Team “The Workers” Virtual BCN Challenge 2020 Cruise Log

[KiwiBill]

I wish I was in a pub with ANYONE but it is the middle of the night at Catshills and I should be asleep. I have enough problems trying to find replacements for my lost marbles. Get off my back you pack of drunken hoons. The only living being I have seen in four days is 'Mr Here-is-Today's-Bad-News' on video every day. From reading other logs it is clear that my Magic Machine has not been tuned to my capabilities. Or do I have to cross the White Witch's palm with even more silver to make it work like everybody else's machine. I signed up for a Solo Challenge. But six days alone in the grey mist of a cramped command module  could exhaust my supply of marbles.

 

[Captain Pegg]

No work today. Yippee. We can set off early but first we go for a walk outside the basin, over Coombs bridge and up the hillside opposite where we set the Automat Sehnsucht to 1974 to remind ourselves of the fabulous work the Coombeswood Canal Trust have done at Hawne. It’s always worth a visit, it’s a very friendly and well kept place with excellent facilities. And security like Fort Knox to boot.

 

Photo credit: CCT website. 

 

We tune in to 1890 and set off along a pleasant meandering stretch of canal with the wooded grounds of The Leasowes away to our left. Its very different to the industry on the other side of Halesowen. It’s not long before we see the pumping station that houses the steam engine that will provide a flow of water to assist our passage through Lapal Tunnel.

 

For those that know it, imagine the 60m or so at the Coombeswood end of Gosty Hill Tunnel, the section where you can stand on the stern deck and touch the haunches of the tunnel arch with each hand on both sides of the crown. Then imagine the whole tunnel was that profile instead of just two relatively short sections, but still with just the one air shaft. It’s enough to put some people off transiting as it is, it would be a whole lot more intimidating as described above.

 

So now think about how you’d like to pass through if it were nearly seven times longer, but still the same profile and still with just the one air shaft. That’s Lapal Tunnel.

 

Given the progress we made through the constrained dimensions of Gosty Hill, barely averaging one mile an hour, I don’t think there is any possibility that we can motor through Lapal without asphyxiating ourselves. So it’s back to legging again.

 

Thankfully we will get assistance from the pump which loads water into the tunnel and allows the level to be raised between the stop gates that are provided at each end of the tunnel. The water can then be released to create a flow in one direction throughout the tunnel.

 

In the real world it takes about two hours to leg Dudley Tunnel but that involves poling and drifting through caverns. In the main tunnel it’s possible to get speed up to around 2 mph. Lapal is about a third longer than the main section of Dudley Tunnel so it’ll be hard work to keep to time and the assistance will be necessary to enable us to do so. Another difficulty is that it is a smaller diameter so there’s less leverage to get purchase with the legs.

 

We pass through the stop gate and the water level is raised. We’re given the nod to go from the tunnel master.

 

Photo credit: From Capt Ahab’s website

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Rob-M]

The sort of tunnel experience described above...

 

 

 

[Captain Pegg]

The Lapal Tunnel was closed in the early 20th century following a roof fall having suffered from subsidence and distortion throughout its life. The problem was a combination of the geology and the construction of the tunnel.

 

Although it only had one air shaft for ventilation purposes there were up to 30 shafts sunk for construction. Spoil was piled around each shaft and the effects can still be seen today, although much of the land above the tunnel is now housing estates.

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[TheBiscuits]

34 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Coombeswood Canal Trust have done at Hawne. It’s always worth a visit, it’s a very friendly and well kept place with excellent facilities.

 

And discounted diesel. And beer. And a very warm welcome indeed.

 

We'll be back!

[Captain Pegg]

6 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

And discounted diesel. And beer. And a very warm welcome indeed.

 

We'll be back!

The beer is ridiculously cheap. £1 for a bottle of Batham’s.

[Captain Pegg]

The Lapal Tunnel wasn’t the only east-west tunnel through the high ground to the south of Birmingham. About a mile further south is the Frankley Tunnel that forms part of the Elan aqueduct, the 73 mile long waterway that provides drinking water to Birmingham. Water supply to the high ground on which this industrial heartland sat wasn’t just a problem for the BCN.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Captain Pegg]

Naturally we keep exactly to time through the tunnel and the real reason for a west to east passage is revealed. There’s a pub at the eastern portal but not at the western portal.

 

Onwards past the site of Weoley Castle, which gave its name to the modern day area of Birmingham in which the current Mrs Pegg did once briefly live. 

 

We arrive at Selly Oak and immediately return to the present only to discover we’ve just cruised through a high rise building. For a moment I think we’ve gone too far and headed into the future as there appears to be a bridge over the site of the junction that wasn’t there at the start of lockdown.

