Map showing the location of Gallows Wharf, near the St. Johns bridge on London Road, behind the petrol station.
London Road Wharf - the site of Gallows Wharf
On the 1884 Ordnance Survey Map, the area is called Gallow's Wharf, but by the 1920s it was known as St John's Wharf. The wharf is close to the site of the Lichfield Gallows, originally erected in 1532, where on 1st June 1801 the last three men to be hanged in Lichfield met their fate, for uttering forged banknotes. It was also at Gallows Wharf, near the junction of London Road and Tamworth Road, that stained glass windows rescued from a dissolved abbey in Herkenrode, Belgium, were unloaded from canal boats on their way to Lichfield Cathedral in 1803.
Read "The Lichfield Gallows" on Lichfield Lore.
View old map of Gallows Wharf - possibly from the 1830's.
For more see Pinterest Old Maps of Lichfield
There are more photos in the Facebook Album
April 2018 - Work begins
The massive restoration effort by the Trust volunteers at Gallows Wharf on the Lichfield Canal began in early April. The infilled canal was excavated down to “water level” to provide a working platform for the re building of a section of the Historic Gallows Wharf.
King post steel H Piles have been installed at the back of the wharf which with timber sleepers to be installed later will retain a new Garden of Reflection to be installed and planted up by the Trust.
Since the old canal wharf and wall has been lost and buried under the adjacent garages as housing, a new section of wharf wall is being built along the edge of the canal and the excavation for the wharf wall footings have been completed over the weekend. Surplus excavated material from Gallows Wharf is being transported to Fosseway Heath to provide the necessary fill under the canal for the wide turning area.
By the end of April the excavations have been completed. RSJs have been positioned to take wooden sleepers to support the adjacent garage walls. Concrete foundations have been laid and the concrete block/ brick wall to the waters’ edge is well under way. There is still a huge amount to do before our Lady Mayor is due to witness the results of our efforts before her time in office expires.
10th May 2018
The Trust officially launched the project to recreate the city’s historic Gallows Wharf, incorporating planting areas in a Garden of Reflection. The garden will become part of Blooming Lichfield’s entry for Britain in Bloom, the nationwide community gardening competition led by the Royal Horticultural Society.
The Mayor of Lichfield, Councillor Janice Greaves, launched the Garden of Reflection project by unveiling a bench set in a small planted area and planting an oak tree. Cllr. Greaves said: “I hope many people will stop along here, will sit here and reflect.”
Engineering director Peter Buck explained that on the opposite side of the canal a garden representing the original wharf with two crane bases and a large container will be planted up and made ready for the Britain in Bloom competition judging in July. “Gallows Wharf is a historic part of the canal, and the city. It was here when the canal was built in 1797,” he said. “We have an enormous amount of work to do. We have yet to build the wharf, we have yet to build the flower beds and we have yet to plant them, so there’s a lot of work to do between now and the 26th of July. “Today is the project launch of the Lichfield in Bloom work that we are doing at Gallows Wharf. “We’d like to thank Councillor Colin Greatorex of Staffordshire County Council who provided a grant that kickstarted this work off. “Literally eight weeks ago there was nothing here, no flower beds, no trellis, none of the work on the wharf. This has all been carried out by our volunteers.”
Another part of the Trust’s contribution to Blooming Lichfield is taking shape a little way down Tamworth Road where a representation of a 70ft narrow boat is being built by students from Queens Croft School and the Foresters Scout Group with help from the Trust’s chairperson Christine Bull. Flowers will be planted along the length the boat, which is being made using wooden pallets and willow cuttings and a cabin built by Trust volunteer Tony Cadwallader.
In the TV Spotlight
Although we were sworn to secrecy at the time, the Lichfield Canal played a starring role in television’s Britain in Bloom. The series of the BBC2 show was shown in the spring of 2019 and the episode on April 4th 2019 featured Blooming Lichfield’s gold award-winning entry in the Small City section of the Heart of England in Bloom competition.
A TV crew filmed at several in the city in spring 2018 then followed up as the competition judges made their round in mid-summer, visiting Swinfen Hall Hotel with its newly constructed Victorian-style greenhouse, Dovehouse Community Garden’s flowers and food crops, Beacon Park’s formal display, the gardens associated with Swan Mews, Netherstowe Allotments and St Chad’s churchyard.
The series presenter, Chris Bavin, was particularly impressed by one of the biggest projects in the whole series, Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust’s Garden of Reflection, at Gallows Wharf, including Rose Willow, the floral recreation of a 70ft narrowboat next to Tamworth Road. Chris and his crew followed the progress of the work at Gallows Wharf, from building site in May to beautiful garden on judging day in July.
In full bloom for the judging
The Trust unveiled its stunning contribution to Blooming Lichfield when judging for Heart of England in Bloom took on July 25th. Despite suffering weeks of blistering heat and bouts of brainless vandalism, our historic Gallows Wharf site looked a picture on a glorious summer day.
