We vare back on the boat after a bit of an extended stay at home, and it is very nice to be back. We came down to Hawne Basin on Sunday afternoon and then I drove back to Hull on Monday morning. The trip back via two buses and two trains went very well and to timetable which was good.
This morning we paid our dues, not as much as expected, and said farewell. Well that is after we had pulled out from between two boats and then re-moored the outside boat again. The basin looked good with the forge behind and the slip way. Everybody is very friendly and helpful and it is a lovely quiet spot, surprisingly.
It is also surprising how green the place looks as you approach the Stewart and Lloyds Tube works and Gosty Hill Tunnel.
There is only one airshaft in the 557 yd long tunnel and that turns up on the surface in the garden of a house. When we got to Windmill End Junction we turned left to fill with water. There the connection was not the normal type but I soon sorted it out and were filling up with water so we had plenty for our stay in Birmingham. Whilst filling we had a coffee at the cafe/museum and exchanged a bit of banter with the many folk, and dogs that were enjoying the sunshine. We went down to the Bumble Hole Arm to wind and then headed through the 3027yd Netherton Tunnel. We met two boats in the length of it and it took us 38 mins to transit.
Once at The Dudley Port Junction at the New Main Line we turned towards Brum and the southern towing path was being improved for several miles.
Between the Netterton and the Gower Branches is this roving bridge. In the late 1800's there was a small basin here that served the Rattlechain Brick works that started to expand in the 1890's. On the land around were also Groveland, Waterloo and New England Collieries. The brick works extracted the the marl leaving huge pits that when the works closed sometime around WWII the site was bought by the Chemical Company Albright and Wilson that has a factory close by. They used the pit that had filled with water to dump their waste. The majority was Calcium phosphate but white phosphorous was also dumped. This is highly dangerous and flammable. About 0.1% is white phosphorus and all the waste is kept under the water. I suppose it is why the large area of waste brown field land has not been developed.
Just after Pudding Green Junction are these old basin bridge. The first accessed Hamblet's Blue Brick Works. There was a similar marl pit here but was filled in. The further bridge was to another small basin that lead to either a set of limekilns or the tramway that came down from a colliery called Ireland Green. There were also a couple of other little basins that have been entirely lost.
This bridge is natterly called the Lattice Accommodation Bridge and must have been to preserve a footpath right of way as looking at old maps it doesn't seem to connect to anything directly but on the north bank was the Bromford Iron Works.
Looking back to the M5 motorway bridge and the Steward Aqueduct that takes the Old Main Line over the New Main line that was opened in 1837. I though that the closest bridge was also an aqueduct but looking at old maps it looks like a road, but it must have been built at the same time as the aqueduct as it is very similar. It served the massive glass works that started in 1814 as the British Crown Glass Co. and was bought by Robert Chance in 1824 and it was here that they created cylinder blown sheet glass that made them a household name. They went on to make lighthouse glasses too. Pilkington's bought the company in 1954 and glass ceased to be made here in 1976. The glass works is now an industrial heritage site awaiting restoration.
Galton Street Bridge is a gracefully curving structure that spans both the old and new Main Lines and is an ancient monument, then there is the entrance to Galton Tunnel.
The Brasshouse Lane pumping station was built to pump water up from the lower New Main Line up to the old Main Line and the higher pound that was above that too. It has 'in power' days, but never seems to be when we are passing.
On the right is the entrance to the French Walls Basin that serviced the French Walls Munitions and Metal factory. Opposite was the Smethick Gas Works with another basin and in the distance is the roving bridge over the entrance to the basin that served the Soho Foundry that was started in 1795 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and was pivotal in the Industrial Revolution and theory of management. The site is now owned by Avery that make weighing machines.
A little further on are these three roving bridges. On the left is the one that Pearson's says is the other end of the Soho Loop, through the foundry but on a map of 1890 it is just a basin serving a chemical works. The original loop of the old main line that would have been cut off by the building of the more direct new line occurred in 1837 so it could have been lost in 50 years I suppose. The nearest on the right was another of the Old Line meanders that had been cut off, the Cape Loop that served many industries once it had passed through a short tunnel, the London Works nut and bolt manufacturer, , several iron and brass tube works, a patent screw works and several iron works. Again by 1890 the other end of the arm had been built over by the Phoenix Iron Works. The furthest bridge was to serve a small basin of the Imperial Wire Works.
There was some pretty decent graffiti along this stretch and particularly liked this 'Men in Black' work.
Just before you get to the city centre there is the Monument Road Canal/Rail transhipment basin. In 1890 there were goods sheds on either side of the basin and with four cranes on the west side. The quays were linked to the main railway using turntables. On the right is the entrance to a basin that served the Ledsam Street Engineering Works and the Standard Bedstead Works.
As we approached the Round House and the pub, now called the Distillary, everywhere looked very full. We drifted past the entrance to the Oozells Loop and saw there was room down there so we soon reversed in and made fast. back to Brum. We soon were off up the road to get a few bits and pieces from shops that we knew we would find in the City.
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