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THIS booklet is printed for
private circulation in memory of Louis Barrow, who during the later of
his life lived at Well Furlong, Little Comberton near Pershore. He was
an engineer by years profession, a Member of the Institute of Mechanical
Engineers, and for the greater part of his business life acted as Chief
Engineer to Cadbury Brothers of Bournville and to J. S. Fry and Sons of
Bristol.
In addition to his business activities, he had many and varied personal interests, mostly of a scientific nature.
He was a clever and enthusiastic colour photographer and brought an artist's eye to the selection of his subjects, in search of which he travelled much, both in England and abroad. In 1931 he was admitted as an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, and he delighted many audiences with screen projections of his slides, but his greatest interest (apart from his profession) was in geology, and he was a Fellow of the Geological Society.
He gained special knowledge of the geological formations in the Avon Valley by observation and by borings. This enabled him to give valuable practical advice on water supply problems to villages in the neighbourhood, and for a number of years he was a member of the Pershore Rural District Council and vice-chairman of the Water Committee. For nearly fifty years Louis Barrow and his brothers and sister have been owners and occupiers of Cropthorne Mill, which stands on the lock island of the left bank of the Avon at one end of Fladbury weir, at the other end of which is Fladbury Mill. Both mills are of considerable antiquity, Fladbury Mill being mentioned in the so-called "Domesday Survey."
The river Avon was one of the first of the English inland waterways to be made navigable by a system of locks. Louis Barrow took great interest in this early engineering scheme, which had been carried out by a Fladbury man, William Sandys, between 1635 and 1640, and made detailed drawings of the construction of the mills and discovered, while making the plans of Fladbury Mill, the remains of a pre-navigation mill building.
Shortly before his death in April 1948 he had gathered together some personal notes about the mills and the navigation, and it had been his hope that these, illustrated by his drawings, might eventually be published. Miss Shirley Bridges has skilfully carried out his intention and has, through her own researches, collected new and interesting material, particularly about the early history of the Lower Avon Navigation.
The use of the river is now almost entirely confined to pleasure craft and most of the locks are unusable and in decay. In the near future many of these may have to be "stanked off," but it is essential that dams should be maintained, otherwise the Worcestershire Avon, flowing as it does through some of the most beautiful country in the Midlands, will become unusable even by pleasure boats and the "pounds" between the weirs will become but little more than muddy ditches. It is to be hoped that the Severn Catchment Board, which has already done so much good work in clearing and maintaining the course of the river, may obtain power to carry out, with the Navigation, the necessary work to weirs, sluices and locks. Only in this way can the use and beauty of the river be kept alive and preserved for future generations.
WALTER BARROW
RICHARD BARROW
28 Westfield Road
Edgbaston
Birmingham
July 1949
