Galton Valley Canal Museum is a small museum, located in Smethwick, England, on the border with Birmingham and alongside the BCN Main Line canals. The Museum tells the story of the development of the Galton Valley canals and those who designed, built and worked on them.
In 2009 it won the Silver award in the 'Best Small Visitor Attraction' at the Black Country Tourism Awards. In 2011 the museum moved from premises on Brasshouse Lane Smethwick to the New Smethwick Pumping Station, which is opened occasionally by Sandwell Museum Service and The Friends of Galton Valley. Because of the limited space at the pumping station, many of the artifacts from the original museum were moved to the Smethwick Heritage Centre in Victoria Park.
New Smethwick Pumping Station
The New Smethwick Pumping Station is situated between the Birmingham Old and New Main Line Canals. It first opened in 1892 with the purpose of pumping water from the lower Birmingham New Main Line to the high Old Main Line Canal to replace the water lost from the higher level when boats went through the Smethwick locks. The station only had a short working life, closing in the mid 1920s due to reduced traffic on the canals. Apart from a short period during the Second World War the building sat empty until it was restored and opened as part of the Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre in the late 1980.
When new the Pumping Station replaced two wooden beam engines which were situated at Bridge Street and Spon Lane in Smethwick. The site in Bridge Street was the original home of James Watt's Smethwick Engine. While Watt's engine can now be seen in the Think Tank Museum in Birmingham, tours of the original site can be organised through the museum in Galton Valley.
Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England, for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tronix, it is used for the manufacture of weighing machines.
Smethwick is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England, historically in Staffordshire. It lies four miles west of Birmingham city centre.
Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions.
The Galton Bridge is a canal bridge in Smethwick, near Birmingham, in central England. It was built by Thomas Telford in 1829 to carry Roebuck Lane over the Birmingham Canal Navigations New Main Line, which runs in a man-made valley. It has a single span of 150 feet (46 m). Originally a road bridge it is now restricted to pedestrians. It is a Grade I listed building, and lends its name to the adjacent Smethwick Galton Bridge railway station.
The Smethwick Engine is a Watt steam engine made by Boulton and Watt, which was installed near Birmingham, England, and was brought into service in May 1779. Now at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, it is the oldest working steam engine and the oldest working engine in the world.
Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land, and the removal of sewage to processing sites. A pumping station is an integral part of a pumped-storage hydroelectricity installation.
Smethwick Galton Bridge is a split-level railway station in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It is at a point where two railways' lines cross on two levels. It has platforms on both lines, allowing interchange between them. The two low-level platforms serve the Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton Line, while the two high-level platforms serve the Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Line. The high level line passes over the low level line at a right angle on a bridge. West Midlands Railway manage the station and operate the majority of its services, with others provided by Chiltern Railways, London Northwestern Railway and Transport for Wales.
The Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster line is a suburban railway line from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester via Stourbridge and Kidderminster. It is one of the Snow Hill Lines, with trains operated by West Midlands Trains and Chiltern Railways using a variety of rolling stock including Class 172 and Class 168 diesel units. It is a future aspiration of Network Rail to electrify the entire line, as well as the Chiltern Main Line to London Marylebone.
Smethwick Rolfe Street is one of two railway stations serving the town of Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It is situated on the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line 3¼ miles (5 km) north west of Birmingham New Street. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by West Midlands Railway. The other station serving Smethwick is Smethwick Galton Bridge, which is the next stop up the line.
The Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line is a railway line in the West Midlands of England. It is a loop off the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Rugby and Stafford, via the West Midlands cities of Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The direct route between Rugby and Stafford is the Trent Valley Line.
The Engine Arm or Birmingham Feeder Arm near Smethwick, West Midlands, England, is a short canal which was originally part of a feeder tunnel for a pumping engine. When the Smethwick flight of locks were reduced from six to three, the pumping engine was moved to a new site, which allowed part of the feeder tunnel to be opened up and made navigable, so that coal supplies for the engine could be delivered by barge. The Engine Arm also supplied the pumped water to the 473-foot (144 m) Wolverhampton level of the lowered summit. The arm was extended between 1825 and 1830 by Thomas Telford to carry water from Rotton Park Reservoir to the Old Main Line of the BCN Main Line Canal, and the Engine Arm Aqueduct was inserted to carry it over the new main line constructed at that time, which was 20 feet (6.1 m) lower. The arm is now managed by the Canal and River Trust and the basin beyond the site of the pumping station, which was replaced by a new engine house near Brasshouse Lane bridge in 1892, is used for residential moorings.
The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line describes the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England.
The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), a network of narrow canals in the industrial midlands of England, is built on various water levels. The three longest are the Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Walsall levels. Locks allow boats to move from one level to another.
The Horseley Ironworks was a major ironworks in the Tipton area in the county of Staffordshire, now the West Midlands, England.
Smethwick Junction is the name of the canal junctions where the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line Canal from Birmingham splits into the BCN Old Main Line and the BCN New Main Line near to Smethwick, West Midlands, England.
Spon Lane Junction is the original junction of the Wednesbury Canal and the Birmingham Canal, near Oldbury in the West Midlands, England.
The Wednesbury Oak Loop, sometimes known as the Bradley Arm, is a canal in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), and was originally part of James Brindley's main line, but became a loop when Thomas Telford's improvements of the 1830s bypassed it by the construction of the Coseley Tunnel. The south-eastern end of the loop was closed and in parts built over, following the designation of the entire loop as "abandoned" in 1954, including the section which was filled in at the beginning of the 1960s to make way for the Glebefields Estate in Tipton.
Galton Village is a residential area of Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It takes its name from the iconic nearby Galton Bridge that was named after local business man Samuel Galton whose land the new BCN Main Line canal was built through, the canal runs behind Galton Village as does the Stour Valley section of West Coast Mainline. The Oldbury Road runs through the area which begins next to Smethwick’s Galton Bridge railway station and ends at Spon Lane, next to a small shopping centre.
Smethwick is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England.
Summit Bridge is a road bridge over a canal, built in 1789. It crosses the Old Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in Smethwick, in the West Midlands, England; it was part of John Smeaton's improvements to the canal system at its highest point in the area.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
