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HuggableHamster

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    Rebellion

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  1. Rivets 5000 won on points… I think the rest of us won on having space 🤣
  2. Hope everyone is feeling better rested! Thank you for a lovely event @Captain Pegg - excellent curry, terrible singing! See you all next year!
  3. Yes we got the message just as we were pondering a beer before Rushall, oh well some replanning has occurred and we now have 50% more locks to do than our original plan!
  4. We’ve just seen our first boat of the day, passed Dolly on the Walsall!
  5. As we onboard Rebellion William have been very strictly adhering to the not leaving the boat (combined with me having injured my hip before lockdown and it not being fully recovered) our food is not up to our usual standards... Bacon Butties for breakfast, crisp and ham sandwiches for lunch (plus some really nice cheese), a little liquid refreshment on our way then to the chippy for the local delicacy of orange chips!
  6. Log Time: 14:45, Wednesday 21st October 1801 Location: The Gospel Oak Ironworks, The (B$*&$&!!!!) Dumaresque Branch We arrived at the Ironworks, but there was no sign of ironworking today. The machines were silent and no other boats were to be seen. The only person was a very grumpy man, he was well dressed and as we approached he came over to us. “Have you seen this!” He exclaimed waving a copy of yesterday’s London Gazette, we shook our heads and he pointed to this announcement... “What are they playing at? Do you know where I can find this John Read fellow, I’ve come to collect my dues!” We shook our heads again, and presume he must’ve taken us for idiots as he huffed and turned sharply around. But we know this was not the end for the iron works, it seems it would go on to be taken over by Samuel Walker, whose company would go on to make the cannon for HMS Victory. Research notes The key to planning a good trip, is to know where you can go, and well that requires research - and @smudgepuss's amazing map! A lot of this research involved reading through Bradshaws, scouring old maps and google searches that kept ending up on Capt Ahab’s blog. It was on this (http://captainahabswaterytales.blogspot.com/2010/12/gospel-oak-branch-bcn-upper-reaches.html) particular entry about the gospel oak branch we saw a note. Update 30.11.12 My thanks go to Ray Shill who advised me that there was a further short lived extension to this canal: "One of the more obscure BCN private branches was the Dumaresq Branch that linked with the end of the Gospel Oak Branch and ascended through two locks to Gospel Oak Ironworks. It appears to have had a short period of existence, and I have only found it on one map at Birmingham Library Archives" This fateful note sent us down a rabbit hole... without the ability to get to Birmingham Library Archives we had an enormous task ahead of us. Where was this branch, where did it go, when did it go there? The answer to these and many other questions were obscured by the fact that Colonel John Dumaresq, after who (or possibly his brother Philip) the canal branch is presumably named, had two very famous sons, a very famous descendant who invented a mechanical calculating device and (as seen above) went out of business fairly soon after the canal was built. The man himself, he did many things, but have an easily findable canal branch, not a chance. In spite of this, and resorting to reading through such delights as the reports of Lord Dudley’s coal estate exploits... I suspect the poor F. Dumaresq was the Lieutenant Colonel’s brother Philip... we did eventually find a likely route... And then *finally* yesterday! We found this beauty... (this photo was buried somewhere on Ahab’s blog. We’ll certainly buy the map if we ever come across it in real life!) It would’ve been very useful if we’d found this 2 weeks ago! But who doesn't love spending hours searching for online maps, that may or may not have the lost canal branch on them! So our GPS continues... https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=14DTZ6L-V-Dc2k2KlIsBdrtdTW5R36awN&ll=52.54251902144439%2C-1.9980846112136987&z=12
  7. Silly Minion it’s for the pandemic not a panda called Mick!
  8. Remember: Rule 0: Don't go in the cut Rule 1: Don't empty the cut Rule 2: Don't be on fire Rule 3: Use the facilities at the pub!
  9. Log time: 17:55, Tuesday 10th September 2019 Location: Oldbury Loop, North junction with Old Main Line Traveling in the present day there wasn’t much to see here, but we have a hunch that with an appropriate tweak to the Automat, tomorrow a loop of the old main line will appear heading left. And so, we tied our lines for the night, and went in search of orange chips from a local chippy. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=14DTZ6L-V-Dc2k2KlIsBdrtdTW5R36awN&ll=52.53999362466787%2C-2.0526729290847925&z=15
  10. Log Time: 17:45, Thursday 22nd January 1959 Location: Blue Ball Basin We passed some men raising a barge that looked like it had been sunk for some time. (Credit http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB145_p_2073/)
  11. GPS: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=14DTZ6L-V-Dc2k2KlIsBdrtdTW5R36awN&ll=52.617515884149135%2C-2.232917956164897&z=10 We've come so far!
  12. Log time: 17:20, Saturday 26th May 2018 Location: Tividale Quays We snapped a photo of ourselves at Tividale Quays while taking part in the 2018 challenge - we don’t think we noticed it was us passing by...
  13. GPS - https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=14DTZ6L-V-Dc2k2KlIsBdrtdTW5R36awN&ll=52.5388516599824%2C-2.0585687887175936&z=14 Log time: 16:15, Saturday September 9th 1899 Location: Top Lock, Toll End Communication Canal We got to the top lock to find there was no water in the main line! The keeper informed us there had been a massive breach at Dudley Port and all traffic would be stopped, probably for months! (Image from https://oldnblist.wordpress.com/author/canalorak/page/3/) We waited until the keep’s back was turned and swiftly returned to 1809 to continue our passage up the Tipton Green locks - unimpeded by the yet to be constructed New Main Line. Research side note: We’re not quite sure what the archivist was thinking when they wrote “Unfortunately, no-one was killed.”: http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB145_p_118/
  14. GPS update: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=14DTZ6L-V-Dc2k2KlIsBdrtdTW5R36awN&ll=52.5307874847195%2C-2.0553482863450654&z=15 Log time: 15:55, Wednesday 13th June 1821 Location: Horseley Ironworks What a sight, we were lucky enough to see parts of the Aaron Manby (the ship) being packed up to be taken to Rotherhithe to be constructed. Overseeing this was of course Aaron Manby (the man) who was keen to make sure everything went smoothly for this, the first iron steamship to put to sea. It was a hive of activity, but everything was run with precision, and it is easy to see why even in the current time many bridges across the canal bear the Horseley Ironworks name, and indeed even after its move in 1865 from this site it stayed in business until the 1990s.
  15. Oh dear... I haev sent you an email with the video, ill try and work out what happened this evening!
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