Plodding Round the Pools.

 Once we were moored up and had a cup of tea, the sun came out! That reinforced our resolve to head off for a walk to explore the area.

Once we stepped through the railings I was surprised to see that there was a rail line complete with steel rails and sleepers still in place. You can see the railings in the background. I would have thought that they would have removed the rails for reuse/recycling. On old maps it looks like there was about 4 lines in sidings along the arm, with a weighbridge so I wonder if it served as a transhipment point in the 1880's

The line over the canal in the 1880's was the Kingswinford Branch of the Great Western and it ran alongside the canal. The bridge was extended from one to two tracks. On the other side of the arm was an iron works, opposite the junction was an iron and tin plate works, both with wharves on the main line

As we walk towards the end of the Fens Branch the water remains clear and wide. The Cressett Lane Bridge marks the southern boundary of the Bromley Colliery and iron walks on the left and and another iron works on the right.

As you approach a main road the canal finishes at the sluice. Previously it continued under the road and emerged in what was called Wide Waters, for obvious reasons.

Just before the sluice is this widening is this widening that actually had two arms running off to the Willows Colliery. It would easily make a winding hole with a little dredging. This would very quickly add 2 miles to the network and bring people to the Fens Pool Nature Reserve.

The Fens Branch terminated at the foot of the dam that held the Grove Pool reservoir that fee the canal.

The north side of the Grove Pool was a railway embankment leading to the Wallows Colliery to the right, by 1885, and the Middle Pool was starting to be filled. Around the edge off the Middle Pool were shafts connected to Old Park Colliery and clay pits connected by railways,

From above the Middle Pool, the largest 'lake' of the three you can see the Grove Pool below.

The whole area is black with coal slag. This unassuming mound is the site of the old No.46 shaft and the near line is obviously an old plateway.

As we walked over the dam dividing the Middle from the Fens Pool, which also served as a railway to Pit No.1 and Woodside Colliery we found this pile of slag with a rail wheel stuck inside it. I like to think that some sort of derailment occured when a truck of hot slag was been taken to dump. By the time they were able to sort it the slag had solidified!

Fens pool is wider than Middle and gives a great idea of how fantastic it is to have such a green space in the middle of such an urban area. The paths and tracks in the reserve are where the old rail lines and plateways ran.

As you can see on the way back there appears very little to do to bring the Fens Branch and the remaining part of the Stourbridge Extension Canal into use.

Looking from Cressett Lane Bridge to the south with the railway bridge beyond.

Looking from the towpath bridge over the Extension Canal you can see the moorings. Just a little past where the canal has been infilled there was Bromley stop lock, the only lock on the canal. There is a small widening at the very end of the canal so with a little work there could even be a winding hole here too. I wonder why this easy way of adding to the canal has not been pushed by the Stourbridge Navigation Trust as it would be an easy gain and seems to be achievable purely by volunteers. Maybe they have worked hard for this and there are matters that I am unaware of that prevent it. Still I would recommend sorting the moorings out as they are a useful place to stop before or after heading down the Stourbridge Locks, which for many would be a long enough day.