Waterways & Waterpower

Most local residents think of Sarehole and then perhaps Trittiford when asked about local watermills and would be most surprised to hear that within one mile of the Bull's Head there are no fewer than six watermill sites - so completely have four of the buildings vanished from the scene and from local legend!

More of the mills later, but what of the watercourses which powered them ? The River Cole everyone knows, for it emphatically borders B28 and the Association area : but most people would have to think hard before locating any other streams. Yet there are valleys dipping away on both sides of the plateau top across which Stratford Road winds its way, and two of the streams which made them have turned waterwheels in the past. It is hard to accept that such trickles could provide power, even granting that they were once somewhat larger, but the size of the watercourse was less important than the size of the dam which held it back : think of the great pools that quickly form in leaf-dammed gutters !

From the south of our area the direct tributaries of the Cole are Shirley Brook, one mile long, rises near the 'bus terminus on Sandy Hill : it is culverted beneath the North Warwickshire Railway embankment, and joins the Cole a furlong south of Slade Lane. As its name suggests, this brook formerly marked the shire bound, and today it separates Birmingham and Solihull.

'Primrose Brook' (no surviving name) rises near Primrose Lane, and enters the Cole after a half-mile descent, opposite Trittiford Pool.

'Robin Hood Brook', length half a mile, rises near Highfield Road and joins the river below the old ford opposite Sarehole Farm. It is hardly to be seen above ground, but its bed is indicated by the dips in Sherwood and Petersfield Roads.

Hall Green or Tyseley Brook rises near the Church of the Ascension and flows 1.5 miles north of the Cole, opposite the confluence with Spark Brook at Greet. It has now been culverted and converted into the Hall Green Valley Sewer. Streams on the east side of our area are also tributaries of the Cole, but they join it far away beyond Birmingham's eastern border. Broomhall Brook flows from its source off Glaisdale Road through Fox Hollies Park, where another stream meets it. Westley Brook, trickling out of a bog now called Greenwood Avenue, was diverted in the mid-1790's to feed the Warwick Canal at Acocks Green.

To call these rills 'waterways' is incorrect, since the only vessels able to float on them are toy boats. But the Cole is sometimes navigable by raft, rubber dinghy, and canoe, and it could have been used by punt-like boats in earlier times. There is no direct evidence that it was so used, but the known impassability of the local roads would have made any alternative acceptable. The river has a shallow gradient and a tendency to quick flooding, but due to the shortness and relative scarcity of upper tributaries the floods soon subside. Because of the riverside bogs, which were not properly drained until the C 19th, there were few buildings close to the bank - except for the watermills.

First of these in record hereabouts was Greet Mill. Presumably this began as the mill belonging to Greet Manor : the site was where now the Stratford Road bridge crosses the Cole. This is some distance upstream from Greet Hall and its hamlet (near the modern Greet Inn on Warwick Road), and it may seem odd that a nearer site was not chosen. In fact the Stratford Road ford was closer to the communal fields which lay over Spark Hill, and there was a break of slope just above it which could be weired to make a good fall. Owners of the mill included the Holtes of Aston, the Greswolds of Shaftmoor, the Grevises of Moseley Hall, and the Taylors of Bordesley Hall, lords of Yardley.

Greet Mill was rebuilt in 1775, being then advertised as 'a corn mill having a regular and constant supply of water'. This and other mill works along the Cole at this time were planned to grind corn for Birmingham, whose waterpower was fully employed on industrial tasks. Despite the claim made for Greet Mill, based on the ponding of the Cole into a 4-acre lake, it almost certainly suffered from lack of water : there were four other mills upstream which diverted the flow into their own pools. So Greet was out of use by 1847, demolished two decades later, and forgotten (though the name Greet Mill Hill long survived) until the river works in 1913 disclosed the ruins. The present channel was cut through these, the rubble going to fill the old watercourses on each side.

Next in record was Sarehole Mill, which was newly-built in 1542, but there was already a pool on the site and this may have been a replacement. Long known as Biddles' Mill, it received water from a .pool fed by the Coldbath Brook only, until in 1768 a long leat was cut from The Dingle to provide Cole supplies. Three years later a rebuilt mill was being advertised to let, with a large breast-shot wheel for corn grinding and an overshot wheel for metal grinding and boring. This is the building we admire today, but then lacking barn, engine-house and chimney.

In the mid C 19th the forge at the south end was made into a cottage, the barn was added, and a steam-engine installed to give extra power. Soon thereafter, however, Sarehole gave up the attempt to compete with town factories and reverted to grist-milling solely. When George Andrew died, ending a family tenancy of 101 years in 1959, the building's future was in jeopardy, and its re-opening as a branch museum years later was a triumph for many individuals and organisations.

On the edge of our district we are fortunate to have, not only the last of fifty watermills once working within the bounds of modern Birmingham, but also the city's finest millpool. here too there was a likelihood of loss, but Trittiford Pool is now splendidly restored after nearly two centuries' accumulation of silt has been dredged from its bed.

Titterford Mill (whose name has many variants) was new in 1783, having 'two water-wheels, four pairs of stones, and garners for 2000 bags of wheat'. There is no evidence of the site's earlier use for a mill. A leat from Chinn Brook fed a small pond whose main supply was by leat from the 7.5 acre Cole-fed pool. This great and costly undertaking provided only six horse-power at the wheels. When Sarehole reverted to corn its machinery went to Titterford, and steel-rolling for pen-nibs continued there with the aid of a 20 hp steam engine until fire destroyed the mill in the 20's. The house and farm buildings alongside survived for a few years, but by 1930 only rubble and the pond-side horse-chestnut trees remained.

Where were the other three mills ?

Old Mill was on Shirley Brook, and although it went out of use 250 years ago the hollow of its pool may still be seen between the back gardens of Watwood, Geoffrey, and Dunard Roads.

The buildings of Colebrook Priory Mill were demolished a decade ago. In 1609 this was Bates' Mill. Shirley roller mill replaced it in the 20's, and the breast-wheel was removed. The Cole leat and small pond have been infilled, but Bampton's Pool which was the main supply of water still graces Priory Road on the Birmingham/Solihull border.

Lastly, Broomhall Mill, of unknown but probably medieval date, was the property of ancient Broom Hall nearby. The site of this small corn mill, shown on maps until 1880, was at the dammed junction of two streams in what is now Fox Hollies Park.

The articles' title appears to preclude reference to windmills, but it is appropriate to consider after water the only other source of mechanical power before the Steam Age - and in fact there was often a close relation between the two types of installation. The post-mill on Swanshurst Common was built near Lady Mill (on Coldbath Brook upstream from Sarehole) to grind corn when the watermill went over to wire-drawing : and the C 17th brick tower mill which overlooked Bampton's Pool until 1958 may have supplemented or taken over completely for a time the corn-grinding role of Bates Mill below. Although the high plateau of Hall Green would seem to be well-suited for windmills, there is no record of any documents, field-names, or maps.