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Canals of Birmingham

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
  • Start date Start date
Also interesting is the Memorial to DC Michael Swindells who fell there on the 21 May 2004, 20 years ago tomorrow.
RIP
 
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bestcover said:
Hi I have a Charlotte Knight who married a Thomas Worley but there was a Nimrod Worley who was a witness at my Gt Gt Grandad Knights marriage in 1898 - have not worked out yet who he was
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Hello, they're in my husbands tree! Nimrod was the brother of Thomas. Sorry I didn't reply before, I've only just seen your reply. I have more info if you want.
 
I have a question about the tunnels on the canals at Galton Bridge.
Actually, further research has answered my question before I asked it. So for information:
I wanted to know the name of the tunnels as they are not listed on Wikipedia's List of Canal Tunnels. I have found that they are named Galton Tunnels.
My supplementary question when were they built? as I remember the building but could not remember when. I have now found out that it was 1974.
These tunnels are unusual as they are not original to the canals. Both the Old Main Line and the New Main Line Canals were bridged over and then an embankment was built over them on which a new road, Telford Way A4252, was laid down on the top of the Embankment. Thomas Telford's Galton Bridge, which in its day was the longest single-arch bridge in the world, is now a footbridge.
Not many people realise that Galton Valley is not natural. It was dug out by hand with picks and shovels by navvies around 1829 and again at the time was the largest man-made earthwork in the world.
 
I have a recollection hat the Galton Tunnel was built following a significant landslide that completely blocked the Main Line canal. So it may have been a kill two birds with one stone scenario
 
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Not a very good picture from the Birmingham Post of June 1974.

“Two vessels emerging from the Galton canal tunnel, the first to be bullt for more than 100 years on the waterway system in Britain. The tunnel is now in use on the Birmingham Canal Navigation at Warley. It is part of an improvement scheme being carried out by Higgs and HIll Civil Engineering for the West Midland Metropolltan County Council.”


IMG_1682.jpeg
 
Galton Valley

The canal cut through up to 1829 was for the Birmingham Canal Main Line to the plans of Thomas Telford to lower the canal onto the new route at the 453 ft ordnance datum
Previously canal company engineers Samuel Bull and James Bull had directed the lowering of the original summit of 491ft to 473 ft od. 1788-1791
 
DavidGrain said:
I have a question about the tunnels on the canals at Galton Bridge.
Actually, further research has answered my question before I asked it. So for information:
I wanted to know the name of the tunnels as they are not listed on Wikipedia's List of Canal Tunnels. I have found that they are named Galton Tunnels.
My supplementary question when were they built? as I remember the building but could not remember when. I have now found out that it was 1974.
These tunnels are unusual as they are not original to the canals. Both the Old Main Line and the New Main Line Canals were bridged over and then an embankment was built over them on which a new road, Telford Way A4252, was laid down on the top of the Embankment. Thomas Telford's Galton Bridge, which in its day was the longest single-arch bridge in the world, is now a footbridge.
Not many people realise that Galton Valley is not natural. It was dug out by hand with picks and shovels by navvies around 1829 and again at the time was the largest man-made earthwork in the world.
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Another question could be as to when the region became known as Galton Valley. Can’t find references before 1978.
 
Pedrocut said:
Another question could be as to when the region became known as Galton Valley. Can’t find references before 1978.
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That sounds about right. Sandwell MBC was created on 1 April 1974. Galton Bridge dates from 1829 and I think the valley was constructed artificially. But no-one called it Galton Valley until the 1970s. I confess that I have little sense of Sandwell as a physical place - unlike say Smethwick, Warley, Dudley, Tipton etc. Be interesting to see when Galton Valley appears on maps. https://blackcountrygeopark.dudley.gov.uk/sites-to-see/galton-valley/
Derek
 
O.C. said:
Not much on the forum about the canals which played a big part in out lives
Any Questions you have on the canals of Birmingham we will try to answer
Here is a photo of a canal boatman touching up the paintwork on his barge in 1947
Bottom pic shows the old barge horse earning his living by pulling the barges along the cut (Canal) at a leisurely pace
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cant see pic, I am new you see shud I press summet to show?
 
Stokkie said:
I'm afraid that lots of photos on older threads are missing. I gather the site was hacked some time ago. There's nothing you can do, unless you have a photo either digitally or physically.
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The hacking was unfortunate but there is lots on canals, might have to look around. Maybe one of the great moderators could suggest an approach.
 
Those images were hosted on Photobucket, an imaging and video hosting website similar to Flicker and Postimage.

Like Flicker, Photobucket was a free service until 2017 when It pulled a fast one on its members and started requiring a US$99 annual subscription to allow external linking to all hosted images, or a US$399 annual subscription to allow the embedding of images on third-party websites, such as personal blogs and forums. It placed an enormous watermark across images that made them useless.

It gave very little notice to its members, so a lot deleted their accounts, hence the unviewable images.

The move cost Photobucket quite dearly in terms of PR, reputation and revenue. It now less than a tenth of its original size.
 
Morturn said:
Those images were hosted on Photobucket, an imaging and video hosting website similar to Flicker and Postimage.

Like Flicker, Photobucket was a free service until 2017 when It pulled a fast one on its members and started requiring a US$99 annual subscription to allow external linking to all hosted images, or a US$399 annual subscription to allow the embedding of images on third-party websites, such as personal blogs and forums. It placed an enormous watermark across images that made them useless.

It gave very little notice to its members, so a lot deleted their accounts, hence the unviewable images.

The move cost Photobucket quite dearly in terms of PR, reputation and revenue. It now less than a tenth of its original size.
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Greed............It seems like everything is going that way!
 
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