 

Photo credit: Lapal Canal Trust

I’ve cruised the section from Selly Oak to Birmingham many times and a transit at 1.5 mph isn’t too appealing so I leave the First Officer in charge and jump on a train into Birmingham. I’ll catch up with the them later at Gas Street so I don’t miss any BCN. I’m off to do some more exploring.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Rob-M]

With a day away from working finally got to map out Team "The Workers" route so far...

 

https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive?state={"ids":["1bdLHaX5oOvFoixfSFpaVXz7xppOSaPVm"],"action":"open","userId":"100585982269129274177"}

 

 

[tree monkey]

Not a very exciting challenge today just a photo of the cabin top, it's an area I tend to keep tidy as far as possible but the recent panic/bulk buying has required some storage innovations

I was a touch concerned the rather valuable products would become a thief magnet, so I employed Chaffy as a guard, don't let that cute demeanor fool you roused he can be a nasty bugger.

Another interesting idea was Tommy the Tardigrade who I use to keep the algae down on the roof, it started well but unfortunately he seems to have hit the bottle, shame

Please note the ecoventfan, it's on trial and they say helps increase high level ventilation, this is a very new high tech product that has ironed out the poor performance of the old fire based ecofan by the additional of a tiny highly sophisticated chocolate teapot

 

 

 

[Captain Pegg]

In Birmingham I’m going to take a look at the streets behind Farmer’s Bridge locks. We’re not planning to cover those as part of our challenge.

 

I’ve walked up the hill from New Street station and along Newhall Street, we’ll be back here later. I cross the canal literally over the top of lock nine of the Farmers Bridge flight.

 

If only I’d got the sign in shot, but it does say “Newhall Street Bridge”.

 

Then I turn left onto Charlotte Street. Today it’s all office blocks but on 25th November 1889 there’s a row of houses along the street and as I approach the end of the row a young woman is near pushed out of a front door by an older man who beckons her to “get a move on, Clara.” She’s in her wedding dress. I have to take evasive action and the man, presumably her father, apologises to me and says “we can’t be too late. I don’t want to be left saddled with ‘er. She should be boating off into the sunset this evening.” Sounds like these might be boat people.

 

 

I head on up the hill and take a detour along Scotland Street just to confirm the candle works is still the same building that stands immediately below the top lock.

 

Then it’s back to the present so I can access the towpath to head back to Gas Street and await the arrival of the slow boat from Selly Oak.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Captain Pegg]

The slow boat has arrived from Selly Oak and I hop back on board at Worcester Bar. I’ve worked in many offices in this area over the years and my wife still does, and though I’ve long known that many buildings are built on top of old canal wharves the presence of the Gibson’s Arm was news to me. So we’re off to explore it.

 

We head up toward Old Turn Junction but before we get there we find we need to turn right at Deep Cuttings Junction ?. All we know is, it’s not Farmer’s Bridge Junction. First though we have to give way to a former working boat often seen on the BCN. ?

 

We continue on our way onto the Newhall branch which was of course one of the original terminuses of the Birmingham Canal, the other being the Old Wharf at Paradise St beyond what’s now Gas Street basin.

 

We head past the basin at Cambrian Wharf and then Crescent Wharf with warehouses overhanging the canal side. We’re following the same line as the Farmer’s Bridge flight but remain on the contour so we’re high above it. Then we diverge a little toward the city centre and reach the basin at the end having passed the junction with the Gibson’s arm. We turn and head for the Gibson’s Arm.

 

Traversing the Gibson arm is something of a subterranean affair and there’s even a lock involved. We head down the basin marked Gibson’s Arm on our map, the one that now runs under the site of Baskerville House and the Birmingham Central Library and on which line I’ve stood many times without realising it.

 

We nose up to the end to ensure we can claim the points but find there is nowhere to turn. We reverse past the boats bumping along a few - because Vulpes does like going backwards - which annoys the workers. We’re glad to get back to the end of the basin and turn.

 

When we get back to Deep Cuttings Junction we pass ourselves again. Only this time on CRT heritage boats Scorpio and Leo. I’ve sure I’ve seen those deck boards before somewhere.

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Rob-M]

Researching why Scorpio and Leo were in Birmingham turns up the video of the BCN 250 anniversary parade.

 

 

[Captain Pegg]

We’re now on the last leg of our journey for today. We’d love to go the scenic way and tell you all about the loops but I’m sure someone’s already done that and anyway, you can cruise them for yourself.

