Heartland

I was curious when that concrete stop and base was put in at Gopsall. I gather there was a porable conveyor there before. Now of course there are no deep mines, so the supply of coal is restricted.

Alan Faulkners map as published in Warwick Canals shows the related limeworks and thier ownership

This image was taken in 1974 If it helps What happened to NANCY is another related question

Was there an early Hire Boat base at the end of the Welford Arm ?

It will be of interest to see what is found out about this sad death. This is an area close to the Indoor Arena where there is a double towpath.

Can anybody remember the offside group of limekilns placed beside the locks which were part of the Blue Lias Limeworks. They were north of the Bridge beside the Blue Lias Public House. The 1904 Ordnance shows the kilns as a group of circles by the canal served by a tramway.

There is no record of the Leominster being a tub boat canal and certainly conveyed boats up to a certain size, Being an isolated waterway from Mamble to Leominster the boats on it may have varied in dimensions. Much of the history has concentrated on infrastructure, but carriage of coal seems to have been a principal cargo. Photos of the locks indicate boats were of a size comparable with narrow boat usage.

On the subject of what might have been there are many candidates. The completion of the Leominster Canal to Stourport is this category, So must be the Hock Crib Canal as suggested by William Cubbitt so that railway crossing of the Severn could be made 12miles south of Gloucester, The Admiralty objected to that one!

From a historical stand point it is probably inapropriate to link HS2 with the Grand Contour Canal Scheme. Whilst the Contour Canal envisaged the increased tonnage of boats and perhaps an element of increased speed, HS 2 is a specific railway project and it must be remembered that HS 1 has already been built. The Grand Contour Canal though proposed was not constructed. HS 2 whatever its faults and advatages is presently under construction.

Controlling the lock gave them total control of the junction And was the reason for the Wardle Lock Toll. When the Chester Canal Company first proposed the branch to Middlewich the Trent and Mersey objected to a junction and despite some work being done on the branch, the canal to Middlewich was abandoned. A more enlighted T & M management was reponsible for the control of junction branches both at Wardle and Hall Green later (the later being the Macclesfield Canal) see p 57-58 of my Trent and Mersey Book (Crowood Press) for the Wardle Reference. The Wardle Toll has been the subject of a RCHS Waterways History Group Paper. Peter Brown in his book Shropshire Union Canal RCHS 2018 has a map 1771 which shows a similar intended junction at Middlewich and deals with the construction of the Middlewich Branch for the Ellesmere & Chester Canal p98-100 and is also refered to in my Borders Canal Book (Canal Bookshop 2016) p 88-89.

There was a toll on boats raised by the T & M, hence the cottage was theirs

Well the Main Canal is the Wyrley and Essington part of the BCN. That section was called the Wednesfield Level before the stop lock at Horsleyfield Junction was removed. The boats look like they are at the junction with the Bentley Canal, but then other forms of transport are needed to follow that course.

How many Tycho's were there. I gather there was an ice breaker kept at Braunston called Tycho.

This is an interesting development If I recall the first bridge over the canal was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Bristol & Gloucester Broad Gauge Railway and was of timber construction.

The use of towpath tractors has an example of a photo in the Canal & River Trust Archive for a 1920's image relating to the Regents Canal. How many tractors were owned by the Regents Canal and the GU and their length of service may be a question to answer. The towage of of lighters on the lower Grand Union seems to be a separate use. With Thames Lighterage having a number of them in use for that service, and again there is the question of when the tractors ceased to be used.