Bumblehole Turn

Bumblehole Turn

BCN

22 October 2010

Of all the place names on the BCN Bumblehole is one if the most curious. I have absolutely no idea of its origins and it needs to be remembered that until the straight route to the Netherton was built this was just another loop on the Dudley No2 Canal. Maybe it was trying to make up for the utilitarian name it used to live under.

 Bumblehole Arm

This half mile stub is very much in water and is home to half a dozen narrowboats, all safely tucked in behind a swinging yellow boom. The line used to be very overgrown but this has since been opened out and there is no reason why a dedicated arm bagger should not go in, pass the boom and wind in the entrance of the old Bufferies Basin arm.

Bumblehole moorings

The arm curls round a pond in a little valley - presumably Bumble Hole itself and maybe an old opencast mine or clay pit? After the by pass was built the canal remained to serve the substantial Windmill Boiler Works on the collapsed section, and the Washington Boiler and Girder Works which are now occupied by the builder of eclectic structures like the "windmill" folly.

Bumblehole winding hole - with scrap folly