 

We’re going to cut to the chase and head straight down the main line to get to the interesting bit. For the umpteenth time we pass ourselves, this time we’re heading over and under the Engine Arm aqueduct at the same time. A prize to anyone who can identify the CRT trustee on board.

 

 

To get a feel for how the Birmingham Canal used to be we decide to travel in 1911. As we approach Steward Aqueduct a horseboat passes overhead. It’s Thomas Clayton tar boat fleet No 7, the Leam, registered in Birmingham as number 800, or is it 868? Blame my astigmatism, or some iffy transcription, or the fact it maybe carried both numbers. I’ll try and find out more about this boat later.

 

Photo credit: Neal family

As we pass under the aqueduct there’s a man looking down from the canal cottage. He looks familiar and he also looks at me like we’ve met before so we slow down. I realise it’s the man who’s daughter was getting married, he must have a very good memory.

 

We decide to stop and talk. He’s tells us his name is William Neal and that he was once a boatman but for over twenty years now has been an employee of the BCN working at Bromford Junction and the Spon Lane flights.

 

Photo credit: Neal family

 

We tell him we think we’ve met some people from his family and he confirms that he is also a child of James Neal and that the family came to the BCN from Banbury as they had a family connection there through a cousin who had married an apprentice boatbuilder many years before in Banbury.

 

He told us his daughter had married David Marlow and was now a long distance boatwoman. And indeed census records tell us they were at Deptford on the Royal Surrey Canal in 1891 and at Runcorn in 1901 on board a boat called ‘Middleport’. At one point they worked for Samuel Barlow. Mrs Marlow died in Cheshire in 1932 so possibly while still boating and Mr Marlow settled in north Warwickshire. Mr Marlow was originally from Foleshill, the parish that included Sutton Stop in Victorian times.

 

We headed on to our mooring place at Pudding Green Junction but as we arrived the virtual craft of Team Marie Celeste barged it’s way out of the junction and tried to pinch the prime mooring spot. I think they should be docked points for that.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Captain Pegg]

Above we encountered the horse boat ‘Leam’. For the record I am not suggesting it is the boat in the photo, it most definitely is not for a variety of reasons. Not least being that the photo is far more recent than you may imagine given it appears to feature two horseboats passing on Steward Aqueduct.

 

Leam was recorded at Oldbury Wharf in the 1901 census. In my log above it’s 1911 that we see Leam because I couldn’t marry up the timeline in which William Neal lived at The Ropery, Spon Lane (for that was the name of the cottage) with the recording of Leam. There is a reason I wanted to include both people in the log.

 

In 1901 the boat was crewed by Henry Drakeford, 67, his wife Annie, 59, and Lucy, 17, listed as their daughter but probably their grand-niece. The boat is listed in Narrow Boat magazine’s Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) fleet list as health registered at Birmingham as no. 800 but transcripts of Grand Junction Canal health inspections have it as no. 868 on 3rd August 1901 when it appears to have been occupied solely by Henry and Anne Drakeford.

Henry Drakeford was born in Cropredy in 1834 and by 1901 had boated for many years on the Grand Junction Canal. He was also recorded with the Leam in 1891 at Simpson. Unfortunately he met his death by drowning in Far Cotton Wharf, Northampton in 1903.
 

Death or significant injury was an occupational hazard for any boating family. There are sometimes suggestions that boat people had some form of innate skills or behavioural characteristics that protected them from the dangers of the waterways. To me that theory doesn’t bear scrutiny.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[BlueStringPudding]

7 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Not a very exciting challenge today just a photo of the cabin top, it's an area I tend to keep tidy as far as possible but the recent panic/bulk buying has required some storage innovations

I was a touch concerned the rather valuable products would become a thief magnet, so I employed Chaffy as a guard, don't let that cute demeanor fool you roused he can be a nasty bugger.

Another interesting idea was Tommy the Tardigrade who I use to keep the algae down on the roof, it started well but unfortunately he seems to have hit the bottle, shame

Please note the ecoventfan, it's on trial and they say helps increase high level ventilation, this is a very new high tech product that has ironed out the poor performance of the old fire based ecofan by the additional of a tiny highly sophisticated chocolate teapot

 

 

 

Poor Tardebigge the Tardigrade, reduced to a life on the bottle thanks to lockdown redundancy meaning liveaboards are cleaning the algae off their rooftops themselves instead... (if not apparently cleaning it from their roof hatches.   )

There's no government funded furlough scheme even for a self-employed phylum moss piglet.  He's certainly let himself go and gained some weight compared to his notoriously microscopic brethren. Poor Tardebigge...

[Rob-M]

Yesterday's route added to the map, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bdLHaX5oOvFoixfSFpaVXz7xppOSaPVm

 

[Rob-M]

Need to start the day the healthy way...

 

[Rob-M]

Lunch is being prepared...

 

[Captain Pegg]

Only a short hop today from Pudding Green to Bradley. Time then to take a few detours along the way. Right, let’s head for everybody’s favourite canal, the Walsall.

 

Well actually it’s not the Walsall. Whereas today the Walsall is generally considered to be Pudding Green Junction to Birchills Junction it never reached either of those places officially. The southern end is correctly the Wednesbury Canal so that’s were we start.

 

We’re going to take the Wednesbury as far is it currently exists which is the winding hole at Swan Village. We head off along one of the remaining sections of the BCN where you pass working factories, and by that I mean proper factories not industrial units. We exchange waves with workers stood outside fire exits “‘aving a fag”. Soon we arrive at Ryders Green Junction where the Walsall Canal leaves the main line of the Wednesbury Canal

 

Although the next bit of canal is officially part of the open 100 miles of the BCN we’ve still got to turn back the time to avoid stirring up the toxic silt beyond here which means that today it is not permitted to navigate the remaining section. In truth it’s now so overgrown that you couldn’t cruise it even if you tried. The navigable extent of the canal was truncated 30 years ago by the Black Country Spine Road so we’ll turn back time to then.

 

This remaining short stub beyond Ryders Green is often referred to as the Ridgeacre branch, but it isn’t. That was beyond the end of the current connected extent. It’s only a short cruise to the winding hole at the end, and for me that completes navigation of all the remaining sections of the BCN.

 

 

We return to Ryders Green and head down the locks. There’s always a bit of pot luck involved with navigating Ryders Green locks, they suffer from leaking gates and short silted silted up pounds so there are often low water levels. And that’s before we add in frequent acts of vandalism.

 

We bump over a shopping trolley in the long pound between the bottom two locks which is next to a supermarket. No alarm, that’s a routine occurrence here, but an annoying one all the same.

 

We’re safely through the locks and a quick check shows that we’re perfectly on time, naturally. Time checks are an essential feature of any Challenge.

 

We’re heading up to the Gospel Oak branch but I want to turn back time a few decades so I can see how Ocker Hill power station dominated the skyline here. From the tiller I call in to the cabin to turn back time 40 years but I think they have played a little joke on me.

 

 

We’re now retracing our steps of earlier in the week so we have to forego a few points. We reach the junction with the Gospel Oak branch and can start to earn points again.

 

Gospel Oak Branch Junction

 

Again it’s back in time only this time we have to go way back but already there are abandoned coal workings along the branch. It serves the furnaces at Willingsworth which we pass on our right and as we reach what appears to be the end of the branch we see there is a further spur to the works of John Dumaresq. Even more intriguingly this arm contains locks. It’s a private canal but we have special permission to explore it.
 

End of Gospel Oak branch in 2010. Photo credit: Capt Ahab

 

We return to the end of the Gospel Oak branch and I’m going to leave the crew to continue without me. I’ll pick them up later at Moorcroft Jn so I don’t miss transiting any new canal. First though I’m off to make my last visit of the week. It’s to Ocker Hill Road which is just down the road from the end of the Gospel Oak branch.

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Captain Pegg

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, Rob-M said:

Yesterday's route added to the map, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bdLHaX5oOvFoixfSFpaVXz7xppOSaPVm

 

This is going to be very useful for us for next years Virtual BCN challenge!

[tree monkey]

I got asked to cook for the team today and as it's the last day of the challenge food is getting a bit short, so it's a bitsa sort of meal.

Well I knew we had some propa black pud, some decent bacon and eggs, ideal I thought a fry, until of course I went looking for the eggs, hmmmm it seems that Rob bloke nicked the last of them, so it's an eggless fry, well more of a make your own butty fry

 

 

 

 

 

Due the great yeast shortage of 2020 I threw together a sourdough. 

Not my greatest tbh but beggars can't be chosers

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by tree monkey

[tree monkey]

There is of course the option for a wigan kebab

 

And to finish a lemon drizzle cake

 

[TheBiscuits]

4 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

And to finish a lemon drizzle cake

 

I'm with Gordon Ramsey on this one:

"When it's brown it's cooked, when it's black it's ...."

[tree monkey]

Just now, TheBiscuits said:

 

I'm with Gordon Ramsey on this one:

"When it's brown it's cooked, when it's black it's ...."

Bugger off you

It's not as black as the picture makes it, in fact it's not burnt at all