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Tame Valley Canal

mikejee

mikejee

Super Moderator
Staff member
Clicking on a red cross link in one of Jim's Tests on the testing thread I came across an advertising video for the latest of Alton Douglas's books (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8HlKvjSG1E&feature=player_embedded ). This had one picture labelled as below. My screensnatch is not easy to read but Says "Thames Valley Canal". I cannot find any reference to a Thames Valley Canal in Birmingham (and wouldn't expect one), and Leamington road is not very near Salford Bridge. Have I missed out on a local nickname for the canal, am I going daft or is it just a cockup by the writer?
Mike


ScreenHunter_10_Dec__23_16_29.jpg
 
Leamington_Road2C_Salford_Bridge.jpg


Found this in my old pre M6 A-Z - It's now under the access road to the M6! alongside the Tame Valley canal, at the back of Aston Reservoir, Salford Park!
Good job the houses went - Id dare anyone to hang out washing next to Spaghetti!
 
I hadn't realised there was another Leamington road. Still shows abysmal proof reading for the "Thames" though. Wonder if any of his books refer to St Paul's cathedral in the Jewellery quarter?
 
I wouldn't be suprised! I was suprised that he is still alive and knocking 'em out though!
Even if the captions are rubbish - the pics themselves are always nice to look at!
 
I have often thought his captions leave a lot to be desired. I have to be careful what I say though, I know his nephew, and by marriage we are kind of distantly related!!

It's good to know that others make mistakes, it makes one's own less embarrasing.
 
Yes it is it the start of the Tame Valley Canal at Salford Junction, near Elements Boat Yard. There were twelve locks and the engineer responsible for this project was James Walker.
 
I think this view from Salford Junction is of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, and the Tame Valley Canal was behind me.

December 2010



From this view the Tame Valley Canal is to the right.



The Tame Valley Canal seen in August 2012 from near Perry Park in Perry Barr.





 
Had a short walk of the Tame Valley Canal from Lichfield Road / Salford Bridge. But was a lot of anti social youths on motorbikes driving up and down! I found the first exit off and headed back towards Aston Station. Very intimidating under the M6 and Spaghetti Junction.
 
these unlicensed, untaxed and uninsured 'off roaders' have become an absolute menace, they certainly spoil my walks with my dog along the banks of the river Cole at Chelmsley Wood. Eric
 
I had to go onto the soil / muddy part of the towpath just to avoid getting hit by them. They weren't wearing helmets, just hoodies etc.

You expect cyclists on canal towpaths not illegal motorbikes.
 
The Tame Valley Canal seen from the Salford Bridge on Lichfield Road. This was before I headed onto the towpath. Last thing I was expecting was youths on motorbikes racing up and down!

 
hi ell..both of my sons ride motorbikes and idiots like this really really annoy them both...they give the decent.. legal..reponsible bikers a bad name and its not fair

lyn
 
I had to get out of the way when I heard them coming past!





There is a mud / soil part to walk on to the left of the actual towpath







Got off near here - was a road / path leading back to Salford Park

 
The Tame Valley Canal perhaps deserves more use from boaters, it was when opened in 1844 a busy canal as it was the equivalent of a motorway in canal terms cutting through to the heart of the Black Country Industry and linking via the Rushall Canal to the mines on Cannock Chase. James Walker was the engineer responsible for its construction, the double towpath and the careful placing of locks so that there were long stretches of straight navigation. There are some important engineering features on this canal including iron aqueducts, deep cuttings and tall embankments.
 
Right up until navigation was disrupted by the building of Spaghetti Junction I understand that GKN transported forgings from their forge in Hampstead to their machining works in Erdington along the Tame Valley canal.
 
I can remember the coal barges lined up outside the GEC, hundreds of them. This grab arm would come down and pick up the coal out of the barges and take it straight into the power station.


