River Stour

From Wyfopedia

River Stour running through Kidderminster

The River Stour runs for 25 miles from Clent Hills through Halesowen, Cradley, Lye, Stourbridge in the Black Country then through Kinver, then Cookley, Wolverley, Kidderminster, and Stourport in the Wyre Forest. Its source is a small spring close to St. Kennelms Church, and the mouth of the river runs into the River Severn at Stourport where it is known locally as Breakwater.

[edit] History

Until 1974, the Stour marked the boundary, for a short section north of Stoubridge, of the traditional counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

In the 1660s and 1670s, Andrew Yarranton attempted to make the river Stour itself navigable along much of its course. But these efforts were finally abandoned around 1680, when funds were exhausted. It is doubtful whether it would have been a profitable enterprise, had it succeeded.

At Wilden a short section of the Stour, of about a mile, was successfully made navigable but because of all the bends it is recorded that it was not easy to navigate. There was a lock at Pratt's Wharf (mis-named Platt's Wharf by the Ordnance Survey) connecting the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal with the river. This enabled canal barges to use the River Stour to deliver timber to a steam saw-mill in Wilden. Later it was used to transport coal and iron to the Wilden Works. The wharf was built by Isaac Pratt from Henwick, Worcester in 1835. He is described as a businessman and a merchant. There were two houses at Pratt's Wharf, one occupied by a lock keeper and the other by a clerk. The link was closed c1950.<ref>Stourport-on-Severn Civic Society. Newsletter No 41. June 2005. </ref>

Mills on the river Stour were important in the early industrial development of the area. They included fulling mills for cloth industries of Kinver, Worcester and Kidderminster, and from the 17th century iron forges and slitting mills, which cut bars of iron into rods for the production of nails.

This river was significant for the industrial development of the area because it provided a source of power for the numerous mills erected along it route. Leading up to and during the industrial revolution the river paid a heavy toll in environmental pollution. It was treated as a waste disposal unit for factories in the Black County, and again in Kidderminster where the dyes used to make cloths and carpets were dumped into the river. Even up to the late 1960's there was servere pollution. A local joke in the 1960s was game called 'guess the colour of the river today'<ref name="PeterWilliams">Williams, Peter (1998); 'kidderminster'; soc.genealogy.britain</ref>.

However, since the end of the 1960's much improvement has been made and there have been reports of young salmon in the river. The Weaver's Wharf development opened the river out to public view, the first time this has occurred on this river, and riverside wildlife are said to be thriving.