• 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

Canals of Birmingham

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
  • Start date Start date
The office where I work is by Gas Street Basin.

Before we moved into a bigger unit across the car park, our office was directly overlooking the basin & it was always entertaining watching the novices try & turn round.

The one day it took this one man about 20 minutes to complete the manoeuvre. He rammed the building several times & his wife nearly fell out twice! We gave him a cheer & a round of applause when he got turned around. He took a bow......
 
ellbrown said:
Yesterday afternoon had another walk down the Worcester & Birmingham Canal from The Mailbox to The Vale. Some highlights.

Bath Row



Islington Row Middleway



St James Road



Edgbaston Tunnel



The Vale

Click to expand...
ELL, you brought back some wonderful memories, used to paddle there on canvas canoes we built at school. We made up carriers using old pram wheels. One old pram gave us two carriers!
Thank you!
 
The canal towpath photos remind me of the SW Coastal Path. Primarily designed for walkers - and horses in the past - but now often used by runners and cyclists. Unfortunately many of those running and cycling get the impression that they have priority and walkers, accordingly, can easily move aside or stop! I wonder if it is a similar occurence on canal towpaths?
 
I had to keep stopping to let the cyclists past me. They sometimes rang their bell. Try to. Move closer to the grass near the fence or brick wall.
 
Richarddye said:
ell, wonderful photos! I always think there is something romantic about rain in the summer by the water!
Click to expand...
Unless you are trying to steer a boat along the canal and then it is wet, cold (even in midsummer) and miserable and if the wind is blowing as well you are fighting the tiller, just hoping that there is somewhere you can moor up. We once did the locks from Wolverhampton top lock in the rain and you have to keep going because of the timing of getting back to the hire centre for 0900hrs....but very happy days.

Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
Unless you are trying to steer a boat along the canal and then it is wet, cold (even in midsummer) and miserable and if the wind is blowing as well you are fighting the tiller, just hoping that there is somewhere you can moor up. We once did the locks from Wolverhampton top lock in the rain and you have to keep going because of the timing of getting back to the hire centre for 0900hrs....but very happy days.

Bob
Click to expand...
Bob, know what you mean.....I had a small (20ft) sailboat and were living near Lake Erie at the time. Went out on a nice sunny Sunday morning morning, after about 11/2 hours the sun went in and a squall came up, temperature dropped about 15 degrees and the rain started. By the time I got back to shore I was very cold and wet other unharmed other than my pride!
 
Richarddye said:
Bob, know what you mean.....I had a small (20ft) sailboat and were living near Lake Erie at the time. Went out on a nice sunny Sunday morning morning, after about 11/2 hours the sun went in and a squall came up, temperature dropped about 15 degrees and the rain started. By the time I got back to shore I was very cold and wet other unharmed other than my pride!
Click to expand...
Richard

As I say Happy Days and you are alive to tell the tale

Bob
 
Never truly appreciated the canals whilst growing up in Brum and the Uk.
Was aware of them and an Aunty and her family lived beside one in Elmdon Heath. As a kid often visited and would run to see a passing barge when we heard it chugging towards us.
When newly married my parents dug up a small sycamore tree and planted it in the garden of the house they rented in Tillingham St, Sparkbrook.
When we returned on a holiday from Australia in 1978 the house had been demolished but the tree was still there after nearly 50 years.
Cheers Tim
 
ellbrown said:
I had to keep stopping to let the cyclists past me. They sometimes rang their bell. Try to. Move closer to the grass near the fence or brick wall.
Click to expand...
towpaths are shared spaces and pedestrians have priority. If you're cycling, you must go slow enough to mind and give way to other people, and to be able to stop safely if you need to. If you're in a hurry, you need to take a different route away from the canal.
 
mw0njm. said:
towpaths are shared spaces and pedestrians have priority. If you're cycling, you must go slow enough to mind and give way to other people, and to be able to stop safely if you need to. If you're in a hurry, you need to take a different route away from the canal.
Click to expand...

Definitely!
Unfortunately, here in London along the tow path there are quite a number of arrogant cyclists who go far too fast and expect you to move out of their way, sometimes under bridges where the path bends and you can't see them coming :mad:
To balance that, many people are polite and thank you for letting them pass.
 
I remember some one gave me a small dingie. so i got a big engine from hollywood marine shop.and one saturday we went to the fazeley canal and launched the boat, it was a bit low in the water at the back end.so my friend sat in the front i climbed in and the worst happend as i opened the trottle and got under way the water come over the back it filled up with water and sunk. after splashing about we salvaged the engine,but could not rescue the boat :grinning:1606229431766.png
 
The lost arm of William James touches on canals, mines and railway subjects. An early railway terminus on Newhall Hill might have been one possibility for Birmingham and a group of new canal side warehouses in George Street, another outcome. As it was the private canal arm provided access to a wide range of different Birmingham businesses. These included the first Nickel refinery in Birmingham, coal merchants, cut glass workers, cycle makers, electroplaters, gun makers, metallic bedstead makers, pin makers, sand getters, timber merchants and wire drawers.

The first part of the arm was made by 1808 and the rest by 1820. That part west of Newhall Hill was filled in quite early, but the rest was closed after 1950.
 
Canal Hunter, Alan Tidy, has added further canal history videos on to YouTube covering coal transport from Cannock to various locations. For details have a look at BrownhillsBob's Blog here....

brownhillsbob.com

Rolling coal

Just a quick heads up as the great Canal Hunter Andy Tidy has posted some new episodes of a great canal history series on YouTube that I have plugged before about lost local canals - this time covering coal transport from Cannock to various locations near here, via Chasewater, Aldridge and Pelsall.
brownhillsbob.com brownhillsbob.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top