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Wednesbury Old Canal


StephenA

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Someone on Canalplan has posted a note on the page for the Wednesbury Old Canal stating:

 

Due to the toxins in the silt, boats are requested not to cruise this water.

 

 

 

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so where has the information come from?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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Someone on Canalplan has posted a note on the page for the Wednesbury Old Canal stating:

 

 

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so where has the information come from?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

Presumably the 'Ridgacre'.

 

Richard

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That particular notice was put up by the BCNS for the 2009 BCN Challenge. Hairy Neil took it down on our trip up the branch in 2009

 

Richard

As I said, not the same notice that is there now.

 

And this was posted a couple of years ago:

 

 

The Canal and River Trust have asked that boats do not navigate the section of the Wendnesbury Old Canal from Ryders Green Junction towards the Ridgeacre Stub because of excessive pollution. At the time of revising these rules it is not possible to navigate to the winding hole.

 

I recall the Waterways Manager as saying, when asked about dredging it that, if he actually had the funds to do it, then there were netter things he could spend the money on.

The Canal and River Trust have asked that boats do not navigate the section of the Wendnesbury Old Canal from Ryders Green Junction towards the Ridgeacre Stub because of excessive pollution. At the time of revising these rules it is not possible to navigate to the winding hole.

Edited by pearley
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The BCN Challenge was first initiated in response to BW allowing the Ridgeacre Branch to be cut off for the building of the Black Country Spine Road. So it is rather ironic that an event predicated on the basis of use-it-or-lose-it has cooperated in rendering the remaining accessible section of the Wednesbury Old Canal effectively unnavigable.

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So is Pudding Green to Ryders Green still navigable?

Yes that is the through route, no issue there other than it is slow going. The only bit that is not really nivigable is the section that now effectively is an arm off at the top of Ryders Green locks.

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Yes that is the through route, no issue there other than it is slow going. The only bit that is not really nivigable is the section that now effectively is an arm off at the top of Ryders Green locks.

 

Thanks - we'll do some work on Canalplan to basically split the canal up.

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There is more than an element of truth in the statement. There were many sources of pollution from factories along this length and then there was the gas works at the far end, just beyond the spine Rd which now stops it dead. We last took our boat up there in 2001 and got well stuck in the final bridge hole, late at night. We stirred up a great deal of black nasties and the smell was as our tanks use to smell. We eventually got off, winded at then end and returned to the top of Ryders Green to drink in the pub there. We did try the pub across the spine road but it was awful!. I believe the following day there were a good number of dead fish on that length.
As a consequence of this and other incidents its use has been banned from use in the BCN Challenge.
There is no official statement, which says it is closed, but you may be the first boat in a long long time to use it.
I can remember it being dredged in the mid 1980's and it was great fun to zoom up and down it then, and in fact when we did it on 2001 the only place we stuck was that horrid final bridge - we ended up removing over twenty trolleys to get through. We draw well over 3ft at the backend.

We went up as far as the first bend a couple of years ago, but as we were not mob handed we chickened out of going further. The weed and sedge is now nearly full across the canal. I believe it is still an unadopted remainder waterway, so C&RT will not be spending any money on it as the council (who will have none) should be paying for it to be sorted - either abandoned or dredged.
--

cheers Ian Mac

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We had a run at it in 2012:

 

http://narrowboattacet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/finding-another-challenge.html

 

and got about half-way to the spine road before coming to a firm halt. It's not just a matter of weed, the canal is silted-up to the extent that there is little depth avaialble. We went in ignorance of the pollutants and have to admit to turning-up some rather foul muck.

 

Some nasty silt can be stirred-up on the Fens Branch of the Storubridge Canal too - but the Swan Arm of the Ridgacre branch was more revolting. Don't fall-in.

Edited by Tacet
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We did it in 2004 and like others, stirred up a lot of horrible muck and got stuck under the last bridge in both directions.

 

9727977671_aa6037f09d.jpg

DSCI0025 by Ian, on Flickr

 

5375178484_a58e1f7a55.jpg

Wednesbury Old Canal, Birmingham Canal Navigations by Ian, on Flickr

 

9727977777_dfe44efc24.jpg

DSCI0031 by Ian, on Flickr

Is that Collingwood? Either way, that's a deep drafted boat. I'm not surprised you got stuck.

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Is that Collingwood? Either way, that's a deep drafted boat. I'm not surprised you got stuck.

 

Yes that is Collingwood. Having done the whole of the BCN in it (aside from the Engine Arm and Cannock Extension) I think that's the only time we got well and truly stuck :)

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