Tuesday 14 December 2010

Discovering the Bradley Locks - Upper

Discovering the Bradley Locks
Upper Section
December 2010

We left the Bradley Line with a look at the Wednesbury Oak Loop and its straightening known as the Rotten Brunt Line. This late change to the BCN was accompanied by the 1849 construction of a further eastward link down to the Walsall Canal.

The 1849 extension to the older Bradley Hall Branch


This line was die straight dropping down through a flight of locks to meet up with an earlier arm to Bradley Hall Colliery, which comprised the lower three locks of this route.


View down the terraces of the Bradley Locks - October 2010

And the same scene in the 1950's

The remains on the ground are still very visible. The junction stand out in an area of open space, jutting out at right angle from the canal embankment and then stepping down the hill in a series of unmistakable sequence of slopes and plateaus. The lock chambers would appear to be buried, easily reinstatable if one ever had the urge to do so.


Rolling terraces of Bradley Locks


3 comments:

Michael Winstock said...

I am fascinated by your series of articles on abandoned canals of the BCN.
I look forward to more of them.
What maps and and at what scale are you using?

Kind regards,

Michael Winstock
nb Samuel Pepys in Calcutt Marina

Martin said...

Andy - this is all fascinating! Keep it coming please.

Andy Tidy said...

Michael
They are scanned sections of the Godfrey Edition OS maps - cleaned versions of original out of copywrite OS maps, printed at about a foot to the mile so the detail is amazing - and they only cost £2.50 each. I have quite a collection for the Black Country!