Re: Canals of Brum
A couple of years ago when I was in Birmingham for a few weeks my brother and I had
a great time visiting some local canals in Birmingham and surrounding areas. It all got started when we went in search of the stately home Coughton Court for a tour of the house and grounds. We chose the wrong day for opening and so drove around the area having a good nose around. We ended up in Stratford on Avon and found one of the long boat tie up places and spent a couple of hours talking to the people who owned the boats.
It was a fascinating day altogether. There were boats tied up two abreast. A lady who was painting a lot of items in the old fashioned "canal" craft designs. Buckets, watering cans, various wooden items for use on the boats. We spoke to a man and his wife who had rented out their house, bought a bare bones boat and had spent a fortune on it. It had every mod con imagineable. They were canal gypsies in the true sense of the word.
The man had given up his well paid Managing Director's job to sail the canals. In the winter they would choose a spot to tie up in on the system of their choice and his wife would work temporary as a Secretary to keep her hand in and her husband would work on the boat. They had no regrets and had been living this way for five years. They were in their early 50's.
This place were they were tied up had it's own park, barbecue area and small Canal shop. I went in to the shop which was very tiny but sold all the major items to get you through the locks if you had a problem plus grocery necessitiesif you needed them. I bought some unusal post cards and had a chat with the chap who ran the shop. There were fishing platforms in this area, hot showers were available. It was a side of life I hadn't thought
much about for years and to see inside a boat was very interesting.
I remember the towpath at Salford Bridge as a child and watched as the large horses pulling along the barges and and disappearing down the towpath in the direction of Fort Dunlop. A sight a child's eye would be drawn to and missed when everything was changed in that area.
I had gone to some pubs over the years situated near the canals and I have known people who have told me that even in this day and age by going on a long boat on most
Canals in England you can see the "real" England even to this day. Virtually unchanged. The photos you put on Cromwell of the canal at the bottom of your son's garden are so lovely.
After this day out my brother and I visited the Hatton flight of locks, 21 in all and saw the Study Centres built there and strolled along. There was no one there except ourselves as it was late in the afternoon. It was so natural and all you hear at the top end of the flight was the sound of bird songs and birds taking off. It really was magical. A hidden world of beauty in a way. We visited the canal at Perry Barr off Aldridge Road and there
were workmen there bringing out all kinds of rubbish that had been dumped into the canal. The foreman told us it was a constant problem keeping the canal debris free and that it cost the City of Birmingham a lot of money for his services.
Towards the end of my holiday I found a book in a Sutton thrift shop called the "Towpaths of England" by Brian Bearshaw with illustrations by David Chesworth written in l985. The author had walked 1,000 miles of English canal waterways and describes his walks along the towpaths in several canal systems. He remarks on the beautiful Cathedral cities along the canals, Gloucester, Worcester and Ripon. The book is special because it contained a letter found loose between the pages dated 2000 from a grandson to his grandfather to whom he had given the book as a present. I had to dig this out and will now read much more of it spurred on by this great thread.