The judges also cast their expert eyes over Rose Willow, a recreation of a 70ft narrowboat, which has been taking shape over the summer next to Tamworth Road, thanks to the efforts of pupils from Queen’s Croft High School and the Foresters Scout Group. Queen’s Croft children were also involved in the painting of Rose Queen, which walkers along the canal can see on the wall of the London Road bridge, while National Citizen Service students learned the art of signwriting from Phil Ball to complete Rose Queen’s artwork. The Gallows Wharf sign was painted by Steve Cooper.
See also News May 14th. and News July 31st.
And the result of all the effort? It was GOLD again for Lichfield in the small city category for the second year in succession. The result was announced at the England in Bloom presentations in Burton on September 20th. The presentation was attended by Peter and Jean Buck who represented the Trust.
September - Time to celebrate
Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust celebrated the 30th anniversary of its foundation on Spetember 9th with an anniversary barbecue at Gallows Wharf. Over 100 people attended including local residents, volunteers, Trust members, representatives from county, district and city councils and organisations who have helped the Trust over the years.
Among those present were the three remaining founder members of the Trust, Eric Wood, Denis Cooper and Phil Sharpe, who, in 1988, shared a vision of restoring two sections of the canal network that had been abandoned in the 1950s. The closure of the canals cut the link between the underused northern sections of the Birmingham Canal Navigations and the Coventry Canal to the east and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to the west. The Trust’s founder members saw that restoring those links would revive an important part of South Staffordshire’s heritage, regenerate neglected urban and rural areas and provide a wildlife corridor with benefits for the community through leisure activities like boating, walking and cycling.
May 2019 - Gallows Reach
Work began between Gallows Wharf and Cricket Lane to try to establish where the original towpath wall is and what remains of it and it's condition. Having done this we can then provide a much improved walking route. The original brick towpath wall appears to be intact (so far) but of dubious standard. Again as we found at Fosseway, the towpath wall appears to be constructed with no mortar between the bricks!
It was decided to call the approach to Gallows Wharf from behind the chip-shop on Tamworth Road 'Gallows Reach'.
Also in May, a team of carpentry students volunteers from South Staffordshire College led by their lecturer Roy Carvel, spent two days this week giving the Lichfield Trust narrowboat Rose Willow located on Tamworth Road a well earned face lift in readiness for the Lichfield in Bloom entry in July 2019.
By the middle of June we were ready to plant Rose Willow ready for judging in the 2019 Blooming Lichfield competition. Thank you to everyone who donated plants and to everyone who has promised plants for the narrowboat planter at Fossesway. In the short video here Peter explains this year's planting.
Rose Willow, together with the 'oss and the narrowboat planter at Fosseway helped Lichfield to once again win GOLD in the small city category. Read more.
In September Peter Buck hosted a guided walk which began at Fosseway and ended at Gallows Wharf. This short video is an extract featuring just the Gallows Wharf section. (You can see the whole video here)
November - Finding the towpath
To find more of the towpath, we've tempoarily created a rather large pile of spoil which we'll use elsewhere along the canal route. Sadly, although we found the top of the towpath, the canal wall has long since gone. It was all filled in before the houses were built, so they raised the levels at some point before the houses were built.
Compare old and new maps of this area side by side at the National Library of Scotland.
Eureka! The original towpath at Gallows Wharf has been uncovered.
...creating a large spoil heap. Photos: To Uluru.
The intrepid Queen's Croft students were out in the mist and drizzle, and wading through mud on the morning of the 26th. They sorted hedge and tree cuttings into piles; thin - to be chopped by the flail mower and thick - neatly stacked into habitat piles. They also planted a massive number of daffodil bulbs, along the new bund at Gallows Reach.
We were also joined this month by corporate volunteers including Sea Salt and Veolia UK working on the offside footpath at Gallows Reach. They installed wooden path edging, laid a weed suppressant membrane and spread hardcore and compacted it all. Thanks guys!
Essential tree management
The weekend of Nov 30th - Dec 1st. was a busy one with a dozen visiting volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group Forestry Team carrying out essential Tree management along Gallows Reach. After a great deal of pre-planning work with Lichfield City Council to agree the necessary work to be undertaken, selection and sourcing of the right specialist equipment to carry out the work and then making sure all came together on the day certainly has been a challenge for all concerned.
A crisp frost on Saturday was perfect weather for working the trees along the line of the canal, but some of the equipment clearly did not like working in the cold, but the WRG Foresters are a resourceful bunch and had brought back up chainsaws to ensure the work move forward. The hired in Mobile Elevated Working Platform ”MEWP” or Cherry Picker was put to use to gain safe access to the higher branches of the trees to allow the Foresters to trim some of the trees down to sustainable height, and to remove branches overhanging adjacent properties which might have broken off in storms. The self propelled Woodchipper can process branches up to 150 mm diameter and can be moved to the working area on its own tracks, and then reduce the cut branches to Wood chips which are retained on site.
