Bradley Workshop Open Day

Bradley Workshop Open Day

February 2012

I really like BW's increasing openness about its backroom operations, lock gate replacement, lock repairs and now one an open day at one of the two UK lock gate factories.

Bradley lock gate factory

The Bradley Works (pronounced Braid-lee) is located at the far end of the Bradley Arm, itself part of Brindley's old main line before the Coseley Tunnel was built. These days few boats make their way up this obscure arm but that didn't deter the hundreds of boaters who made the pilgrimage to this place, one of BW's holy of holy's.

Bradley works from the canal basin

The open day was on Thursday 16th, a working day but as I was in Birmingham I made a point of flexing my hours to give me time to drive to Tipton and take a quick look around.

We all see lock gates every day but did you know that each one is unique? They all have to be surveyed and then built to fit the gap which will have changed as the chamber has moved and settled over the years. In fact, each gate is about 11cm wider at the top than at the bottom, a variation which can be doubled when you allow for two gates.

Big boys toys

Each gate is a veritable work of art, lovingly created out of solid oak with inset steel reinforcements to add rigidity and integrity. It's when you see these huge balks of timber you see where the money goes. A few gate facts:

• A single hinge post will have cost £500 for the timber
• A whole gate will have cost £25k - £30k
• Each gate will have taken one man three weeks to build
• Most gates will last 20 years, maybe 25 max.
• The site can make up to 160 gates each year

Perhaps the nicest thing is the enthusiasm of the staff for their herculean carpentry project. One of the workers has been there for over 20 years and commented that his first gate he ever made was for the Stourbridge dry dock and he has just built its replacement.

A skeleton gate

As something of a carpentry enthusiast I was fascinated by the construction methods employed. As well as the usual array of circular saws there were the vast planer / thicknessers and mortice cutters - everything built on a vast scale. But the most interesting facet for me was the construction  of the semicircular hinge posts - how do they create the perfect semi circle? I hunted for a monster spindle moulder but to no avail. A few questions revealed that they cut the 45 degree angles and then use electric planers to curve them by eye - and on a construction day the workshop would be knee deep in shavings. A little slice of heaven.

Having a balance beam added

There is loads more to this place than I can include in a single post so watch this space for more...

Donnington Wood Canal - Muxton to Abbey Farm (Pt4)

Donnington Wood Canal

Shropshire Golf Club, Muxton to Abbey Farm

February 2012

If you notice a sudden change in the light levels it will be because this is where we started our days exploration, and there is a good reason for this. The golf club do not welcome casual walkers wandering round their grounds, so we decided that we would simply stride in with confidence at dawn, before anyone was around to notice us.

Donington Wood canal at back end of golf club

Out tactics worked and wow, were we rewarded. Previous accounts of this canal are silent about the section between the golf club and Lilleshall Abbey, and this rather unofficial sortie provided some excellent canal hunting, as you will see.

Canal track beside the driving range

The section starts behind the driving range, with the canal line hugging the side fence and peppered with stray balls. The line curves to the right and suddenly the trench emerges in the rough, a spluttering start but then like an ageing engine, it settles down and runs as sweet as a nut. It skips on and off another fairway, looking very much like a canal at this point before exiting the club grounds. 

More navigable than the Swan Arm on the BCN!

Canal bed in the rough

By now the ditch is very clear as it passes Lilleshall Grove Farm, a long straight section lined with trees as crossing open farmland. The canal runs on a low embankment before terminating abruptly 400 yards before Abbey Farm.

Canal bed at Lilleshall Grove Farm

We could just make out a perfect hump backed bridge through the early morning mist. Prudence, a stout barbed wire fence and howling farm dogs suggested that further exploration would be unwise, so we settled for some photos with a telephoto lens and retreated to the relative safety of the golf club. 

Accommodation bridge at the rear of Abbey Farm

Our policy is that a line has been fully explored if we can lock sight on a landmark from both sides on an inaccessible section, so for this bit it's "job done".

