2.2 The Oldbury Loop and the Phosphorus trade 

another brilliant video andy! I agree with the question you asked about how can they be allowed to build the housing estate so close to the toxic water with the eight foot high fencing topped with razor wire and the 24/7 cctv cameras....I also would not want to live near it either! looking forward to watching the next episode :-)

I use many of these paths most days and have learnt loads about the canal around where I now live in Tipton... Every video is an Eye opener... Rattlechain lagoon wow. Thank you.

An excellent. eye-opening video of the area I grew up. Thanks for all the hard work. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Really interesting series. Always been fascinated by the missing portions of canals and buildings. Your research and presentation are spot on and am looking forward to more episodes and hopefully series.

Just binge watching these and finding them fascinating, thanks for making them , this one on the Oldbury loop, is of interest to me. Because me late farther started his working career at Edwin Dansk, and his involvement with the company, carried on all through his working life. He told me water from the canal was used when they came to hydraulically test boilers and pressure vessels, perhaps that’s why that small section of the canal still remains. He also said, that the shipment of plate steel into the works, from the railway yard on the opposite bank was facilitated by a crane that spanned over the canal and into the yard

Amazing videos, great to see all this history of my local areas Langley and Oldbury. Please keep up the great and very informative work :)

Hi Andy, great videos just working my way through them. Years ago i worked for a transport co that had tankers taking waste from Albrights and Wilson to Rattlechain lagoon, the clay pit was originally owned by Samual Barnett, but on 9- 9- 1899 the Birmingham Canal New Mainline burst its banks and the clay pit was flooded to a depth of 300' in the 1940's Albright and Wilson started using it for waste disposal. Also when i was in my 20's i worked for Midland Earth Moving and worked with others tipping many tons of earth into Bradley locks, which i now feel guilty about.

I grew up in that area and well remember the lorries taking the spent rocks to what we knew as Blue Billy. I remember the rocks falling from the lorries as they were all open! I also remember my school playground being enveloped by white clouds on a regular basis, coming from Albright and Wilsons which was less than 100 yards away. It's a wonder any of us survived!

Wow Rattlechain Lagon, how they ever got away with dumping like that, how they ever got planning permission for the residential build is beyond belief. As a keen carp fisherman and local lad I once went for a walk around to see if any access’s to fish it, like you said it’s so secure and after seeing this thank god it was. I wonder if the residence know what’s behind them, surely it must have flagged up on the conveyance search. I’ve spent hrs goi g thru you back catalogue and learnt so much, keep up the great work.

Great and interesting video thanks for sharing 👍🏻looking forward to the next videos

Great video - thanks - Rattlechain Lagoon is very worrying. Ironically, if there was ever a move to sort it, the cost would probably be more than all the profits ever made by Albright & Wilson in its history.

This is wonderfully described I used to live on the Birmingham street Oldbury . Loved my time there . Love 🇬🇧

Very interesting video. As a Les Allen narrowboat owner it was fascinating to see what remains of Valencia Wharf. I would have liked to see more of the history of the wharf and of the Allen's boatyard. Thanks !!

Found you by accident - glad I did, very informative and looking forward to seeing more

I should have been working today but instead binged on this series. So interesting! Hope we see something on the W&E, Lichfield and Hatherton canals.

Another fantastic video. Oldbury is almost unrecognisable from how it was back in the day.

Another excellent video. This is my neck of the woods, but still much was new for me, (and I'm quite keen on local history) many thanks for that. A useful resource is 'Britain from above' areial photos - 1920s onwards-shows much of what you've covered here, and in other videos too. Tip-you need to create login (free) to zoom in, if so the detail is fantastic

Albright &Wilson have a lot to answer for, and so do Sandwell Council for allowing those houses to be built so near to a very toxic jump. Probably a few palms were well lubricated somewhere?

I remember the prosperous boats and canal was a pale grey colour and your wake was purple the smell was interesting.

I've just brought a Burrow's pointer guide map of Willenhall and it has bentley canal with the locks marked .

My dad worked at Allen's yard in the 60's. It was a boat yard locked in time just like the one at the Black Country museum

About two or three weeks ago I applied for a job at the logistics company the other side of the fence next to the toxic pond. I'm beginning to think I'm glad I didn't get that job. On the other side of the canal and railway there is a lake called Balancing Lake. Do you know if it has anything to do with the toxic pond or just a coincidence?

Another great video Andy. Makes one wonder at the thought process that would allow a housing development that close by a toxic waste site. Does the U.K.have anything similar to the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Superfund sites were extra efforts are made to clean up particularly bad chemical dumps?

I'm pretty sure the picture you provided entitled "the site looked like this' is of a marl hole in Newbury Lane approx a mile away from where you were standing.

Was / is Valencia Wharf between Whimsey Bridge and Seven Stars Bridge and, was this on what was known as the Bottom Road?

First class

Interesting story about the chemical works.. it's a shame that area in that pond is so contained it will never be safe in my opinion.. Around my area mining for coal.. lead and zinc had littered the landscape.. about 15 years ago the EPA started cleaning up the mess left behind.. glad to see all the progress. Miles and miles have been reclaimed.. many more to go as well.. pretty much a barren landscape.. But at least it is not as bad as open pits.. mine shafts.. and polluted streams.. I would say another 10 years it could be close to being done..

'Phossy jaw' was a horrible disease caused by handling phosphorous without precautions. The phosphorous literally rotted your jaw away.

Phosphorus