Boat Dock
The thousands of boats that used to work the Black Country canals all needed constant maintenance.
In this area there were many working boat yards, or docks, like this one, where boats were built and repaired. They were busy, cluttered places not unlike a modern scrap yard as it was common practise to break wooden boats, salvaging the ironwork.
Castlefields boat dock is typical of the many on the Black Country canal system of the period and is equipped to build new working craft and to repair those of iron or composite construction. The dock can accommodate three boats, drawn sideways out of the water by winches onto the slip.
Nothing on the boat dock was wasted and most of these buildings are made from reclaimed boat timbers.
The main buildings are the 1880s brick blacksmith’s forge containing a large general-purpose hearth with hand-operated bellows, the nail and rivet store, a woodshed, paint store and stable.
The two wheeled ‘rolling sheds’ were moved up and down the length of the boatyard on rails to provide shelter and allow work to continue in all weather.
The lifting bridge between the Ironworks and the Boat dock was built across the railway transhipment basin at Lloyds Proving House near Factory Junction at Tipton. Huge weights hanging on chains over the four pulleys balance the weight of the roadway and the deck can be raised and lowered by operating a small hand winch.