As a canal it certainly was a feat of engineering, it runs thought a cutting at Tower Hill, behind the Clifton Cinema that is very deep. I have ridden my bike along it to the Rushall junction, then back down the main line canal into Birmingham.
 
devonjim said:
Right up until navigation was disrupted by the building of Spaghetti Junction I understand that GKN transported forgings from their forge in Hampstead to their machining works in Erdington along the Tame Valley canal.
Click to expand...
No forgings produced by the GKN at Hamstead were ever delivered by canal to the Hardy Spicer plant at Chester Road. The canal was too far away some distance up the Old Walsall Road. The post below mentions canal transportation from a Birfield Industries/GKN plant in Witton but as I remember it did not last long because it was somewhat inflexible. There was also an incident with scrap forgings in the canal mentioned in the post below ... :)
oldMohawk said:
The site at the top of Birch Road was shared by two plants in the Birfield Group, Forging & Presswork and Salisbury Transmissions. I started work as an engineering apprentice at F&P and stayed there 14 years before the Cold Forging department moved to Hamstead. The three storey office block (still there) was shared between F&P and ST, we even shared a Drawing Office print machine, and the old style Managing Director 'ruled' both plants. The site had a central road with the forging plant on the canal side, and the ST machining plant on the other side. Delivery of our forgings was initially down the road to the Birch Rd Hardy Spicer plant. When HS moved to Chester Rd someone at F&P had the bright idea of using canal boats to deliver our forgings to HS, looking at maps it can be seen that the canal runs past both sites. Unfortunately the forge used to throw scrap forgings over the fence into the canal until a pleasure boat was nearly sunk by an enormous pile of forgings which were found when the canal stretch was drained.
Some products produced by the press shop of F&P were steel toecaps which were known as 'ToeTectors' in safety footware.
The Cold Forging part of F&P was run on a licence from a German company Neumeyers in Nuremburg.
GKN took over the Birfield Group in 1965/66 and eventually the original Birfield Industries automotive products became the major part of GKN's business so it turned out to be a very profitable take-over.
oldmohawk
Click to expand...
 
Not heard about forging being sent from Hamstead. Parts were sent by boat and tug from Deykins Avenue. I have included images of this traffic in a couple of my books. Hamstead DID have a colliery, which sent coal by boat from a large basin placed beside the Tame Valley Canal. There were other works placed along this canal where boats would collect. An important wharf was a Perry Barr, owned by the Birmingham Canal Navigations
 
Morturn said:
I can remember the coal barges lined up outside the GEC, hundreds of them. This grab arm would come down and pick up the coal out of the barges and take it straight into the power station.


As a canal it certainly was a feat of engineering, it runs thought a cutting at Tower Hill, behind the Clifton Cinema that is very deep. I have ridden my bike along it to the Rushall junction, then back down the main line canal into Birmingham.
Click to expand...
That was were we always went fishing. Great fun when a barge came along as we used to operate the locks for the bargees.
 
oldMohawk said:
No forgings produced by the GKN at Hamstead were ever delivered by canal to the Hardy Spicer plant at Chester Road. The canal was too far away some distance up the Old Walsall Road. The post below mentions canal transportation from a Birfield Industries/GKN plant in Witton but as I remember it did not last long because it was somewhat inflexible. There was also an incident with scrap forgings in the canal mentioned in the post below ... :)
Click to expand...
I didn't work at Hardy Spicer until 1970 at this time forgings were delivered from Birfield by some three or four 16 tonne flat bed lorries. There was a dock alongside the canal next to the "goods-in" stores which I was told had been used for the delivery of forgings until construction of M6/Spaghetti Junction had caused the canal route to be closed.
 
As children in the Perry Beeches area, the canal was our playground ... we used to call it the 'cut'.
In the 1960s at the Hamstead GKN factory we had long lunch hours and during one cold winter on several days we went along the towpath from the Walsall Rd bridge and skated on the Basin marked on the map below.
So I was still playing on the canal in my twenties !
canal.JPG
 
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