Donnington Wood Canal - Lodge to Muxton (Pt 3)

Donnington Wood Canal

Lodge to Muxton (Part 3)

February 2012

Having pinned down the outfall of the Lodge Arm it was a relatively simple task to follow the line of the canal past old blast furnaces set into the hillside and round to a dismantled railway track which crossed the site.

Half buried blast furnaces

All the railways, tramways and plateways make a confusing mix of communication relics but you  have to remember that the canal was abandoned by the late 1880's so it will always be at the bottom. 

Tangled canal bed in Granville Park

We first tacked this section in the opposite direction and, having crossed the old railway line, struck off in completely the wrong direction, trying desperately to make the proposed line fit the topography we were looking at. This became increasingly implausible till eventually we found ourselves with no 100 metre contour to follow and time for a re-think. Top tip - take a compass with you on cloudy days!

Donnington Wood canal bed neat Muxton

The section across the old railway is one of the most baffling, covered with more spoil. As far as I can tell the line passed under the sculpted wooden hover fly, re-emerging about 400 yards further on in the form of a perfectly saucer shaped trench, now used as a bridle way. This trench continues  for about half a mile to the site of Muxton Bridge, now home to Shropshire Golf Club. 

Muxton mine pumping house

The section terminates at the site of the Muxton Colliery, and the associated pumping house which still stands as a ruin, but when operating it drained water from three local mines, lifting 9,350 gallons of water into the Donnington Wood Canal each day. No coal mine pumping engines = no water = no canal.

Through the public car park...

...and into the golf club

Muxton Bridge is long gone but the canal ran beneath the car park, crossing Muxton Lane and then curling to the right through the groundsman's yard, and into the Golf Club itself. Freed from the industrial backdrop the canal seems to relish its freedom, quickly returning to water and being used as a huge water feature at the start of the course. It has been excavated and curls round through 180 degrees to the start of the Blue Course. 

Donnington Wood Canal in Shropshire Golf Club

This is a public footpath so, for this section, our exploration was entirely legal. The groundsman has his hut just where the canal exits onto the fairway and keeps a beady eye on walkers to prevent trespass. We got the evil eye as we squeezed round the back but our presence at the edge of the course was tolerated as we took some photo's of the shallow water features which marks the route out to the north, towards the driving range.

 Out onto the course

... and approaching the driving range at the other side.

Always up for a challenge

BCN Marathon Challenge 2012

February 2012

If all the excitement of the C&RT election isn't enough, the ballot papers were followed up with some forms of a very different, but no less exciting kind.

The papers for this years Marathon Challenge have arrived complete with the arcane scoring guide and that sealed envelope which contains the cruising log and those crucial "treasure hunt" questions - all sealed with the strict instruction:

 "DO NOT OPEN BEFORE 8am ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF THE CRUISE". 

Oh the suspense. The event takes place on the first weekend in June (2nd and 3rd), the four day bank holiday to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. But that's four long months away, and by that time the weather will be warm and all this snow and ice will be long forgotten.

The one sad note on this topic is the absence of Graham Whorton, the late Chairman of BCNS, whose cheery face greeted all the boaters as they arrived in Walsall basin. Graham will be missed.

The Challenge papers

So now its time for some crucial route planning, that must be good for two or three nights down at the pub with my crew! Of course, the whole event will be the subject of lengthy debate of the Canal World Discussion Forum with rivalries rekindled and predictions made.

Those complicated scores

The BCNS Marathon Challenge is staged round the backwaters of the Black Country Canals, the little used Remainder canals which wind their way through what was the industrial powerhouse of the nation. Its a unique event in the world of canal boating, and one which should be experience at least once. 

So, if you have yet to finalise your cruising plans for the year and have the urge to do something a little out of the ordinary in the company of some passionate boaters why not enter? With 100 miles of canal to play with there is sure to be space for a few more boats....

See you in Walsall basin.

Donnington Wood Canal Granville Park and Lodge Arm (Pt 3)

Donnington Wood Canal Pt3

Granville Country Park and the Lodge Arm

February 2012

This is the second post in a series of ten covering the Donnington Wood Canal, but in reality it is the first post from the second day of our field research. From here on the maps tell us that the route is at time indistinct and at other times it is utterly lost, so our exploration dotted back and forth all the way to Lilleshall Quarries and Pave Lane. 

