Reflections in Gas St Basin - Birmingham Canal Navigations

Reflections in Gas St Basin
Sunday 4th October 2009

With 30 minutes to kill, where better to spend them than in and around Gas Street Basin with my camera?

The old and the new across Worcester Bar

With the sky full of autumnal sunset the light and shadows were great, begging to be photographed.

Cromford Canal Walk, Pinxton Arm

Cromford Canal Walk, Pinxton Arm

Codnor Reservoir to Smotherfly

Sunday 4th October 2009

The Pinxton Arm is an obscure 1794 branch of what would have once been described as the Cromford Canal mainline, not that either canal has carried any waterborne traffic for decades.

The arm strikes off to the east of Codnor Reservoir, through the village of Ironville before reaching the Pinxton about three miles to the north east, running on the same contour as the rest of the Cromford Canal summit pound.

Pinxton canal bed approaching Smotherfly

After a rather spectacular sandstone bridge at the junction, the canal burrows its way behind the dam wall and then under a footbridge before sneaking into the back end of Ironville, complete with a 'de-humped' bridge by the church and a further low flat topped railway bridge. Whilst the canal bed has been completely filled in, it's route remains obvious and the bridges are intact. In fact, they are all pre sprayed with graffiti so all you need is a JCB and a drop of water and us boaters would feel right at home!

Ironville church and 'de-humped' bridge

This section of canal bed to the east of Ironville has been converted into the Pinxton Canal Path, a well maintained route through the trees whose early autumn colours were quite beautiful at the time of our visit. Before long this path brings you to the busy road at Pye Bridge, where the bridge and it's cast iron balustrades are intact, but obscured by undergrowth. By this time the formal canal path runs out, but you can continue on to the double arched railway bridge after which the canal track completely and utterly disappears. When I say disappears, I don't mean it becomes difficult to discern. I mean that it's course was removed in the 1990's when the Somertherfly open cast mine eradicated the canal and dropped the surface level by 30 feet or so.

Woodland walk on the Pinxford Canal Path

We clambered across to the abandoned workings and climbed the ridge of mine tailings, trying to work out exactly where the canal bed re-emerges on the far side. It's not obvious, but its path lies across the valley to the north east. Sadly, we could find no way of reaching it but determined to explore the final section next time we visit, starting at the Pinxton Wharf end.

Abandoned railway bridge at Ironville

The interesting thing about the Pinxton Arm is that it provides a good interim objective for the restoration project. Rather than tackle the two big road embankments and the Butterley Tunnel straight after the restoration of the locks above Langley Mill, the plan is to reopen the Pinxton Arm which, Smotherfly apart, has no significant obstructions. As as for Smotherfly, the site included a channel for the diverted River Erewash which could easily be adapted to carry the canal, and there is no shortage of spoil with which to construct the necessary embankments. The Friends of Cromford Canal have been hard at work and secured planning permission to include the canal line in 2008.

A notable feature of this canal track is the total absence of water, there isn't even a trace of boggyness. However, I suspect that the River Erewash can be channelled in to supplement the supply from Butterley Tunnel, pending the eventual reconnection with the abundantly supplied section at Cromford.

Cromford Canal Walk - Butterley to Ironville

Cromford Canal Walk - Butterley to Ironville

Sunday 4th October 2009

A bright autumnal day in Derbyshire heralded the next stage in our exploration of the Cromford Canal, picking up where we left off at the Butterley Tunnel.

Having consulted Google Earth images we identified the eastern portal of the Buttlerley Tunnel, set back among the trees behind the ruined Newlands Inn. We parked up in Golden Valley Lane and soon found a footpath down to an open stretch of water, with the barred entrance to the tunnel at the far end. The portal looks very small but this is due to the accumulation of silt and debris at its mouth.

Butterley Tunnel eastern portal

As with the cutting to the west, this stretch is cut short by an embanked road crossing with the watercourse piped through its base. It is easy to imagine this peaceful cutting either side of the embankment lined with moored boats, with their crews relaxing in the reopened Newlands Inn, a staging post before a timed tunnel passage through the narrow Butterley from the Golden Valley to the beauty of Ambergate beyond. I could almost smell the woodsmoke from the narrowboat chimneys.

Disused footbridge at Golden Valley

Across the road to the east the canal is largely in water, with a well maintained and popular towpath bordering Coach Road all the way to Codnor Reservoir, which is about 4ft lower than the canal. At first glance the canal enters the western end on the reservoir but in actual fact the water flows over a weir with the canal skirting its southern edge.

Codnor Reservoir

The canal's sunken path is hidden by trees till it emerges beside the spillway, opposite the bridge over the entrance to the Pinxton Arm. I guess that a small aqueduct or a piped embankment will be needed to gain access to this arm.

Pinxford Junction bridge

For the purposes of our walk we went round the northern shore of the reservoir on the outward leg of the journey, heading straight for the scaffold clad tower of Ironville Church.

Middle Aged Spread

Middle Aged Spread

Age takes its toll and after a while many things start to bulge a bit. Its true of old working boats and its true of boaters in general.

As a child I distinctly remember arriving at Hurleston Bottom Lock to find a band of boaters trying vainly to make their old wooden narrowboat fit into the slimline chamber. They huffed and puffed about bowing walls, but of course it was actually a combination of spread on the part of both the lock and the craft trying to get in. They never did get into that lock, which is still one of the tightest on the system.

Photo courtesy of the TNC archive

I have suffered the same fate, my middle gradually spreading over the years, trying to accept this change with sanguine resignation. However, last year I took drastic action and lost 2.5 stone in as many months. Here we are, a year later and about 10 lbs have crept back on again - this won't do.

My litmus test is my trusty dinner jacket, an item I bought over 20 years ago before we got married. All my 36 inch waist trousers were thrown away years ago, except the DJ which lurked away in the recess of my wardrobe. After my diet I proudly wore the suit to Christmas functions and figured it could be safely pressed into service again for the forthcoming National Franchisee of the Year Awards.

Jeff caught me trying it on a couple of weeks ago, noticing a certain tightmess around the bottom and the excessive strain on the seams. Time for dreastic action and another visit to Mr Tonks, the friendly Cambridge Diet man who helped me shape up last time.

Two weeks on and eight pounds lighter I am on target to slip into that ageing DJ once again.

Hey man, thats not my dinner jacket!

So, the moral of the story is that locks only get narower and boats only get wider but our own girth can be controlled. I swear by the Cambridge Diet as a fast and relaible way to shed unwanted weight, and if you happen to see me wandering around central Birmingham in an outmoded dinner jacket and a superior grin on my face, you know the reason why.

Basin project in a lather

Basin project in a lather

A Brummie joke for you:

Q. What the difference between a Buffalo and a Bison?

A. You can wash your hands in a bison.

The old ones are the best...........

Well I have a basin rampaging around my workshop, rampaging because I am having all sorts of bother getting it to stay put.

The trouble is that because the surround is designed as a fitted unit, it depends on the structure of the boat to keep it rigid, which is a bit of a handicap when I am constructing it 15 miles away at home.

And so I have to build it based on a few basic measurements, a lot of hope and some scope for trimming when I start to fit it in. I know it won't fit - things never do on boats because of all the odd angles, but my carpentry projects always seem to work out all right in the end. Its one of life's mysteries really.

What you see are the bare essentials fixed together in a minimalist sort of fashion, testing out how it will look. I am rather pleased with it so far. Bones - what do you think?

Its a long way from finished so I'll keep you posted.

Just so long as I don't have to pull the plug on the endeavour! (groan).