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It has also to be remembered that Boxfoldia took over part of the Ariel Motor cycle factory, which had been established as Componentsville.

Taw Valley has been temporarily named Elizabeth II on the Severn Valley

An interesting historic reference to the Birmingham & Liverpool Railway which eventually after a change of engineers became the Grand Junction Railway and a different route into Birmingham! There were quite a few failed schemes for railways serving Birmingham, which some are regarded as...

I have yet to see a Go Boat at Brindley Place and wonder how many of the craft exist and where they are kept. There are certain rules for navigating the canals and I also wonder what instructions are given to those that spend £95 for the hour trip. Being electric there is the advantage of an...

I would suspect that the number of trams available would be the reason for starting a commercial service between Bull Street and Wolverhampton. However, we have been told that other trams could not be provided because of the battery section between Grand Central and the Library stops. Yet with...

It is not just a bad show the longer this state of affairs goes on the more extended the traveling public is badly affected. The long journey by bus as the alternative or the crowded local trains to Wolverhampton has been a sad result of the faults found on the trams. With trams and light rail...

The Soho Loop was opened in 1889 and along with it Soho Station on the Soho Road At one end of the Handsworth Wood Station was the tunnel that passed under Hampstead Road I recall seeing the pedestrian ramps from Wellington Road when sitting on the top deck of the 11 bus

The trams are still on test. I saw one recently travel along the unopened section from the Library to Five Ways. This section has overhead wires from by the ICC.

Falls of coal, falls of stone and rubbish, gas and fire and inundation by water were all hazards facing miners in South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire. On the surface they might be drawn over the pulley and fall down the pit shaft. Then there were the run away tubs. Mining was simply a...

The Elizabeth Line was due to open in 2018. The new date of 24th May 2022 is going ahead with work still being done on Ilford and Romford stations. There will be not Sunday services generally; the Queens Jubilee might be an exception. Yet this is quite and achievement with new cathedral like...

Stirchley was also in Shropshire and now near Telford where there were ironworks, coal mines and limestone mines nearby. As stated the girl could have worked underground, but also on the pit bank.

According to the West Midlands Metro site the faulty panels on the trams are to be replaced by the manufacturers with re-fitting taking place at Wednesbury. This lengthy process may be the reason for the delay to reopening

The other view which shows the tunnel has yet to show its extent and a coal store is a likely explanation. Another suggestion has been the transport of water from a a well. However this image appears to have been taken from the hole entrance seen above.

The relocation of services and other work led Metro workers to discover a tunnel whose date and origins are unknown leading to cellars of the Old Crown. Some have suggested a role as a coal chute, others have extended into the roles of fantasy

This is probably the wrong moment to discuss success. The West Midlands Metro story began with failure as Phil Bateman and his team was unable to progress the original scheme through Hodge Hill. Then began the gradual reconstruction of infrastructure along the route to Wolverhampton replacing in...

There was a stop lock on the Dudley Canal at Selly Oak with cottage alongside, but that section was eventually abandoned once the traffic to the brickworks ceased. The part through Lapal Tunnel had ended finally in 1917, but the detached section at the Selly Oak lasted longer. Much of the...

That one was the Birmingham Canal Navigations at the Heart of the British Canal System ISBN 7524 2767 9 The latest BCN book will be launched by author Phil Clayton at the Titford Pump House in May- That new book is the publishers Crowood. I did a book for them on the Trent & Mersey Canal last...

The detachable engine for canal craft was detailed on page 78 and 79 of my book Birmingham Canal Navigations published by Tempus in 2002. This was a scheme proposed by Arthur Hook for the Watercraft Installation Ltd in 1917.

It is said that Birmingham was a city of a thousand trades, but I seem to believe that there were more. The businessmen of the town or the later city grasped invention and pursued new trades aided first through being the centre of a canal network and then a railway network. The diversity of...

Pitt's account of Joseph Heydon is indeed a useful description of how steel was made using Spanish or Swedish iron encased in fireclay and heated by burning coal in a furnace. Perhaps such a method was used by Carless / Careless and the Kettles in Birmingham. There was a decree of secrecy in the...