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Canals of Birmingham

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Rope marks on the older brick or stone-built bridge 'oles are all over the system (and on lock stonework, too). In many places there are cast iron guards to provide a 'bearing surface' to stop the damage, but even these are well grooved.

For photos, try googling the term "canal rope wear" in Google Images.
 
hi curly
nice to hear from you again and many thanks for infoming us of the old rope marks are still vizual when i get the chance in the summer months
i will contact mort to arrnge our walk as we did las year but never got around it i beleive a couple of years ago on his forum i think it may have been lynn
organised a boat trip on the cannal but unfortuneately i missed it for some reason i think it would be nice if it was to ever happen again ; i would certainly be on the top of the list i just love the water way; if i was in a postion to purchase a barge to live on i would most certainly would do
i have a family connection now whom lives on a barge at gas street now and as done so for years he is a single man getting on abit now mind you
but even old charlie the old shire horse the last excisting horse to pull the barges would not chase him off the cut tow pathe
not like he chase me and my mates many times along that cut he was the huge big grey shire horse from out of the stables once he almost trampled me down
when he caught me off my gaurd and he was not tied down just wondeing around the yard as the gate was not locked never for gotten and any time i used to walk along the cutfrom monument rd number eight bus clock in to go to gas street for the walk or what ever dragging i used to pray i hope charlie aint out on his runs towing the good
of the day ; one day i was up at clissold street coal wharf as he was going out of the wharf towing coal to fazely street
on his long leather straps and the guy was siting on the barge out in the middle charlie knew the tow pathes like your back of your hands he did not need any body to guide him but any way on that day i shout to charlie in a deep voice [ charlie ] he went barmy he snorted and nayed in a high pitch and he started to get upset
and bounced up anmd down on his hind legs a couple of time and turned towards me i ran like the clappers and the guy on the barge was shouting to charlie behave
and then he stopped bouncing around and the guy on the boat raised his fist and shouted abuse at me; i ran like the clappers so i got my own back on charlie
best wishes astonian;;
 
Hi Alan - Certainly when walking the Birmingham to Stratford Canal you can see where the ropes have worn grooves in the brickwork even thought the bricks are, at the very least, Semi Engineering bricks. This canal also features many split bridges to drop the rope through making passage a little easier for the Gaffer.

Here is a detail from one of the bridges on the above canal showing the split for the rope and also a rubbing strip to lift the rope from the stonework.

Dicks_Lane_Bridge2.JPG


Acknowledgements to The Inland Waterways Association.
 
good morning bernard
hope you are well; despite this miserable weather we are having as i aint to bad myself today even thou most days i feel like a bag of old rusty nails
still as my old mother often said [ son keep your chin up the better days will come ]
apart from that bernard just gotta say many thanks for your reply and for putting all those glorious pictures up for me but i say that i am sure
we have got other members as well whom will appreciate them like myself
on one of the picts the bridge loks like it had a bit of plastering with cement and those old bricks which i would have imagined that originally
they would have had the original bricks of blue if you recall them like they used to have on the rds and pavements after the war or just before the war
or just after the war when the roads and pavements they was taken up and the roads was tarred
but yes even those old blue bricks had those worn in straps marked some hard the ropes and some used the leather ones
over the years we have had the names of the original carriers of our waterways which i still can see in my mind of their names on them as i have said
i spent virtually most of my days on the cut i could never keep away from it one day a friend of mind came with me and he lived on monument rd
just down from the exit by the monument rd number eight clock in him and his two brothers he brought with him but the one little brother was about six years old
and as we was busy dragging the cut the toddler named stevie ; wandered along the tow pas from us and we must have been twenty yards away getting carried away on what we was pulling out of the cut we both tucked on it and john my friend looked towards is left and spotted little stevie in the water john panicked and shouted stevie so i immediately dashed along and jumped in and fished him out of the cut but do you know Bernard this little chap stevie ; i saved his life twice in is life
the other time was on the old bona line from town to harborne line stuck on the line and the engine was only yards from him i ran down the embankment and dive across the track to rescue him ;he must have had a cat with nine lives my friend john and his two brothers was victor and stevie from kingstanding this was in the mid fifties
i don.t think there is one inch i do not know about the water ways of the canals i would really like to see the old canals open up again for tourist and trade
as we have got more canals than venice as i have said also other people have had it confirmed i have never been to venice but my younger brother as
and he said it smells and its expensive for about forty pounds i think it was he said to get a ride on those gondolas
have a nice day bernard best wishes astonian;; alan;;
 
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Astonian said:
go od morning bernard

i don.t think there is one inch i do not know about the water ways of the cannals i would really like to see the old cannals open up again for tourist and trade as we have got more cannals than venice as i have said also other people have had it confirmed i astonian;; alan;;
Click to expand...

