A-Z of BCN

A-Z of the Birmingham Canal Navigations

Z is for Zinc

Zinc is a metal which has several important uses. It forms an important constituent of the various brass alloys, for which the
town of Birmingham gained a world-wide reputation. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, where the proportion of copper
and zinc was varied to produce brass for specific purposes. Copper was present in the largest amount and often comprised
up to two-thirds of the alloy. The Zinc content rose to a third, but other metals such as tin and lead might also be present in
small amounts.

The marriage of copper and zinc to make brass was initially achieved through the heating of copper and a zinc ore known as
calamine. It was a process that used up large quantities of coal that was required to heat the melting pots. Birmingham’s
brass working industry preceded the making of brass in the area, but the price of brass purchased from existing brass making
districts, such as Bristol, or Cheadle in Staffordshire, fluctuated at the whim of the brass manufacturers. Birmingham
businessmen believed that they could make cheaper brass themselves.

The Birmingham Metal Company, established in 1780, was a syndicate of local businessmen whose aim was to buy brass and
pass on the corporate benefits of group buying to their members. They decided to make brass in Birmingham and purchased
land for a brassworks. The site chosen was located alongside the turnpike road, then known as Islington and formed a triangular
plot of land that was bordered on one side by the line of the Birmingham Canal. Land levels varied at this point. The canal, at
this point, was constructed through the hillside in what was called the Deep Cutting. It passed under the Turnpike Road and
then curved round to reach the Old Wharf that faced Paradise Street. The Brassworks offices faced Islington (later Broad
Street), whilst the works were located, to the rear, on land that dipped down to the level of the canal, where a wharf was
made.

Neither calamine nor copper was available locally. Calamine was brought from Derbyshire, whilst an important supply of
copper metal was the Swansea district of South Wales, where there were a number of different copper works. Birmingham
brass founders and brass workers were associated with two copper works, Birmingham and Rose, located north of Swansea
beside the River Tawe. Copper (in tile, strip or ingot form) was transported by coastal vessels, then Severn River trows (or
barges), and finally canal boats to reach Birmingham. Brassworkers and brass founders who held shares in either the Rose

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Copper Company or the Birmingham Mining and Copper had a small allotment of copper, and paid a specific rate for the
different types copper. Other Swansea based copper companies also had offices in Birmingham, such was the demand for
copper. Ingot brass might also be supplied.

The Birmingham Brassworks was one of four located in the West Midlands. Of the other three brassworks, two were located
beside the Birmingham Canal at Smethwick and Spon Lane, whilst the third was placed alongside the Trent & Mersey Canal
at Stone. Canals were integral to the transport of coal, copper and calamine.

A sales advert for Smethwick Brassworks, published in March 1789, described this works as equipped with apparatus and
utensils of every kind used in the making of ingot brass and trading under the name of Thomas Salt and the Old Birmingham
Brass Company. The brassworks were then capable of making about 200 tons of brass a year. A horse mill was used to grind
the calamine that went into the pots. A plot of land was leased near Matlock, Derbyshire where calamine was brought for
dressing, and the brass ingots were taken in Birmingham to a warehouse in Edmund Street.

Smethwick Brassworks were erected beside the Smethwick Locks when the flight comprised six separate locks. Wharf space
was available between the fourth and fifth lock on the flight. The top three locks were removed between 1789 and 1790
when the Summit was lowered to the 473 ft (o.d.) level. The canal changes led to the Brasshouse wharf being altered to give
access to the lower level.

Edward Paget-Tomlinson’s last drawing depicts the Brasshouse in Birmingham and is a fine interpretation of the engraving
published in Bisset’s directory. It shows the towpath and wharf, three brass cones, brassworks and offices. The canal towpath
was opposite the Brassworks. The second towpath that runs alongside the Brassworks was added about the time of Telford’s
improvements to the BCN. The exact date when this section of towpath was made remains to be established.

