Engine House Adjoining Top Lock Of Oldbury Locks, South Of Engine Street Birmingham Canal Titford Branch

SANDWELL MB BIRMINGHAM CANAL SO 98 NE Titford Branch, Oldbury 8/31 Engine House adjoining Top Lock of Oldbury Locks, south of Engine Street

GV II

Pumping engine house, now partly used as warehouse. Built shortly after Oldbury Locks were opened in 1837. Blue brick with roofs of slate and corrugated asbestos. South wall has twin gables of two parallel ranges, the right hand one set forward slightly. Each has a first floor window with segmental head and a ground floor doorway, the right hand one partly blocked and with an elliptical head. The left hand return wall is partly covered by a single storey lean-to. On the first floor are four windows with segmental heads and iron glazing bars. The right hand return wall is of four bays. The windows have segmental heads and all have iron glazing bars except the left hand one on the first floor. At the right there is a blocked window, with a doorway to a fire escape above on the first floor. At the rear is a lower range with a truncated chimney projecting from its west wall. The engine house originally contained two beam engines and four boilers to recirculate water from the Wolverhampton level back to the Titford Canal. They operated at 11 strokes a minute and lifted five million gallons a day. The beam engines were replaced by a Tangye gas engine c1930. This has been superseded by electric pumps which are still used occasionally. The engine house stands at the junction with Spon Lane Branch, a part of the Titford Feeder made navigable in the early 1870s. (Langford, J I, The BCN and Titford Valley, Boundary Post, 1974).

Listing NGR: SO9948488699