Plenty of leisure hire boat activity on the canal these days but most hire bases are outside the city so far less traffic here than say at Tamworth, Dudley, Fradley or Stratford. There is a goodly number of boats owned by Yanks who holiday here for months at a time. There is some trade, (eg Boats carrying coal & diesel for boaters) but nothing locally on a commercial basis.

My understanding is that BIMINGHAM does not have more miles of canal than Venice, but the BCN (Birmingham Canal Navigation) which includes areas outside the "City of Birmingham" DOES have more miles than Venice.
 
I have spent many happy days painting and sketching the Birmingham canals in the 70's 80's and early 90's mostly but not always around Gas Street Basin, my favourite spot. They were a very popular subject and sold quite well, 3 paintings, funnily enough all Gas Street, are abroad in Texas, Australia and New Zealand, Have attached pic of the one bought by the Texan visitor at the RBSA Gallery in the 80's. EricGas St Basin 1980.JPG
 
Regarding life coming back to our canals when I was a youngster I used to walk from the church at Yardley Wood to the Drawbridge Stores near the Aqueduct with my Mom and sister. The only things we saw on the canal were waterfowl and the odd canoe as the canal was not navigable and was covered with so much weed it looked like a lawn. Nowadays the amount of leisure traffic using it is a joy to see.
 
The last time I read there was going on about 3000 miles of useable canal still available in GB and in their prime about 3500 miles. You can still travel from the Bristol Channel to the North Sea by narrow boat. Makes a good study following the canals from one side to the other on GE...takes time though but still faster than taking the trip at 4 MPH. Some of the trip would be on rivers...Severn and Trent. You will see the make-up reservoirs and narrow boat marinas on the way. The thing is also that you will see things that are only available to be seen by this mode. A canal runs pretty much right through the battle field where Richard 111 tried to flog his kingdom for a horse.
 
I don't know what the sluice does at Stratford these days. (post #508) As you say there used to be a watermill in that location which probably required the construction of the weir dam and the sluice shown (sans modern metal structure) was probably the tailrace from the water mill. If the mill is still extant is unknown. The locks for boats to negotiate the surface elevation are on the far river bank. Maybe the sluice has some control over river levels upstream. Actually, I visited this weir in the early/mid fifties and the scene was not nearly so sanguine. There were huge layers of soap bubbles floating off the weir in the wind and covering the fields to the right of your shots. I think this may have been the result of effluent being discharged into the Avon about a mile above Warwick...maybe from power stations. Took a row boat up to the location from Warwick one time. The fishing died right off.
What a wonderful thing if this problem has been reversed.
You can take narrow boats up from the mouth of the Avon now all the way to Brum and from there many other places. This was the case many years ago but the river passage had been overgrown and silted and a broken lock at Welford resulting in there being no passage in my time. However, the river has been dredged in recent years and is passable once again for narrow boats. I think that I would have preferred the river without passage...as an angler but, then, would not have been able to use it as such with the soap bubbles.
 
I think there is something restful sitting by or walking along a canal and it has to be the most relaxing form of travel. I can understand the popularity of hiring narrow boats for Holiday, my 2 sisters and respective husbands hire one every year, the one snag of course being the locks ! Eric
 
Rupert - there is now a block of flats on the site of that lost mill in Stratford!



Saw some photos of Stratford on Flickr today (not mine - Tony Watson), and it looks like the River Avon has flooded the area a bit!


Stratford Upon Avon by Tony_Watson, on Flickr
 
Astonian -

The canal bridge at Kings Norton Junction (W & B Canal / Stratford-on-Avon Canal).
Took this shot 2 years ago.

