Gloucester Waterways Museum
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2.7 Warehousing
Llanthony Warehouse
Warehousing
was a necessary adjunct to canal transport, particularly in
a port such as Gloucester where ships discharged large cargoes which
needed to be stored temporarily until being carried inland
by many movements of small craft. This warehouse was built for storing
imported grain in sacks prior to it being sent on to the Midlands.
To carry the heavy weight of grain, the warehouse has strong wooden floors
supported by cast-iron columns. Each column carries the name
of local iron founders J M Butt & Co. In the loft were manually
operated winches for lifting the sacks up to the required floor
and for lowering them down again ready for dispatch.
The
grain arriving by ship was carried in bulk and was only put into
sacks during the discharge operation. Around the display are many
examples of sacks that were hired from local firms Gopsill Brown
& Sons and West of England Sack Contractors. A wall panel explains that
when they were returned
after use, they were cleaned and repaired (if needed) before being used
again.
Cargo Containers
The
display includes a wide variety of common containers such as barrels,
drums, crates, tea chests and baskets. A glass carboy protected
by straw was used for corrosive liquids. Milk churns from
local farms were carried by canal to Cadbury's factories at Frampton
and Knighton, where the milk was used in the making of a raw form
of chocolate known as 'crumb'. This was then carried by boat to
Bournville for refining, although some bags were 'accidently' damaged
and the contents distributed to people met along the route.
Handling Aids
The
display includes various aids for use when lifting goods out of
or lowering goods into a vessel's hold. There are specialised
hooks for gripping items such as barrels, bales of cotton and
sacks of wool, together with timber dogs for handling timber in
the round. A popular interactive demonstrates how the effort of
lifting can be reduced by a suitable choice of pulleys.
Also
on show are various aids for moving goods around a warehouse or
between warehouse and boat. These include two-wheeled carts
and a fine collection of sack trucks, many of which came from warehouses
along the Aire & Calder Navigation. A sack full of grain
was too heavy for a man to lift from the ground to form an upper
storage layer, although he could carry it across his back if he could receive
it at the right level. One sack truck on display solves this problem
by incorporating a lift for raising the sack to the required level.
Fire Precautions
The
display includes three fire buckets and a metal rail hanging
from a chain - all from Shipley on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.
A nearby notice says 'In case of a fire,
give alarm by striking rail hard with a hammer repeatedly'.
Office Box
This
partly enclosed desk could be moved to wherever required in the
warehouse for use by a clerk who kept a record of the goods handled.
Weighing Machines
The
display includes half a dozen weighing machines, some working as
a balance with a second platform to take heavy weights and others
having a small weight that can be moved along a graduated lever
to find a balance. The small machines were used at Gloucester to
weigh sacks of grain, and the larger machines were used to weigh bales of wool.
Commodities Carried
A
wall board in the corner shows examples of the huge range of
commodities carried on the canal network. On the floor in the middle
of the display are some cast-iron pigs (the output from a blast furnace) from
South Wales.
For Index to Museum Notes, see www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk/museumnotes