Wednesday 6 May 2020

Bumblehole and Boshboil Arms

Bumblehole and Boshboil Arms



Windmill End is the collective name for the area immediately to the west of the Netherton Tunnel. Until 1858 it was merely a long winding curve on the Dudley No2 Canal, but then the Netherton Tunnel was opened it and with it came some straightening of the canal, which included cutting off the neck of this loop.

Initially this resulted in a loop canal but gradually the far end subsided leaving the Bumblehole Branch to the west and the very short Boshboil Arm to the east. The Bumblehole Branch used to extend beyond Bumblehole Road to service the various collieries in the area, plus Buffery and Barnfield Basins attached to the Washington and Windmill End Boiler Works.



These Britain from Above images reveal both the loop created in 1858 to the left and the Withymoor Branch to the right.

Entrance to Bumblehole Branch 1955 - E Paget-Tomlinson

Bumblehole Bridge - David Morris


The Boatyard at Bumblehole in the 1960's - Roy Martin

Vic Smallshire

Tug / Ice Breaker Caggy on the Dudley No2 Canal

Windmill End Embankment - BCNS Archive

Cobs Mill 1950




Cobb's steam engine house,Windmill End, Netherton, New Tubes waiting to be installed, 1872

Bumblehole Boatyard - Laurence Hogg

Coal Boats being towed into Gosty Hill Tunnel

Gads Green Reservoir sump DCT Archive

Gads Green feeder channel

IWA trip through the Netherton Tunnel in 1951 - John Taplin

Click here to return to the Dudley Canals Area index page

The above photos have been assembled from various sources, including those freely found on the internet. My thanks go to the many photographers alive and dead who have contributed to this collection and in so doing, are keeping the memory of these lost canals alive. These images are reproduced for ease of research are are not necessarily the property of this blog, and as such should not be used for commercial gain without the explicit permission of the owner (whoever that may be).

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