 
I sometimes lead guided walks along the canals both in Birmingham and the Black Country. The last one I did was in September last year when I took a party staying in the Hilton Garden Inn in Brindley Place to Gas Street then around the canal to Farmers Bridge. I know I didn't get very far because as someone once said of me , This guy doesn't walk very far because he does too much talking. Just a little way along the Newhall arm there is an overbridge and I point out the score marks that the ropes have made in the stonework and and then when the stone was reinforced with cast iron the ropes have even burned into the metal.
 
Hi David and ellbrown
Firstly David I wish I had known that you organised the canal walks back then I would have had my name at the top of your list believe me
I do not suppose you will do it again will you my friend I would have had to miss that one still not to worry may be another time
Ellbrown cracking picture nice and tranquell astonian,
 
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Astonian said:
Hi David and ellbrown
Firstly David I wish I had known that you organised the canal walks back then I would have had my name at the top of your list believe me
I do not suppose you will do it again will you my friend I would have had to miss that one still not to worry may be another time
Ellbrown cracking picture nice and tranquell astonian,
Click to expand...

Hi Alan, Perhaps in the summer we might combine a get together with a canal walk which I would be happy to lead. Is it Lyn who organises the get togethers?
 
One canal walk I "discovered" for myself a few years ago took me on a circular walk round the North of the city centre and it takes you in to areas that not many people go in to.

You can easily follow the description of the walk below on Google Maps, selecting Map view.

I started it near Aston University, near Dartmouth Middleway and Dartmouth Circus. There is plenty of parking space on a Sunday in the side streets around Aston University.

The canal that runs alongside Aston University is the Digbeth Branch Canal. I entered the canal somewhere near Lister Street (I cant remember the exact spot) and walked South, crossing through Eastside (near the Thinktank museum). This area in Eastside is due to change a lot in the next year or so and it would be interesting to see it now, then in a couple of years when it has all been developed.

The canal continues south, then "bends" towards the city centre. The canal does go straight on here into Typhoo Wharf (but I believe this is blocked off). Typhoo Wharf has also plans for redevelopment so this area may change a lot in the next few years.

https://bigcityplan.birmingham.gov.uk/digbeth/

But just before Typhoo Wharf you turn left and go onto the Grand Union Canal. This goes South East for a short distance, then at Bordesley Junction (near Glover St) you turn left onto the other "leg" of the Grtand Union Canal that goes North (walking under Glover Street).

You continue North up the Grand Union Canal for a fair distance (walking alongside Heartlands Parkway) until you find yourself under Spaghetti Junction (this is called Salford Junction). Here it meets the Birmingham And Fazeley canal.

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal goes off to the North East, but you go on to the section of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal that goes South West, down through Aston.

You continue Southwards down this canal till you get to Dartmouth Circus, but whereas the Birmingham and Fazeley canal goes straight ahead into Birmingham City Centre, you take the left "leg" that goes off South East and you find yourself back on the Digbeth Branch Canal, which is where you started.

Soon you reach the place where you joined the canal and started the walk.

You can do this walk totally on canal footpaths, I know because I have done it.

The description above is an anti clockwise walk, but you can of course do it the other way round, clockwise.

I have to say I have not done this walk for at least 5 years, but I found it a fascinating walk and it gave me a totally different view of Birmingham that you never see by driving around it.

I must admit I feel less safe on some of these deserted canal tow paths than I did a few years ago (particularly with an expensive camera), but if anyone wants to organize this walk I would be happy to join them if there were a group of us.
 
guilbert, that sounds a very interesting walk to a lover of the canals like me. I am 83 but still capable of lengthy walks, what distance would you say it was and how long did it take you? I used to live off the Slade Road and walked many times from Salford circus to around Newhall Street in the 70's and 80's along the canal passing Dartmouth circus and under Lancaster St with St Chads in the background, passing a number of locks as it climbed towards Newhall St, its a different world, hard to believe you are walking through a major city. Sometimes I had an easel on my back and painting gear but mostly, particularly in the later years, just a sketch book and camera. I should imagine the canal side views have changed a lot since my jaunts and perhaps not so paintable but we live in a changing world. Eric
 
I am afraid it is so long since I did the walk I cant remember how long it took.

However I have just done VERY quick calculation on Google maps and I would say it is between 5 and 6 miles (maybe nearer 6).

I do seem to remember that apart from a few locks the walk is fairly flat, so there certainly would not be much going up and down along the walk.
 
Having done a bit more searching round the web it seems this walk is known as the Heartlands Canal ring.

