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weed slipper

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  1. Hello Carole and Tony, will look out for you on the top of the BCN, though I am sure many others here are local to me and doing the same. Be encouraged by the fact that the cut is a very small and well connected communty. MC
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  3. Josher, the most abused term on the cut? Please discuss. Ttp MC
  4. Publicity is everything. In view of the terrible condition of many historic boats in "museum" hands( no names mentioned, funding is not easy), how about a Time Team dig on some of the above mentioned sunken boats? Could make good TV especialy if you replace Tony Robinson with that flirty Bradbury woman from railway walks. Or how about Jerremy Clarkson as an outspoken supporter of the waterways. He would love the pollution caused by our big diesels, and is a fan of British industry and engineering skills associated with the real Britain. Not the retail driven excuse for an economy we have now. Ttp MC
  5. From what I remember of my time with DCT, the gates had 2 every day uses. 1. To stop rubbish being drawn into the tunnel.Going down the weedhatch in the dark is no fun, and a boat can easily become wedged by a piece of floating timber in the tighter sections. 2. As you have correctly guessed, to stop boats getting in "out of hours". Boaters have gotten stuck in "The Gaol" with the potential for personal injury, damage to the boat and tunnel, as well as creating chaos for the trip boats. I dont think there is any conspiracy by BW or DCT to keep people out, its just that most boats dont fit.
  6. Canal Transport Services have been boatbuilders at Norton Canes since 1964. Bespoke built traditional narrowboats aswell as the usual boatyard services incuding gritblasting, boatpainting, signwritting and traditional decoration. New website at www.canaltransportservices.co.uk
  7. The old man is Denis Cooper, I,m Matt. Will try to prise some more info out of him re the extension etc. All this reminds me of many a night in the back room of the Holly Bush listening to tales about the old days, hence the slight inability to get the facts exactly right!
  8. Looks like I got it wrong about which pit was served by which basin, according to the wise old oracle the old man. These basins served Conduit No2. The crane business I mentioned is Cathedral Pit which linked to the Slough Branch.A lot of the Extension has sunk over the years, when the M6 Toll was built through the line of it you could see how far down the brickwork goes. We have pictures of the canal north of the A5 full of abandoned joeys. Apparently the bit that sank 21 foot in a week was just north west of Norton Canes. Interesting about the "tockey". Glad to hear someone moored in the basin in Walsall without problem, personaly I wouldnt let the boat out of my site there. If you are on it or can see it from the pub thats not so bad. Some little Bs nicked all the mushroom vent tops of the trip boat a while back!
  9. You are right Mark about shallow bits on the Wyrley. The worst is from New Cross Bridge by Bentley Bridge retail park up to Lane Head bridge where I picked up a nice carpet on saturday! Having said that we still did Broad Street basin to Norton Canes in 4 hours which is a personal best. Another boat did the reverse trip in 5 hours on thursday. By far the worst thing on the wyrley(appart from kids) is the weed. Shallows and rubbish arnt actualy that bad but throw in the weed and you are looking at 6hrs plus.The council houses have been torn down in Goscote so that horror is gone. Hope you can make it up here as we need all the traffic we can get, if you have any trouble report it to BW using their own complaint procedure (on their site). This way complaints are logged and local BW have evidense of problems and can ask for money from national BW to sort it out. Will ask the old man about Cathedral Pit and the subsidense in the 60s. M
  10. Hello, first time on here so hope this works. As far as I know the basins north of the A5 (now filled in and under Norton Canes Builders Merchants) served the Conduit colliery, the two to the south (and again east of the extension) which I think are the ones you meant were for a different pit. The name of it escapes me at the moment, but the pit buildings are in use today as a crane repair/test business just south of the A5 by the "shant"bridge near the Rising Sun Hotel. A tramway ran to the basins, bits of rail used to be ploughed up untill about 15 years ago.the basins have now sunk due to subsidence. As to the safe moorings whilst in bandit country you have Sneyd, The Fingerpost (formerly the Royal Oak Pelsall) opposite our yard on the extension, Brownhills visitor facility and Longwood top lock. The wyrley is good at the moment due to low weed and high water.
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