phase 1 and for Phase 2a, but that is no reason why the same mistakes should be repeated with Phase 2b.
Canal interfaces
IWA’s petition details the usage of the canals around each HS2 interface. On the Middlewich Branch permanent moorings at Park Farm and visitor moorings at Yew Tree Farm are affected. On the Trent & Mersey Canal visitor moorings at Bramble Cuttings, popular temporary moorings at Billinge Green Flash and permanent moorings at Oakwood Marina would be particularly affected.
At each canal crossing location there should be 4m high noise barrier fencing across the viaducts and on adjacent embankments. In Manchester the construction compound should have substantial noise fencing.
First additional provision
The Bill, as deposited, would also affect the Bridgewater Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal, although the Government’s lastminute decision to remove the Golborne Link through an Additional Provision ( AP1) removes the threat to moorings on the Bridgewater Canal, for now at least.
However, AP1 includes some new works on the Middlewich Branch at Clive Green Lane Bridge that, while providing improved cycle access, would worsen pedestrian access. IWA’s second petition therefore asks for retention of the access steps and towpath hedge.
Read IWA’s petitions: the full text of both IWA petitions – that against the Bill and that against the First Additional Provision, as published on the Select Committee website – can be seen at https:// waterways. org.uk/about-us/news/ iwa-petitions-against-hs2-crewe-manchester-bill