I cant find anyone who actually describes the walk in detail, but I did find a small map which shows the route.

You can download it to your computer and enlarge it slightly, though to be honest it is not that big (for some reason the picture is on the Scottish Waterways web site !)

To download it right click on the actual picture then select "Save Picture As"

https://www.scottishwaterwaystrust.org.uk/ActivityReview/img/content/ih_birmingham_map.jpg

It seems a project to improve the area around the canal has recently been started and you can read a bit about here

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/get-...ity-art-project-in-the-heartlands-linear-park
 
DavidGrain said:
Hi Alan, Perhaps in the summer we might combine a get together with a canal walk which I would be happy to lead. Is it Lyn who organises the get togethers?
Click to expand...

Oooh, what a great idea David. Yes, it's Lyn who organises the get-togethers, but just start a thread for the canal walk and see how many will join you.
 
I don't know, 6 miles is a fair distance for most to walk. Maybe I am just thinking of myself. Still take a lunch and saunter and it should make an interesting day. A way around any tunnels might be useful. Wish I could come but can only manage a mile and a half on the treadmill these days and it would be a long flight there and back. Great idea though. Getting on at Lister St. would be where the Delta Metal plant used to be. I make it about 4.5 to 4.75 miles which is a bit better. What a great few miles. The Rae and the Canal will be close together along side for a goodly stretch. You will be walking past the Viaduct to nowhere that we have talked about so much and the Montague St. view across to the Heathmill with the Gun Barrel Proof house still there. Heck, you will be walking right through where the old Mill was. Down and under Saltley Viaduct and looking across to where the Metropolitan Camel is not anymore. What a great idea. Maybe they have boat trips that do this.
Gosh....travel trips including this kind of thing and visits to Stratford for a play and maybe a saunter through Richard 111s battlefield would make for a great holiday. With booklets to explain the proceedings and who better to make these up than forum members.
 
Hi

Had a run to the Boot at Lapworth. Managed a few pics.Surprised how good the
Tow Paths were. A pleasant sunny afternoon on the Stratford Canal


Mike Jenks
 

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You can do a nice loop Mike by taking in both the Grand Union and the Stratford.

However, unless fit, I do not recommend the walk we did from Hockley Heath along the 'Birmingham and Stratford' transferring to the 'Grand Union' via Dicks Lane (The Tom O'The Wood) and then up to Knowle and back to HH by bus.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
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The canal between Aston University, the Science Park (back of my work) and Curzon Street is the Digbeth Branch Canal.

Cardigan Street and Belmont Row are currently being dug up (including AB Row).

These pics from a few years ago.

Belmont Row



Ashted Circus - Jennens Road


Curzon Street


Belmont Row Basin


Lister Street
 
Having canal history on one side of the family has always given an interest in canals, particularly the industrial ones of the Midlands and the north.

I had an aunt who lived near Trentham, Staffordshire which is on the Trent & Mersey canal. The Wedgewood pottery is in the area as well. My aunt always went for walks along the towpath: she said it was usually easy walking as it was flat most of the time, except for where locks arise. This love of rivers and canals still exists although I rarely get to see a cut these days. But Devon has rivers, especially the Dart which is close by. Although I live close to the sea I much prefer rivers. I guess it stems from the hours I spent cycling along the towpath of the Northern section of the Stratford Canal - this was in the late 1940's and early 1950's before restoration.
 
There is a canal ending/starting at Tiverton Devon. Dredged and working....with boat tours I think. Half way up Canal Hill.
 
Its is situated in a lovely part of Devon - well most of Devon is lovely, as is most of Britain, except where man has ruined it.
It is a section of what was to be a much longer system which never came to fruition. It is totally tourist is appeal.
It is some 50 miles from my part of Devon, however Devon is a large County. Easily accessed from the M5.
https://www.tivertoncanal.co.uk/
 
Guilbert. I think you are right at about 6 miles. This is a known walk as you say. Back in the days when all the canals in Birmingham were sealed off, I know that those who had done the walk from Gas Street had reckoned it at 8 miles from there. Now that you can leave the canal at any point and get a bus it is easier but in the old days you had to know the point of no return so as to know whether it was quicker to go on or go back.

Alan Radiorails, Yes I am afraid that buses from Birmingham to Canada are not very good.
 
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