The calamine method fell out of favour as metallic Zinc became more readily available. All West Midlands brassworks closed
during the 1830s when spelter (zinc metal) came to be brought into the region by boat. The Birmingham Brassworks was
advertised for sale in June 1830, when the premises comprised committee rooms, offices, workmen’s houses, packing, stores
and metal rooms, with six melting houses, capable of making ten tons of brass per week.

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Thomas Pemberton became proprietor of the Birmingham Brasshouse in 1831. The buildings were principally used as a metal
warehouse although some brass continued to be made there until about 1850. The brass appears to have been made through
the improved method of mixing spelter and copper. Rate books for this later period show that Pemberton owned an extensive
property, which included warehouses, shops, a steam engine and machinery.

Although the old Brassworks buildings were pulled down a long time ago, the offices and committee rooms have survived
and still front Broad Street. They are now like many Broad Street premises converted for the leisure trade and are licensed
for the sale of alcohol, but the Georgian frontage is excellently preserved.

Smethwick Brassworks were advertised again for sale in 1834. The works then comprised three smelting houses with furnaces,
a horse mill, pothouse, stabling, warehouse, counting house and a dwelling house. Brass making at Smethwick ceased about
this time and the premises converted into other uses. William Beasley and William Farmer made gun barrels there and by
1867 the premises had become the property of the District Iron & Steel Company.

Brass founders started to mix spelter and copper to form the brass, and produce castings needed for different purposes.
Another basic use of brass metal was as strip, which was rolled from ingot brass by rolled metal manufacturers. Brass strip
went from the rolling mill to the pressworker or die stamper to be made into a final product. A third use was brass wire, which
was made by drawing ingots through dies until a specified diameter was achieved. Birmingham, noted for its diversity in
trades, utilised all these skills to best advantage. Emerging industries included bedsteads, cabinet brass foundry, gas fittings,
nail, pin and screw makers.

Transport of both copper and spelter was through the offices of the merchandise canal carrier and also the railway companies,
once the rail network was established during the 1850s. Canal side warehouses and wharves provided an important link in
the supply chain and certain carriers’ depots were the focus of the spelter and copper trade.

Another use of zinc was as a protective coating for iron and steel. The process, known as galvanising, was developed during
the 1840s and led to the establishment of a number of galvanising plants in Birmingham and the Black Country. Many were
canal based and received spelter, iron and coal by boat. The process of galvanising consisted of:

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Cleaning the surface of the article, with acid
Coating the surface with a flux
Finally immersing the article in a bath of molten zinc.

Galvanising works required coal to heat the zinc dipping baths and acid from local chemical works to clean and pickle the
iron. Manufacturers, however, found that gas fired baths proved more suitable for their trade.

Canal carriage of spelter continued well into the twentieth century. Traffic returns as late as 1928 reveal Ash & Lacy Ltd, Globe
Galvanising Works, Great Bridge and Stewarts and Lloyds, Coombeswood Tubeworks, received spelter from London in Fellows,
Morton & Clayton Boats. Bantocks also carried spelter from Hawne Basin railway interchange basin to Coombeswood.

Fellows Morton & Clayton, and their successors British Waterways, continued to carry copper and spelter by canal into the
Birmingham wharves. Robert Wilson refers to the British Waterways spelter trade in his book ‘Too Many Boats’. Back loads
from London included copper cathodes and billets, spelter, aluminium ingots and steel. It was a traffic that declined, and
finally ceased, after 1960.

There is still a requirement for zinc in the making of brass strip, wire and ingots as well as in the galvanising trade. Birmingham
still has its share of rolled metal manufacturers, brass founders and galvanisers, and still receives supplies of copper and zinc
metal as new cast ingots or recycled scrap. The only difference is that nothing is brought by canal, or rail. Road transport is
now the means of transporting both raw ingredients and final products.

Stewarts & Lloyds tug no: 4, based at Coombeswood Tube Works

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1970 photo taken from Broad Street bridge. The Brassworks was on the left. Old Turn Junction bridge is in the distance;
beyond it is now the Barclaycard Arena. The whole area has been extensively redeveloped, and is now known as
Brindleyplace. Bob May

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INDEX

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