This video is about discovering the lost sections of canal associated wth the original Birmingham Canal built in 1769, now part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations
Been watching the later episodes and decided to come back to the beginning and see them all. Great information regards the raising of the bridges! Onwards and upwards :-)
We were up the Wyrley and Essington in September and then on to the Walsall , not a trip I wish to repeat, plastic bags, weed, tent liner's, bags of clothes and something big and hard under water by that stainless steel thing. Shopping trolleys galore on the Walsall stretch, spent more time in the weed hatch than cruising, never mind. Excellent video series.
Did you go as far as Pelsall Common? The extreme m=northern section is really nice but the Walsall is hard going at the best of times. Not a route I travel very often.
@@lifeat2.3milesanhour57 No we turned onto the Walsall in the hope I could leave the weed hatch closed for more than an hour, how wrong was I. The CRT need to re-write there description of the Walsall. The best part of the journey was the old Wednesbury canal from Ryders green to the junction
With yourself on the Birmingham Canals and Martin Zero scouring around Manchester, I am much happier learning of the local histories from local citizens than any BBC docu-series.
I think I've finally found my home. I got bitten by the bug the same way as you by wondering what had been behind those blocked off bits of the bank. This was a hire boat holiday in 1979 from Trent Lock (Long Eaton) which ended up with a loop through Wolverhampton and Birmingham. Back then Nicholsons only had a vague tiny map of the BCN. But we still went up the loops at Birmingham and poked our nose into Dudley Tunnel. I subsequently cruised all of the open BCN and have the 'Other Sixty Miles' book since about 1981. We were BCN Society members for years even though we live in Lancashire.
We first saw you moving your boats near Fradley and thought you just made jams 👍. Such an interesting theme. We will now watch them all. We noticed the same type of bridges on the Trent & Mersey from middlewich a salt mining area can’t wait to experience them again and check them for jacking points and the Birmingham canals thanks for your videos. NB Fiddlesticks 👍🖐
Came here from reading the virtual BCN Challenge thread on the Canal World forum (I moved onto a narrowboat a month ago). Having lived in Birmingham for 13years I'm looking forward to learning more, and getting some planning points for next year's challenge of course!
Quite interesting to watch the first one after starting watching later episodes... Great place to start with your own narrowboat.. I think your narrow boat looks nice!. I will continue to watch the next episodes in order until I reach where I found your blogs. Cheers Andy!
Only just discovered your series thanks to Brownhills Bob. I’ve magnet fished a couple of TON’s of metal out from that bridge this year, I’m always interested in the history & u taught me quite a bit there, thank you!
Good video my great great grandfather had one of the last Gin pits in the country in Willenhall , i remember the Bentley canal being filled in and some bridges being filled in and others being flattened as a kid. And i spent many a happy hour in the Manor Arms just along from your moorings , up till my 40s i always lived a few hundred feet from the eather the curly wurly or the shroppie .
First class. looking forward to your future investigations. I,m Stourbridge & now living in Ellesmere port. move from one end of the cut to, another end of the cut.
Hi - I have just completed posting the first series (7 episodes) Series two is well on the way to complete all the lost canals through to Wolverhampton.
That was fascinating ... I decided to watch from the very start of your videos. I remember meeting you briefly and we had several jars of jam from you after a recommendation from our friends who own Reverie. Also Narrowboat Experience had nothing but good things to say. Ironically I found your videos through Minimal List. Hope to catch up with you again at some point. Subscribed!
HI Matt - I hope there is a bit of technical improvement over time! I will be starting on the long section of missing canal coming off the Wyrley and Essington in the autumn. Thanks for subscribing.
I think this (and future episodes) would benefit from showing a map of the BCN as context to where the missing "bit" is located. Also, older, and modern Ordnance Survey maps would also help illustrate the canal and surrounding industrial use of the canal.
That's really good to know. As a cartographer for 14 years, and a life member of IWA and former active member of (London) WRG, I know very well the value of maps when explaining something as complicated as this. I also used to be a member of the BCNS and personally knew Richard C-B.
Great to see your explorations online! But could we have some maps please? It would bring the videos so much more to life in this complex network of canals. Looking forward to more . . .
Thanks Hugh - actually there are lots of maps in the future episodes. Its really nice to have a reason to revisit the lost sections i first explored about 10 years ago.
@@lifeat2.3milesanhour57 Only 10 years ago??😮 I recall exploring them when I lived in Brum in the early 1970s - the canals were all black and white then! Actually, I've got a stash of negs that might be of interest to other BCNophiles. I have scanned a lot but do not have the ability (ie time) to do much more with them. Having said that, the majority of those scanned probably show navigable bits. I think there are more of the more obscure (ie interesting) sections though. If there is someone out there who could put them online, I'd be happy to work with them.
