River and Canal

 

The town probably owes its very existence to the river and the availability of water is an essential element in all aspects of the textile trade. Bizarrely in the early 19th century pollution of the river by industrial processes further upstream had been seen as beneficial to the dyeing aspects of the carpet manufacture. By the second half of that century though the river served as little more than an open sewer for both domestic and industrial purposes (as indeed did rivers throughout the land) and its condition brought about first attempts at proper sewage and water treatment.

 

The Stour itself is a somewhat uncertain river rising ten miles east of Kidderminster slowing north west for a while then turning south to pass through Kidderminster and meet the Severn at Stourport.

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The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is one arm of James Brindley’s Great Cross which provided inland waterway connections between England’s great seas ports London, Hull, Liverpool and Bristol. Opening in 1771 it was a significant part of Kidderminster development subsequent development and was still a working commercial entity well into the second half of the twentieth century. The canal follows the line of the river very closely through the town and onward to Stourport.