Timelapse: Windmill End to West Smethwick

Another great day's boating here. This timelapse film is from day nine of our April 2011 cruise centred on the BCN, and covers the Boshboil Branch, the Bumblehole Branch, Dudley No. 2 Canal to Hawne Basin and back, the Netherton Tunnel Branch through Netherton Tunnel, the Gower Branch up the Brades Lock, a very tight turn from the Wolverhampton Level into the Spon Lane Locks (I've always wanted to do that!), and another nearly 180º turn back onto the Birmingham Level. Almost all of this day was new stuff.

I've been looking back through some past posts ...

... and I am reminded that I still have some timelapse to turn round and publish. There's quite a feast to come: all of the April BCN trip. Assuming it all worked OK, that is. To make space on the memory card in the camera I had to transfer some footage to the laptop, so now I have to try to get that onto the Mac and export it in the right way for uploading to YouTube when we get our phone line back.

There's no progress on that, by the way. The BT fault reporting website was down today, so I couldn't even see if anything was being done. I might have to resort to telephoning, but I hate hanging on while some rubbish muzak is forced down the phone at me.

Meanwhile, here's another image from our April trip, and another rarely visited canal crossed off.


This is the end of one fork of the Bumblehole Branch.

Bumblehole Branch

Yesterday I talked about the Boshboil Branch. About a furlong back down the Dudley No. 1 Canal is the Bumblehole Branch, to which I went next. It's accessed under a very low Dunn's Bridge, so low that I had to whip the tiller pin out at the last moment to avoid it getting bent. Here was a flexible boom across the cut, similar to that at the entrance to Walsall Basin. This time I knew what to do, and allowed the boat to push it out of the way.


There were lots of moored boats in this branch, on what I assume are residential moorings. Nobody seemed to mind us creeping carefully past them.


The branch terminates in a "Y": the above photo shows the extent of our passage along the right fork. Then we reversed to the end of the other stub.


I wouldn't be at all surprised if the other side of the caravan and white van is a perfectly ordinary suburban street, with no indication that there's another (watery) world just feet away.


What a lovely outside lavatory! What a view you'd have from your throne! The octagonal building is reminiscent of a toll house - it couldn't be, could it?


Enter "Bumblehole" into streetmap.co.uk and you will be taken to the Staffs and Worcs Canal and Bumblehole Meadows right by Bumblehole Lock and Bumblehole Bridge (although the latter two are not identified on the mapping website). There's no mention of this Bumblehole.

Little travelled branches, and Gas Street Basin is reached

As I woke up early this morning I cycled back to see and photograph something I'd seen the previous evening while searching for a newspaper. I'd come across what I assume is the centre of - or gateway to - Netherton. That's Netherton as in the tunnel.


There are references in the sign to things in Netherton's history: an anchor and chain; and a narrowboat are two for starters. The letters themselves appear to be made of brick - brickmaking was a local industry.

But I've jumped ahead. Last night we tied up at Windmill End, at the junction of the Dudley No. 1 and No. 2 Canals and the Boshboil Branch.


The chimney is that of Cobb's Engine House.

Before anyone else on Shadow was up, I'd cruised to the end of the Boshboil Branch and reversed back to the junction. On the way to the Bumblehole Branch I realised that the engine temperature was high again, so I stopped to let things cool. I had noticed that the coolant level was a little low when I did the engine checks before setting off, but I'd assumed that it had just found its own correct level. Wrong! It really was low. I managed to remove the cap this time with no dramatics, topped up with hot water, and all was well again.

The entrance to the Bumblehole Branch passes under the lowest bridge I think I've encountered anywhere on the system. I even had to whip out the tiller pin before it could become modified by Dunn's Bridge. Thanks to Jim's comment the other day about the boom at Walsall Basin, I wasn't too worried by the presence of a yellow boom across the canal just before the fork at the end. Winding here was interesting: the prop seems much better able at pushing water than mud, and the latter was the order of the day here. Well, it was my choice!


There is much more to write about, especially in relation to the trip to Hawne Basin down the Dudley No. 2 Canal, but, again, I've run out of waking hours. How do other people find the time to write extensive cruising blogs? To end with, here's a shot from the bow of our boat this evening. We're by Gas Street Basin with nothing between us and The Mailbox.



Oh - we didn't make it up the Titford Canal - ran out of time.