On Wednesday, Christine from the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal Restoration Trust and I set off on a joint expedition to explore the remains of the stretch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal between the Fosseway Level Crossing and Sandfields Pumping Station.

As we crossed through the gate off Falkland Road, the canal, or what once was the canal, was to our left. Down a steep slope to our right however, was a wide expanse of land filled with curious humps, bumps and scars. At the far end was a pile of stones, which Christine thought had come from the canal (it seems they were moved when the new road was built).  As we mused on the origins of the mysterious earthworks, I was reminded that someone had told me that this was once the place where the youth of Lichfield would come to ride their bicycles, both the pedal and motor varieties. Later, I popped the photos of this section on our Lichfield Discovered page on Facebook asking whether anyone else remembered this.  Steve Martin did and he sent this brilliant reply:

Used to take my bike down there some 30 odd years ago when, if I recall correctly, there was a lot less grass there. It was about a fifteen minute ride to get there from where I used to live but was well worth it because that area was a playground for bikes as there were well defined tracks , bumps and jumps in the area between the train track and the old canal. There were often youths there, some on motorbikes, riding around and jumping their bikes . . . I do remember being the only person there one day and coming off my bike on a track near the top of the embankment and having a rather spectacular kid/bike roll to the bottom.

 

The youth of today may have moved on to the skatepark or the nearby MUGA or, let’s be honest, moved in to play on the Xbox but previous generations have left their mark on the landscape here. And no doubt the landscape made a mark on a few of them too, eh Steve? It’s something you won’t find on a map but it’s a great bit of social history that I’d love to hear more about.

Who got else got their teenage kickstarts here?

Foundations?

I’m not sure that all of the earthworks here are related to what appears to have been Lichfield’s own version of Junior Kickstart (you’ll be humming that theme tune the whole day). The old maps suggest there was a lock on the canal here which might explain the presence of bricks. Christine and I continued along the wildly overgrown towpath, to where the remains of a lock are far more evident. It was a gorgeous walk – the sun shone, birds sang and butterflies flitted (although I did ruin things a bit by planting the thought in our heads that the vegetation above our heads might contain giant hogweed. It didn’t).

Christine Howles and the Lock Crusade

If anyone can ID those purple flowers we would be grateful!

We clambered back down the bank to stand in what would have been the canal, and walked in through the lock. We were surprised at how modern some of the brickwork looked, and the ladder certainly appeared to be a fairly recent addition. We later found out renovation work had been carried out on this stretch not all that long ago (which also explains the solitary picnic bench we found). Adventurous though we are, climbing out using the ladder was a step too far and so we clambered back up the bank and carried on along the towpath. At the end of this stretch there is a canal cottage with a lovely BCN boundary stone in the front garden. Due to dog related issues, I didn’t take a photo so you will have to go and see it with your own eyes.  If boundary stones don’t excite you as much as they do me, perhaps the old Fosseway crossing signal box and opportunity to trespass on the disused railway track which runs adjacent to the canal from Sandfields up to Pipe Hill wharf will float your boat instead.

I’ve not gone into the history of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal in any depth here for the simple reason that it’s been done far better elsewhere. Your first port of call is of course the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal Restoration website, where you can discover not only the history of the waterway but also their plans for its future.  Of course if you’d like to do something constructive to help, literally, they are always looking for volunteers! You can get in touch and keep up to date with what’s going on Twitter @lhcrt1 or on Facebook.

Sandfields at dusk

Back at the opposite end of this stretch, the canal flowed past Sandfields Pumping Station before crossing the Chesterfield Road, and flowing under the Birmingham Road (where you can still see one of the bridges by the Duke of Wellington!). For us on this occasion though, Sandfields was the end of the line. Again, the history of this Grade II* listed building has been captured in detail elsewhere, by friend and colleague David Moore. You can discover why Sandfields is such an important part of not only Lichfield’s past but also that of the Black Country’s here on the Lichfield Waterworks Trust site. Put simply, by supplying fresh water to our neighbouring towns, Sandfields saved lives and now the Trust are trying to save Sandfields for the community. It’s a building we should be singing the praises of at least as much as the Cathedral. If you think you might like to add your voice, please come along to the Lichfield Waterworks Trust monthly meeting next week (details here) or we have a drop-in session at the Beacon Park discovery hub tomorrow, Saturday 25th July, between 11am and 12pm, where you can find out more about Sandfields and the Trust’s work. I’ll be flying the Lichfield Discovered flag there too, so if social and sociable history is your thing, come down and say hello!

Finally, thanks to Christine for sharing the adventure and thanks to Steve for sharing the memories and the photos.

Moon above the lock 2012-ish. Taken by Steve Martin

Last Saturday, our Lichfield Discovered group visited Sinai Park near Burton upon Trent, which has been described along the lines of, ‘the most important house in England to be in such a state’. One wing of the timber framed house has been restored beautifully by owner Kate Newton, using the skills of local craftspeople. The other two wings are still awaiting their salvation. You might expect it to have been fire which wreaked havoc here but in fact the rapid decline of Sinai was caused by water.

