The building of the Coventry Canal was a long and complicated affair.  Its two objectives were a.  to connect the fast growing town of Coventry with the grand new highway of its day, the Grand Trunk (now known as the Trent & Mersey Canal) and b.  to provide a convenient method of transporting coal south to Coventry from the Bedworth coalfield.  Parliament approved the building of the Coventry Canal in 1768 and it was very quickly completed as far as Bedworth, but it took 22 years to reach Fazeley.  Many of those on the Board of the Company had interests in the local coal mines and they were afraid that a connection with the Trent & Mersey Canal at Fradley would open up new markets for collieries situated in North Staffordshire.

By 1790, when the Coventry Canal finally reached Fazeley, other canal companies had already completed the rest of the planned route.  The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal had  built northwards as far as Whittington Brook and the Grand Trunk Company had dug southwards from Fradley.  The Coventry Canal Company later bought back the Whittington/Fradley stretch.  At Whittington Brook you can still see a stone, which marks the Coventry Canal in one direction and the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal in the other and a 1990 plaque commemorating 200 years since the joining in 1790.

Whittington Wharf has always been a busy area in relation to the activities on the Coventry Canal and much of its early history was concerned with the transportation of goods to the village and indeed to Lichfield in the 1790s.  The Canal was always one of the most consistently in profit and forms part of the important route from North to South on the Canal System. 

From early documents it can be seen that the Wharf played an important role in the development of the village through its position on the Canal. 

An letter dated 14 February 1850 concerns a dispute over a bit of private enterprise on the part of Mr George Smith, the landlord of the Swan.  It reads:

Dear Sir

In reply to yours of the 12th Inst I beg leave to say that Mr Sinclair gave the order that anything loaded or landed at the Swan Bridge must pay wharfage.  He sent word to me and likewise told Smith that owing to his wharf not being properly constructed, they must pay wharfage to the company.  There have been complaints to me, the same as Mr Drummond has made – it appears that the spot of Ground formerly was occupied as a Basin to land coal for Fisherwick Hall.  Smith purchased and made land of it and has taken away the sloop of the canal for more convenience of boats tying up in the nights than a wharf, but I believe in most instances he does not charge his neighbours anything that are in the habit of going to his public house, but strangers and others I believe he does, as they go through his premises to get to the canal, there being no other means of landing or loading anything there but going over or through his property.  It certainly gives ground for complaint. Had not you better (mention?) it to Mr Sinclair and hear what he says on the subject. And (I) am

Your obt Servant

Jasper Perkins

Feb 14th 1850

(Images of the original letter can be found on the documents page of this website.)

Paper, card, coal and other items are recorded as being transported and unloaded on the Wharf as early as 1793, but it was not until the building of the Whittington Barracks in 1875 that the Wharf was particularly active.  Bricks for the buildings were made from the clay at the Huddlesford brickyards and carried along the Coventry Canal to Whittington Wharf, where they were unloaded and transported by cart to the Barracks along a horse tramway.

The agreement to build the tramway is held at the Staffordshire Records Office and reads as follows:

This Agreement made the twenty fourth day of December One thousand eight hundred and seventy seven Between the Surveyors of the Highways of the parish of Whittington in the County of Stafford of the one part and Henry Lovatt of Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford Builder and Contractor of the other part.

Whereas the said Henry Lovatt is the Contractor for and is erecting certain Barracks at Whittington Heath and is making bricks at a brick yard at Huddlesford and as the cartage of the bricks cuts up the Highways of the said Parish it was agreed that the said Henry Lovatt shall lay a Horse Tramway on the terms hereinafter stated.

Now it is hereby agreed by and between the said parties hereto as follows:

1.  The said Henry Lovatt shall be at liberty to construct and lay down from Whittington Heath to the said brick yard at Huddlesford along the side of the highways and byeways in the said parish of Whittington including the highway through the Village of Whittington a Horse Tramway of two feet guage with all necessary Turnouts and passing places for the cartage of bricks for all purposes of his said Contract.  The said Henry Lovatt shall lay down the said tramway level with the highways throughout and shall keep the same in proper repair and shall provide sufficient break power and shall keep signal men with danger flags wherever the road is so narrow as to necessitate this precaution.

2.  On the completion of the said contract the said Henry Lovatt shall remove the said tramway and shall restore the Highways over which it runs to their present condition.

As Witness the hands of the said parties

H Lovatt

W. A Thomas, George Bates - surveyors

A brickyard and kiln was also situated at the Swan Bridge on the towing path side of the canal; it appears on an Ordnance Survey map dated 1884 and by 1902 is marked as "old clay pit". When it was closed, the area became used as a local tipping ground for the village.

The Cottages at the Wharf were built shortly after the building of the Canal in 1790 and the use was as below:-

No 1  - was an annexe to the old ale house which was in the cottages.  It was used through the First World War and shortly before the Second World War was a social area for darts, cards and dancing.  This could be described as a lemonade area for the ladies.

No 2 - Stables for the canal horses.  The old stable door arch can still be seen in the brickwork.

Nos 3 & 4- were the old ale houses prior to the building of the new public house in the early part of the 20^th century at which time the cottages were sold and used as farm tenancies.

No 5- was the lodging house used by the draymen and had a passage through to the ale house.

No 6- was used as a loft for storage of hay and oats up above and as an area for drays and tack below

A hovel which was also used for storage and stabling of up to 6 horses was on the land at the front of No 6, but has now been demolished.  A wash yard and privy still stands at the rear of Nos 3 and 4.

An investigation into the life of Robert Bage, papermaker and novelist, who lived and worked at Elford Mill, later at Tamworth, revealed some interesting facts relating to the excise officers and paper held at the Wharf at Whittington.  Walter Scott, who became a baronet, wrote an account concerning Whittington Wharf and the excise officers who seized Bage’s paper.  Details were supplied to him by Catherine Hutton, William Hutton’s daughter.  He wrote:

“Bage actually had paper seized by the excise officers, and the same paper liberated, seized again, and again liberated.”

During the Birmingham Riots of 1791 Hutton was obliged to use Bage’s name when he fled without the money to Tamworth.  Hutton had the opportunity to repay the favour and act as a witness when in 1795 Bage went to law against the excise men over the labelling of certain realms.  On the 30^th June he wrote to Hutton  “Can the gentlemen of the excise office run after paper seize or super charge it after it has left the maker’s possession?  After it has been marked?  Signed with the Officer’s name?  Excise duty paid?  Do they do this?”

Clearly the Officers who had seized Bage’s cargo at Whittington Canal Wharf had considered his button board to be paste board.  Bage, who was completely confused, offered to hang himself and went to the Justices’ meeting at Wolseley Bridge where two causes were to be heard, the tea paper and the button paper which he had been making.  At the meeting Bage produced a specimen of the paste board and was given back the paper.  Sutton and Bage were given back the paper on the 12^th and button board on the 26^th October 1795, but despite producing credible witnesses and winning both cases on both counts, the paper was immediately seized again by excise officers.  Bage wrote, “it is not worth perpetual contention”.

Although Scott does not mention Whittington Wharf, the original letters refer to it as the wharf.  The foregoing extract is from writings by John Goss in his report for the Birmingham Historian.

The Society is indebted to Eric Wood for a substantial amount of the information on Whittington Wharf.