6.6 In this episode of Canal Hunter we explore the remains of the old flight of Delph Locks, the Merry Hill Waterfront and the Two Locks Line on the Dudley Canal in the Black Country. #Dephlocks #canals #narrowboats #history
Hi Andy another excellent episode bought back some memories . l worked at level street mill ( round oak steelworks) in the 70 ts and walked the canal a lot .still use them now more tranquil and clean lots of wildlife returned . thanks again for all your hard work enjoyed all the series . Ray Kirkham
What a transformation of the old Coal and heavy industry!.. Someone really did their homework to design such a beautiful area out of a basically ruined landscape.. Loved the history lesson Andy!.. Cheers from Missouri USA!
Fascinating series Andy. Particularly interested in the two locks line. Ran and walked past both ends and always looked like geography didn't match up to my expectations of what could have been. Didn't factor in humans and their ability to move earth!
Merry Christmas Andy, thank you again for these informative videos. Enjoying watching while in self isolation in bedroom away from family. Certainly don't recommend it. I Spend when possible my spare time fishing our local BCN's. Strangely I feel connected to them. We have spoken before as my father's family came from off the boats ( Chances glass) Wondering perhaps like a few others what drone you use, is it a DJI?
Hi Kevin - glad you are enjoying the videos. I use a DJI mini 2 which has fast become the go to drone, mainly because its weight allows it such freedom and the images are good quality.
Andy have ever done an episode covering the Taunton to Tiverton canal IE the grand western canal, we live near the Taunton end and I have walked some of it, the boat lift at Nynehead is particularly fascinating, I would hope oneday the canal is fully restored.
Is that the Delph PH at 6:19 Andy? Another great episode at one of the places where I first saw the BCN and noticed that it was far more complex than the Nottingham canals.
As always, interesting. Drone footage excellent. The canals around there look to be kept in fine condition. The part with the 'waterfalls' especially so. Sad to think though that all that area was once a part of the industrial revolution when Britain made just about everything. I disagree on your closing comment on coal. Nature gave us coal...politics is stopping us using it. There'll likely come a day when coal, the canals and the boats will be put back in use again. Cheers Andy.
I do wonder when I come across wood that has become waterlogged and sunk into the silt and turned black how close it might be to becoming coal... While weight for weight coal 24KJ/kg isn't vastly different calorific value than dried wood 19MJ/kg, though volumetric density is obviously advantageous. Therefore burning wood being carbon neutral rather than coal to me is a greater advantage, particularly as the latter also releases sulphur dioxide (causing acid rain and more acrid smoke). The presence of this (4%) sulphur also reminds me of the "underwater rotting wood" smell and wonder how much of coal actually had animal/microbe content rather than just the wood/vegetable content as described with only 0.05% sulphur. or is it the sulphur content that makes people think it would have taken that much wood to make it? Even smokeless coal can have as much as 2% sulphur. I also don't believe the earth is that old so I'm open to ideas that can conceivably scientifically explain what we see around us. Pangea breaking up with the opening up of the Atlantic ocean etc causing the Genesis 6 flood, for example, having seen evidence that this flood created the Grand Canyon.
I have noticed this myself and reference to the original deed maps show extra bits of land being bought just north of the Two Locks Line at Blackbrook Junction in 1908, and the line of the canal being diverted along it. A few years later land to the east of the canal was bought from the Netherton Estates to build up the embankments, so my belief is that the mining in the area caused the old canal line to subside and then be emptied and the two locks line would have been an alternate route. Whilst the land was being bought and the new channel built along a slightly different route the two locks line started its terminal slide and was kept going just long enough to see the old main line reinstated for traffic.
@@lifeat2.3milesanhour57 Many thanks. I have been fascinated by the Dudley canals since we first sailed along them in the early 1980s. Just managed to catch the last of the old industrial feel before all the redevelopment started. What a difference today. Re Delf locks I understand that there was a two and three rise staircase in the old flight.
Excellent video, Andy. I'm looking forward to your next one when you said that you would follow the Dudley No.2 line, because this was my childhood playground over 50 years ago, when it was still an area of post-industrial dereliction.
Thanks Andy for this and all the previous videos. Thank you especially for providing the big picture of coal creation and its creation demise. I don’t think Gondwanaland had been discovered when I was at school! I wonder how far the coal seem stretches beyond the fault line?
Well, the "Thick" seems to be very localised and the Cannock Coal was of an inferior quality. I suspect it was very similar in the Coalbrookdale area around whats now Telford - and thats where Canal Hunter heads next winter!
Thanks Andy I had always wondered if there was any remains of the old Delph lock line, now I know; this is another area I want to return to myself and do a bit more of my own canal hunting.
Brilliant as always, worked in sandwell for the best part of 23 years, always so much hidden history. Tried at times to stop and look, do some exploring, there is a section of land off the Dudley rd A4101 running parallel too ploverdale crescent, not sure if it's a canal or old railway line 🤔 could be completely wrong though 🤦
Only if they have no idea *at all* what global warming is and how it works. If, on the other hand, the "global warming brigade" have read literally *any* of the science, then they will laugh at the comment for the silly nonsense that it is.