By the 1960s, Sinai had been converted to six cottages but, when the water supply was found to be contaminated, they were deemed unfit for human habitation. The owner, unsure what to do with this white elephant in the middle of his land, moved his pigs and chickens in. Anything that could be sold was – for example, wooden panelling went to the USA and the Tudor front door ended up at the Stanhope Arms in Bretby. I was just planning a visit in my head when Kate told us it had since been sold on again and she was still trying to track down its whereabouts to see if she could bring it home.

Painted original beams in the restored wing at Sinai

That perhaps explains the ‘in such a state’ element of the description, but what about the ‘most important house in England’ part?  The hilltop location with water supplied by a chalybeate spring, suggests the potential for much earlier occupation of the site. However, the first hard evidence we have of habitation here are the remains of a fortified manor house in the form of the thirteenth century moat surrounding the property and stonework in the cellars below. Sinai was donated to the monks of Burton Abbey by the Schobenhale family, and was used as a ‘seyney house’ i.e. a place to restore their strength after blood letting sessions and during periods of illness. Hence the name and its importance. According to English Heritage, ‘only a handful of similar monastic retreats or ‘Seyney Houses’ have been identified nationally’. That Sinai has surviving buildings dating to this period of its use  is described as ‘unique’.

The three wings are structurally independent of each other and it’s believed that the monks brought two medieval timber framed buildings here from Burton, and rebuilt them parallel to each other to use as dormitories. After the reformation, Sinai was given to the Paget family who at times used it as a hunting lodge. In 1606, they erected a medieval style great hall to link these two wings and to impress their mates.  Sinai remained in the family for around four hundred years until it was sold to pay off some of the debts run up by Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey (and did he run up some debts!).

The property was bought in June 1918 by the Burton and District Co-Op Society and at the time the ‘Great Hall’, ‘Confessional’, ‘Solar’, and ‘Chaplain’s Room’ were apparently still in evidence. A photograph of the hall from ten years earlier can be found here on the Staffs Pasttrack site, and there’s one from the Victoria County History of Staffordshire, taken in the 1980s here, which shows just how much damage decades of neglect can do.

Georgian Plunge Pool over chalybeate spring known as ‘The Lord’s Well’

Back to the water, and in the grounds is a Georgian plunge pool, built over the chalybeate spring known as the Lord’s Well. There’s a great post about this on the Holy Wells and Sacred Springs site which you can read here. The Georgian bridge over the moat was built in 1732 and is thought to have replaced a timber bridge, where it’s said a skirmish between the Pagets and the Bagots of Blithfield took place during the Civil War, leaving musket balls lodged in some of the house’s beams. This leads nicely into some of the other stories and legends of Sinai. For anyone who isn’t interested in this part, please tut and move on to the next paragraph. For those who are, a tunnel is said to lead from the cellars here to Burton Abbey and there are around fifty ghost stories, some of which you can read about here.

Eighteenth century bridge over thirteenth century moat

On behalf of Lichfield Discovered, I’m really grateful to Kate for her hospitality and for sharing all of the stories of Sinai with us and wish her all the best with the restoration project. Let’s hope that one day it will be known simply as ‘one of the most important houses in England’, without the ‘in such a state’ epithet. To keep up to date on developments at Sinai Park and to arrange visits, please visit the Sinai Park House website.

To get involved with Lichfield Discovered, you can follow us on Twitter (@lichdiscovered) or like us on Facebook here.

Jacobean ‘Great Hall’ at Sinai

The restoration of the north east wing at Sinai was completed in 2000.

This Tuesday (2nd June) at 7.30pm in the Duke of York, Lichfield Discovered is holding the first of its new monthly meet-ups. The idea is that people can come along to the pub on the first Tuesday of every month and get involved in planning our events, share ideas and, of course, discuss any interesting snippets of history they’ve come across, or would like to know more about, over a drink. We know people have busy lives and lots of other commitments and so it’s important to stress that there is no obligation to come every month, just as and when you’re able to (or want to!). We’d rather see people once in a blue moon than not at all. Alongside these monthly meet-ups we will of course continue to do walks, talks and other events. If you don’t want your involvement with Lichfield Discovered to be anything more than coming along and joining us for these, then that’s great, and we shall welcome you with open arms and custard creams, and ask nothing more of you.

If, however, you’ve got ideas about what we could or should be doing, or where we should be going, or if you’ve got any skills or knowledge that you think we could make use of, then please do come along and join us at the pub.  Even if it’s just to register a preference for chocolate hobnobs over custard creams.

Whilst on the subject of Lichfield Discovered, I’d also like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to the Trustees and residents of Dr Milley’s Hospital on Beacon Street for making us so welcome on our visit this weekend. It was fantastic to see inside one of Lichfield’s oldest and most distinctive buildings and learn not only about its past, but also about the great work that this small charity is doing in the city in the present. If you missed out, then I understand Dr Milley’s will be opening for the heritage weekend in September. Along with our good friends at the Lichfield Waterworks Trust, we also have plans for that weekend, but more on that another time….

As ever, apart from at the pub, the best places to find Lichfield Discovered are on Facebook and on Twitter (@lichdiscovered).