To make the account easier to read the posts will follow the course of the canal in sequence from west to east, starting at the Donnington Wood Road where it borders the Granville Country Park.

Lodge Basin 2012

This marks the boundary of the modern urban Telford with the countryside beyond, and it is important to get the entry point right. It is tempting to assume that place where the footpath runs under the road is the course of the old canal, but in fact you need to go a couple of hundred yards to the south and enter the colliery site through the gate marked private. Why are all the most interesting places private?

The path at the entrance of Granville Country Park

The line of the canal describes a wide arc bending steadily round to the left before turning nearly north under the lee of a long escarpment covered in trees. The modern track dosn't actually run on the line of the canal, but rather alongside it to the left,  and about 30 feet higher up! On this stretch it isn't the line that is the problem, its working out the levels in an area almost devoid of clues. We initially dismissed the adjacent trench as being far too deep for an early canal cutting but its true, the canal ran way below the modern ground level, either that or the ground has sunk a lot. 

Course of the canal at the bottom of the escarpment

Now here is the thing, this wasn't always a country park. Far from it, it was home to the huge Granville Mine and the Iron Smelting Furnaces it supported. This development was started by Granville Leveson, the 2nd Earl of Gower and, having made his pile of dosh, his successors became the Dukes of Sutherland. It is said that this family raised merry hell in the area, racing their souped up steam powered Dodge Challenger pursued by Sheriff Rosco P Coltraine and Boss Hogg - thus starting a tradition for illegal motor sports which persists to this day. ;-) 

This was ground zero of the the early industrial revolution and what with mining subsidence, slag heap re profiling and the creation of many tramways the topography of the area has been altered hugely.

Lodge Basin from the entrance bridge

The line of the Lodge Arm from the top of a 50ft slag heap

In the middle of the park you come to a crossroads, home of several burnt out vehicles (its that sort of park) and knowing that the Lodge Arm was off to the south it was tempting to think that the canal must have followed the graceful curve marked my the big green posts. The posts certainly take you to the right place but it wasn't the line of the Lodge Arm. At first glance we laughed when we saw the Lodge Arm Basin, all prettied up and nestling in the trees complete with its wharf and mooring bollards. It was far too low down. Gradually the penny dropped - that 50ft high hill behind us is man made, thrown up by the tailings from the Granville Colliery which reached out for several miles wreaking havoc with subsidence all around. 

Artistic license at the Lodge Furnaces  

The Lodge Arm was built in 1822 to serve two Iron Smelters build by the mighty Lilleshall Company to supplement its works at Donnington Wood. This site was expanded in 1846 and again in 1859 till finally five furnaces were operating on the site, all fed by coal brought in on small tub boats. Of course, the site is on the original level of the canal, but we did have the last laugh. The furnaces were blown out in 1888 but the display board shows a cheerful picture of traditional canal boats "put, put, putting" in and out of the basin. This is wrong on so many levels: It was a tub boat canal so no full length boats could pass through the inclined planes, the locks and bridges were limited to 6ft 7inches which is narrower than normal craft and crucially, the furnaces closed at least 30 years before the first spluttering Bollinders were employed in commercial carrying. But not withstanding all that, its a nice scene and a watery oasis in a sea of industrial decay.

The toxic Lodge Junction

The exit from the Lodge Arm was under a bridge whose southern portal remains and then its line is buried under abut 50 feet of slag. My question was - where does the water from the basin go?. To answer this I clambered down the bank at the far side and into the valley bottom where the main line canal appeared to run. A bit to searching led me to a huge iron pipe which emerges from the ground beneath which it the most lurid orange goo you ever did see. Its like quicksand mixed with fluorescent super glue. We had found the far end of the land drain, the site of the junction with the Donnington Wood Canal and perhaps most importantly, had established the level that the canal used to run at. From there it was a simple task to back track and figure out how far down the canal path used to run.

If you are tempted to explore the melancholic delights of this path, and you do take the time to find the Lodge Junction, steer clear of the toxic goo - I am still trying to get it off my shoes!