A workman operates a sluice valve, 1960s. Image from the Canal and River Trust Archive.
Last week, I featured the third batch of images from the Canal and River Trust Archive, of the Grove Colliery near Brownhills in the late 1950s – also revealing the archive and inviting readers to go see what they could find.
Andy Dennis got busy, and found the above image of a workman opening a sluice valve, tagged ‘Anglesey’, which he suspected was of a valve house at Chasewater – not the notable one on top of the dam, but the lower one just above the basin.
He went and took a photo, and compared the two. He was bang on the money – the chap is operating some kind of sluice at Chasewater.
This is clearly the same brick hut as above; note the dark brick halfway up the doorway on the left. Image kindly supplied by Andy Dennis.
What’s interesting me here particularly, is how the sluice arrangements on the dam must work. Way back in 2010, the excellent LichfieldLive featured this publicity image of Councillors draped over (sorry, operating) the sluice valves from the thruppenny-bit valve house on top of the Dam:
Coulcillors Val Richards and David Smith look like they’re doing something at Chasewater back in 2010, from LichfieldLive.
So the question is, why three sluice vales? How do they work and operate? Some clue is given by an inspection film of the sluice culvert from Lichfield District Council, where water is conducted to the canal beneath the dam, back when the reservoir was drained for the dam restoration.
So – the question is simple: what to we know about how this system operates? It’s fascinating, and I’d really love to see a description, or even better, some kind of plan.
Comment here, or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers!
These old pictures come from Canal and River Trust photo archive, which can be found here All of these images can be obtained (for a fee of course) printed in much better quality by contacting the Canal & River Trust here.
The same workman shown checking water level in what we can assume is Anglesey Basin at the same time. Note the boat, so no weir then, and nor safety rail. Any clue to the car? Image from the Canal and River Trust Archive.