Beers, Boats and Boozers, 2018. No. 38

After our break at home for a family wedding and other things we arrived back at 'Holderness' safely moored up at Hawne Basin and set off towards Birmingham

The Netherton Tunnel couldn't be more different to the Gosty Tunnel. Two tow paths and two boat passage rather an agoraphobic's nightmare. It is dead straight and the way to stop getting bored is look out for the ventilation shafts! 

It's hard to imagine what this area would have been like in the early 1900's as there was industry everywhere, and motor boats and horse drawn day boats would have been all over. As it was now, as we popped out at the Dudley Port Junction there wasn't another moving boat in sight.

A little further on on the N ew Main Line is the Wednesbury Old Canal that leads to the Ryders Green locks down onto the Walsall Canal. We will have to revisit the BCN back waters as I really enjoy it round the back of the 'sofa'.

The Spon Lane Locks at Bromford Junction take you up to the Old Main Line, but we kept going to the right.

Looking back to the Stewart Aqueduct, and beyond that the modern M5 Motorway oin stilts that are piled into the middle of the canal. The meaty bridge nearest the camera must be a defunct arm that served the Chance Glass works from the Old Main Line Level. The railings are the same design as those of the Aqueduct. Chances were famous for developing prismatic glass for concentrating beams of light for lighthouses. The manufactory is being preserved as I understand it.

Galton Bridge forms a graceful arch that frames the entrance to the short Galton Tunnel.

The pump house straddles the canals with its lower storey in the New Main Line and the upper stoey overlooking the Old Main line. The pump recycled the water up back into the water short Old Main Line. Thgey have in steam days every now and then.

Another quite lovely bridge is actually the Engine Arm aqueduct. that leads up a short arm from the Old Level that was built as a feeder from the reservoir nearby.  There is a toll island just through the bridge. It would be great if they could restore one, and it didn't get vandalised and burnt  down straight away.

Still closer to Birmingham you seem far away from industry here. The bridge on the left gave access to the Soho Foundry Loop. This served the foundry that Matthew Boulton and James Watt set up in the 1770's and was thre first gas lit factory to allow work to continue day and night. The first bridge to the right was one end of the Cape Loop, now lost that served a Great Western Railway Depot and later a Geest Keen and Nettleford's factory. The second bridge seem to have served a small wharf in a factory surroundings.

We found a mooring down the Oozells Loop where it is a little quieter and a bit of sun in the afternoons.

Once moored up we went inot the city for a bit of shopping and ended up at a Wetherspoon's, as you do. This was the Square Peg. It seems that the name comes from a comment made by Tim Martin, Weatherspoon's Chairman saying the site was like a square peg in a round hole. Corporation Road was set out in 1878. By 1885 this building was erected and was Lewis's Department store. I remember shopping there. It closed in 1991.

Pershore Brewery was started up on the outskirts of that town on the River Avon in 2015 by a husband and wife team that wanted to move onwards and upwards from their homebrew. They now have a head brewer and a business development director to move the business on.

I had a pint of their session beer at 3.8% Summertime Ale. It is a light golden colour and has a light taste with pale malts and three types of hops. I think I wrote that it was thin with an undefined taste, so not up there with my top ten, or maybe fifty!