History of the Daw End Branch Canal
The Daw End (pronounced locally as ‘Doe') Branch Canal runs from Catshill to Longwood on the northern Birmingham Canal Navigations. Almost completely rural it links the Wyrley & Essington to the Rushall Canal, with a small spur towards Hayhead now used as boat-club moorings.
It was opened around the turn of the 19th Century to carry limestone from nearby workings and although built to the contour method, in which the line followed the contours of the land, the effects of subsidence have left some sections in exposed positions above the surrounding sunken landscape.
High quality Silurian limestone was mined from what is now Hayhead Wood Nature Reserve and was slowly burnt in kilns on site before being taken by canal to feed the furnaces of the Black Country. Workings ceased in the 1930s at which time the spur was severed by the construction of Longwood Lane. The area has since been colonised by a wide variety of wildlife but evidence of the workings can still be seen. The nearby Park Lime Pits are also now a reserve.
The Manor Arms was a farmhouse until the Anson family opened their front room as a beerhouse, with John Anson selling beer to boatmen passing along the canal at the rear. The family had been selling beer since at least the late 1860s and he is listed in Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire 1892 as a Farmer and Beer Retailer. The pub has no bar, the beer being served from the rear of the main room. It is reputedly haunted.
