Think it was probably 1959 when I remember when the canal was empty at Tower Hill. The Lock by the Cottage was covered in dead fish, Roach I think, which we had spent a couple of years trying to catch but all we ended up with was gudgeon and stone loach.As children in the Perry Beeches area, the canal was our playground ... we used to call it the 'cut'.
In the 1960s at the Hamstead GKN factory we had long lunch hours and during one cold winter on several days we went along the towpath from the Walsall Rd bridge and skated on the Basin marked on the map below.
So I was still playing on the canal in my twenties !
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I notice that the are only two indentations per side and they match the stone work on the canal side of the bridge, but I can't think why.View attachment 110714 This is a very surprising (and lovely) view of the Tame Valley Canal as it passes under the Walsall Road. I have a question. Why are there passing points (?) on the bridge ie those indents along its wall? I was always under the impression that these were to allow pedestrians to safely pass each other and to avoid stepping out into the traffic. I think it's perhaps normally where the road and pavements are narrow. But the bridge wall on both sides of the Walsall Road are very far apart. Viv.
Tower Hill also supplied stone for the canal contractors
This photo shows exactly where we used to fish, when it rained we moved under the bridge.I notice that the are only two indentations per side and they match the stone work on the canal side of the bridge, but I can't think why.
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I would agree that the recesses appear to be decorative design features. The Tame Valley Canal bridge on the Aldridge Road, about a quarter of a mile north of the 'zig-zag' River Tame bridge, never had recesses even when the road was relatively narrow up to the end of the 1950s. What would be interesting to see is an early photo of the A34 Walsall Road bridge but I cannot find one.Always thought of these as "pack horse bridges" and imagined that the recesses enabled horses with panniers to pass each other in much the same way as passing places on narrow roads allow cars to pass. I always thought that the recesses on the bridge in Walsall Rd were design features, so mainly decorative.
Used to walk over Tower Hill bridge on my way to and from Beeches road School, seem to remember there being bollards to prevent vehicle access.There has been discussion about the bridge at Tower Hill. Notice issued October 1943 refers to it being known as Freeth Bridge.
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