DavidGrain
master brummie
I recently went to a talk about the Regents Canal. Apparently the worst place for graffiti is under the HQ of British Transport Police. The BTP do not have jurisdiction on the canals.
-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
Thanks Mike, I think your right. I know that there was an old school building somewhere in the vicinity, but cannot remember its precise location
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Ellbrown, we were in Regent's Park. On that little arm of the canal (at least I think it's am arm). Your heron looks a lot less forbidding than ours did, sitting immobile in the branches and on the banks, all with hunched shoulders and steely glares. They're odd looking birds on a good day.
ellbrown
ell brown on Flickr
About 6 and a half years ago, heading towards London Zoo I saw this part of the Regents Canal. But don't remember seeing any birds on the canal (not counting what I later saw in the zoo itself).
On the map here Regents Canal - London Zoo
On the map here Regents Canal - London Zoo
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
We had come up the Grand Union and then taken the canal with 5/6 locks that joins the GU to the Birmingham and Fazeley. It was late, the locks were hard, stiff, all the paddles needed attention, we went through the stop lock at the junction, the bow hit the wall on your photo, the stern hit the canal bank on the port side (left hand) and we were jammed, it took 20 minutes to forward and revers, use the boat hook and pole and feet to get it free, by the time we were starting to head to Fazeley all thoughts of a good pub meal were put away, we tied up by the main road bridge by Jaguar, found the KFC........and then slept like logs. Even the early morning shift who used the canal towpath did not wake us. We had a maximum length boat, the advice we got from experienced hands afterwards was helpful but too late.
Bob
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
I feel I know it but can you put my son in law and myself with a location please
Bob
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Thank you it looked like the scene of our unfortunate experience, but that of course was further down
Bob
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
It looks like the photo of a canal burst seen in another forum post ... click link below
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...everyone-wore-a-hat.41994/page-12#post-560786
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...everyone-wore-a-hat.41994/page-12#post-560786
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
I was added in the Herald that no one had been injured. But one man had a narrow escape in his house in Newhall Street, where the police forced their way into his room on the ground floor; he was sleeping peacefully as his bed was floating in the room.
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
I have a little difficulty with the description given in the Sphere, someone please put me right!
"The water poured down Lionel Street, and a great volume swept along Newhall Street..."
Now at the point that Lionel Street intersects with Newhall Street is a high point
DavidGrain
master brummie
Perhaps you have to think of Newhall Street and Lionel Street as two separate areas that got flooded. We know that damage was done in Fleet Street which is the road alongside the canal. The canal decends through the Farmer's Bridge Locks so if the breach was by Fleet Street the falling gradient would take water into Lionel Street below the junction with Newhall Street. This area is in a valley between the city centre and the Jewellery Quarter.
Last edited:
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Two more photos of the Canal Burst and the third photo linked from the other thread mentioned in post#794. Looking at the maps, if the burst was at the wharf end, it would be near Newhall St. The titles with the source of these photos says Great Charles St.
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3 linked from the other thread (only visible if logged in).
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3 linked from the other thread (only visible if logged in).
Last edited:
Seems miraculous there were no casualties. Expect the man sleeping in his floatng bed got a nasty surprise! Viv.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
I just had a search in Google and it sent me to 'Birmingham Canal Disaster' on https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/birmingham-canal-disaster.4059/#post-29388
A post from 2006 !
A post from 2006 !
Speedy23
master brummie
Hi Lady P.....From London's Lost Rivers...
"The Cumberland Market Branch of the Regent’s Canal known as The Cumberland Arm was a half mile branch of the Regents Canal from a junction at Regents Park running parallel with Albany Street behind Regents Park Barracks and finishing in its basin at a former market near Euston Station. The Arm was built the same time as the rest of Regents Canal in 1816.
The Regents Canal linked the Grand Junction Canal's Paddington Arm with the River Thames at Limehouse and provided a link for barge traffic for ammunition between Woolwich Arsenal and the Barracks. Cumberland Basin was lined by a collection of wharfs and warehouses. Hay and straw were brought in for sale at the Market and for the horses at the nearby barracks. Cumberland Market was built in the 1820’s as a relocation of the haymarket in Piccadilly. Throughout its existence the hay market operated for three days a week alongside a general produce market. Ice was brought in for an icehouse that was eighty-two feet deep and with a capacity of 1,500 tons under the Market. Large barges would also arrive with heavy goods such as stone and lime and a number of monumental masonry businesses opened in the Euston Road to take advantage of this. However by the 1850s the canal trade had declined and Cumberland Basin became polluted and cholera spread through the families of men who were employed on the barges and in the wharves around it and took hold in the overcrowded neighbourhood. However a market continued on the site right up until the late 1920s, and the last few trading barges ceased sometime in the early 1930’s. The surrounding buildings were demolished and replaced by council housing.During the war, the arm was used to supply water to fire pumps attending fires through the West End.
Before the end of the war the Basin was filled in with rubble from wartime damaged buildings and in the years following the Second World War the site was covered with topsoil brought in from Windsor Castle and turned into allotments.
