The Boat Gauging House, Tipton Canal Basin (Off Factory Road) Birmingham Canal Birmingham Level

Canal companies charged boats for using the canals, the fees, based on the weight of the cargo, being collected at toll points. In order to assess the weight of cargo, boats were initially calibrated. The "wet" method was done during the building of the boat; the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) used the "dry" method, in which a new or refitted boat was loaded from empty with ton weights, and the resulting freeboard, or "dry inches", as the boat sat lower in the water, was each time noted. Gauging plates were then fixed to the boat.