Aston & Birmingham Canals c1980

[Tim Lewis]

Came across these pictures which may be of interest:

 

http://www.pbase.com/beppuu/ast_canal

 

Tim

[Bullfrog]

Great pictures, very evocative.

 

Odd how black and white can sometimes do a better job than colour.

 

david

[Hairy-Neil]

Thanks for the reminder. I first passed that way in september 1984 and that's about how I recall it being.

[Breals]

So haunting, those pictures of the city centre canal-scape. Some bits of the BCN still have that quality, but they're being redeveloped all the time. Get out and see the BCN before the industrial heritage (the forgotten weed-choked arms, derelict wharfs, and warehouses) are built over or spruced up, landscaped, and turned into sterile tourist attractions or retail outlets.

[stort_mark]

So haunting, those pictures of the city centre canal-scape.

 

I went to uni at Aston in the 80s and have a load of photos somewhere of walks along the BCN in every direction from there. Fond memories, and it was these walks that got me into canals in the first place.

[Lingy]

Nice share thanks a lot

 

i love black and white pics !!

[alan_fincher]

Yes superb pictures, and actually better for being B&W.

 

I can't claim to know the BCN that well, but made a couple of forays there in the early 1970s, and these pictures are so evocative of what I remember.

 

An experience that can't be repeated, as very little of the modern day BCN is anything like so atmospheric.

 

I have a pathetically small number of not very god B&W prints taken on the Regents Canal in the early 1970s, and, having recently boated through there, am staggered that there is very little today that connects strongly with pictures taken 35 years ago.

 

If you have any other gems of this nature, please share them with us.

 

Alan

[RLWP]

Oh, how the past can pull at your heartstrings!

 

I think this is now where the NIA is, looking back towards Broad street, but where's the church? Does anyone remember when it was demolished?

 

Richard

 

[stort_mark]

.... but where's the church? Does anyone remember when it was demolished?

 

 

I think it was above the canal to the north of Broad Street so would definitely have been visible in your photo.

I am fairly sure it was gone by 1983. Anyone remember the Rumrunner Club that was here (on the other side of the bridge towards the city centre)

 

(Great photo btw!!)

Edited June 23, 2008 by stort_mark

[RLWP]

I think it was above the canal to the north of Broad Street so would definitely have been visible in your photo.

I am fairly sure it was gone by 1983. Anyone remember the Rumrunner Club that was here (on the other side of the bridge towards the city centre)

 

(Great photo btw!!)

 

 

I think the Opposite Lock club was there too, and somewhere around here was the legendary Barbarellas!

 

After a brief google, the church was the Church of the Messiah and was demolished in 1978. 1978! But I can remember it being there over the canal - am I getting old?? That means that my memories of that area as it is in the pictures must be from 1976-1977.

 

Richard

 

p.s. Found this on the Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries site. This is how I remember Gas Street! BM&AG

Edited June 23, 2008 by RLWP

[dove]

Came across these pictures which may be of interest:

 

http://www.pbase.com/beppuu/ast_canal

 

Tim

 

Just looking through the pics on this site and spotted on row 4 pic 4 (far right) what looks like the Birmingham Water Bus, Britannia. Which is now ex FMC Dove.

Can anyone confirm this, thanks.

 

Andrew

Edited July 7, 2008 by dove

[Derek R.]

Something attractive in haunting semi-dereliction. Gas Street, and the area surrounding the NIA has been sanitised by development.

 

Couple of shots from the excellent Birmingham Canal Navigations Society book 'The BCN in Pictures' published by and copyrighted to the BCNS 1982, first published 1973, and from a copy purchased at Cambrian Stores in 1983.

 

A lost canal. The Newhall branch in Birmingham City centre C 1920.

 

 

And three ladies together at Cambrian Wharf about the same year.

 

[stort_mark]

but where's the church? Does anyone remember when it was demolished?

 

Richard

 

There's a photo of the church spire and a sketch of the church itself on the Birmingham History forum. I think you need to be a member to see them though.

[Derek R.]

There's a photo of the church spire and a sketch of the church itself on the Birmingham History forum. I think you need to be a member to see them though.

 

Just looking through that collection again, and notice some shots are duplicated - the second of the two are without skyline structures, so some of the photos may have been 'doctored' (what a lovely old fashioned word for 'amputated' - origins Naval C1700's?)

[bag 'o' bones]

Why not revisist the scenes and take new pictures to highlight the changes?

 

Similar to this:

 

http://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/main/main.php

 

I'd love to have the knowledge to put something together similar

[BuckbyLocks]

I think the Opposite Lock club was there too, and somewhere around here was the legendary Barbarellas!

 

After a brief google, the church was the Church of the Messiah and was demolished in 1978. 1978! But I can remember it being there over the canal - am I getting old?? That means that my memories of that area as it is in the pictures must be from 1976-1977.

 

Richard

 

p.s. Found this on the Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries site. This is how I remember Gas Street! BM&AG

 

I think the spire of the church is just visible in this picture, but the church itself would have been hidden behind the Lucas Building and the old Brasshouse School. 78 sounds about right for the demolition, but the church hall and associated buildings survived a little longer. They were used in the Cliff Richard Film, 'Take me High' as the restaurant. The Opposite Lock was the other side of the Worcester Bar.

I can confirm that the trip boat in the pictures of the Birmingham Canal was the 'Brittania'. I steered it many times. The motor in the related pictures is the 'Chertsey'

My first memory of Gas Street is 1971 and the lock beams had been gone for a very long time then.

[owen]

Something attractive in haunting semi-dereliction. Gas Street, and the area surrounding the NIA has been sanitised by development.

 

Couple of shots from the excellent Birmingham Canal Navigations Society book 'The BCN in Pictures' published by and copyrighted to the BCNS 1982, first published 1973, and from a copy purchased at Cambrian Stores in 1983.

 

A lost canal. The Newhall branch in Birmingham City centre C 1920.

 

 

And three ladies together at Cambrian Wharf about the same year.

 

this picture i found interesting as my wife is called Elizabeth and my daugter Lorna were this boats a pair does anyone know and is there any other pictures of them :lol:

[alan_fincher]

this picture i found interesting as my wife is called Elizabeth and my daugter Lorna were this boats a pair does anyone know and is there any other pictures of them

As the one on the outside is loaded, and those two on the inside are not, it's unlikely that it operated with the others.

 

Moreover they appear to be different owners, and have different paint schemes.

 

I think it's largely coincidence that they are moored together here.

[owen]

As the one on the outside is loaded, and those two on the inside are not, it's unlikely that it operated with the others.

 

Moreover they appear to be different owners, and have different paint schemes.

 

I think it's largely coincidence that they are moored together here.

i cant make out the name on the other boat

[alan_fincher]

i cant make out the name on the other boat

 

No, nor can I with any certainty.

 

Lorna looks like she belonged to something like the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company (SURCC), as there appears to be a 'R' on the cabinside below the start of 'Shrop.....".

 

There will be those far more knowledgable than I about such boats.

 

To answer you other post, there are very few wooden narrowboats of this kind of era surviving. It is likely that all those shown have long ceased to exist.

 

Any wooden boats of that era tend to have very little of the original wood still in place, (... he pauses and waits for correction from Carl ).

[Derek R.]

No, nor can I with any certainty.

 

Lorna looks like she belonged to something like the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company (SURCC), as there appears to be a 'R' on the cabinside below the start of 'Shrop.....".

 

There will be those far more knowledgable than I about such boats.

 

To answer you other post, there are very few wooden narrowboats of this kind of era surviving. It is likely that all those shown have long ceased to exist.

 

Any wooden boats of that era tend to have very little of the original wood still in place, (... he pauses and waits for correction from Carl ).

 

Lorna, Elizabeth, and Four Sisters. Henry Chatter & Son(s), Brierly Hill, and as Alan says - SURCC.

 

Derek

[BuckbyLocks]

this picture i found interesting as my wife is called Elizabeth and my daugter Lorna were this boats a pair does anyone know and is there any other pictures of them :)

 

3rd Boat is the FOUR SISTERS. Lorna is a Shroppie - they had a base opposite but Elizabeth and Four Sisters appear to have a very similar livery so may both be owned by another company along the Crescent.