All that remains today of the Arm is a tiny stub at the old junction with the main part of the Regents Canal used for mooring barges and a large floating Chinese Restaurant. Beyond this is now the car park for London Zoo Past the car park is the Gloucester Gate Bridge with its impressive lampholders and crumbling motifs. The bridge carried the Prince Albert Road across the Arm. The view to the south of the bridge is of the infilled canal converted to gardens at the back of houses designed by John Nash. These ornate houses were originally built on both sides of the canal which at the time provided a central focus to the exclusive housing estate. Regents Park Barracks still exist & is the base of 20 Transport Squadron, Royal Logistic Corps, the Artists Rifles and The Regimental Headquarters of the Queen's Royal Hussars. The allotments around the Cumberland Basin are surrounded by blocks of flats and there is no evidence of the old market at all. Derelict barges are believed to be buried underneath and remnants have been discovered by allotment holders."
Lady Penelope
master brummie
Thank you Speedy23 for all the info. I will ask my brother next time I speak to him about the bit of the canal in the park which is where we saw the herons.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Hi Speedy23 ... Lovely photo, I would have a guess at it being somewhere on the Worcester & Birmingham canal in southwest Birmingham or even further out.
oldmohawk
devonjim
master brummie
I've walked this canal from Worcester to Alvechurch and don't recognise this scene but it could be just North of Wharf Road in Kings Norton there are playing fields on the left and the houses in Baldwin Road are the correct style for the houses on the right, but only a guess!
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
When I see the question 'Where is this' on the BHF I get tempted to have a go.
In post#802 Speedy23 asked 'where was his Mom sitting' in the early 1950's.
My guess is that she was sitting by the North Stratford Canal near Warstock Road opposite Limekiln Lane. Some supporting evidence for my guess below.
On this map and satellite view below, I've circled where I think Speedy23's mom was sitting by the canal and another circle on a house which can be seen in Speed23's photo facing the camera. The road layouts seem to match.
In this Google view I've again circled the spot by the canal and the facing house. In the view is the Inter-City Watch Co building and I think it was not there before 1981.
In Apple's view (nicer trees) with named roads, the spots by the canal and the facing house are circled. In Speedy23's pic there is a hint of Limekiln Lane in the field on the right.
The direction of the shadow in Speedy23's photo suggests the photo was taken late afternoon !
Last edited:
Speedy23
master brummie
Hi oldMohawk & Morturn.....
You win the prize! ☆☆☆☆☆
Location exactly right - if you look at my original picture very closely, you can just about see the air-raid shelter near the junction of Stanbury Road - long since gone. The house that was circled by oldMohawk is at the bottom of Ibberton Road. My Mom was living at Fletton Grove when the picture was taken - the family moved to Warstock Road in 1956. OM - how did you recognise the location - local knowledge? I lived on Warstock Road (the Yardley Wood end) from the age of 1 to 18 when I went down to London to college and I (mis)spent a lot of my younger days down by the cut.
Morturn - I think that the "path" you can see on the opposite bank is actually Limekiln Lane - I don't think there was a towpath on that side until fairly recently (ie.within the last 30 years!!) as it was only instated to serve the moorings from Lyon's boatyard.
In fact, that canal was responsible for sparking my life-long love of the inland waterways - the North Stratford is also quite famous as it was one of the focal points for the formation of the IWA when LTC Rolt took his boat "Cressy" into Birmingham in 1947 and demanded that the then GWR jack up a lift bridge at Lifford Lane to enable him to pass as there was still a theoretical right of navigation, although the bridge hadn't been opened for years.
Later on, I used to dig up Victorian bottles and lids from the old City of Birmingham dump by the aqueduct near Major's Green - so I suppose it played a big part in my becoming interested in history and industrial archaeology.
From little acorns.....
You win the prize! ☆☆☆☆☆
Location exactly right - if you look at my original picture very closely, you can just about see the air-raid shelter near the junction of Stanbury Road - long since gone. The house that was circled by oldMohawk is at the bottom of Ibberton Road. My Mom was living at Fletton Grove when the picture was taken - the family moved to Warstock Road in 1956. OM - how did you recognise the location - local knowledge? I lived on Warstock Road (the Yardley Wood end) from the age of 1 to 18 when I went down to London to college and I (mis)spent a lot of my younger days down by the cut.
Morturn - I think that the "path" you can see on the opposite bank is actually Limekiln Lane - I don't think there was a towpath on that side until fairly recently (ie.within the last 30 years!!) as it was only instated to serve the moorings from Lyon's boatyard.
In fact, that canal was responsible for sparking my life-long love of the inland waterways - the North Stratford is also quite famous as it was one of the focal points for the formation of the IWA when LTC Rolt took his boat "Cressy" into Birmingham in 1947 and demanded that the then GWR jack up a lift bridge at Lifford Lane to enable him to pass as there was still a theoretical right of navigation, although the bridge hadn't been opened for years.
Later on, I used to dig up Victorian bottles and lids from the old City of Birmingham dump by the aqueduct near Major's Green - so I suppose it played a big part in my becoming interested in history and industrial archaeology.
From little acorns.....
Last edited: