Whining and Dining

In my last post I mentioned a couple of eating houses and said I would post more! As those of you who know me well would agree, I do like the 'odd pint or three' and are not one for 'small portions' I am not that keen on beer that has the bubbles inside it instead of on the top ( like certain soft southerner friends of mine) as a Black Country lad I was raised on Bank's mild and always enjoyed a head on my beer and served my apprenticeship on that brew until about 15 years ago when I took a liking to 'the black stuff'.

It's Guinness' porter that has me this way,

For it's sweeter than buttermilk and stronger than tay'

And when in the morning I feel kinda rough,

Me curse on Lord Iveagh who brews the damn stuff!

Any way one of the things I enjoy when out boating is stopping at different pubs along the cut and eating out and after having a rather poor meal and even worse beer one night last week end I thought I would make a blog entry each time we have either a good/bad meal/drink (as do quite a few) so here's the first.

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The Clifford Arms

Clifford Arms,Main Rd ,Great Haywood

Trent and Mersey canal. Off the canal at Trent Lane Bridge 73 walk about 100 yards to pub.

Saturday 23^rd October 2010

Cajun Chicken DAWN 1 2 3 4 5 QUALITY XX QUANTITY XX SERVICE XX SURROUNDINGS XX VALUE FOR MONEY XX 14 12 oz horseshoe Gammon BLOSSOM 1 2 3 4 5 QUALITY XX QUANTITY XX SERVICE XX SURROUNDINGS XX VALUE FOR MONEY XX 11 TOTAL SCORE :50% COMMENTS: The prices charged were restaurant prices but the meals did not live up to restaurant quality. Both meals were served with cheap greasy frozen chips, and my horseshoe of gammon had been cooked far too much and as a result was dry and tough (fit for shoeing a horse) and Dawn’s Cajun chicken was nothing like any Cajun chicken she had ever had before. It came in a bowl and consisted of chunks of chicken breast in a very liquid sauce that resembled a Balti sauce. The best part of both meals was the salad dressing on the side of the plates, it was a pity as much effort had not been put into the meal itself. MENU RECOMMENDATIONS: Would not recommend the meals that we had although some of the other meals being eaten looked ok.. TOILETS: Ladies toilets Clean if not a little dated. Gents toilets smelt terribly. BEERS: Looked like a very good selection of six ‘real ales’ including Adnams, Speckled Hen, Bass, Directors however the Guinness was like vinegar and so was the cider so we both ended up drinking Vodka. COST: About £24 in total for both meals which, had they been restaurant quality meals would not have been too bad but the meals were no more than ‘pub grub’ meals. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX The Fox and Anchor Brewood Road, Cross Green, Wolverhampton, WV10 7PW Telephone: 0190279 8786 Alongside the Staffs and Worcester canal at Cross Green. With excellent deep moorings directly outside.. Sunday 24th October 2010 Beef Mushroom ale pie followed by Butterscotch & Toffee steamed pudding DAWN 1 2 3 4 5 QUALITY XX QUANTITY XX SERVICE XX SURROUNDINGS XX VALUE FOR MONEY XX 19 Beer battered fish and chips followed by the cheese board. BLOSSOM 1 2 3 4 5 QUALITY XX QUANTITY XX SERVICE XX SURROUNDINGS XX VALUE FOR MONEY XX 21 TOTAL SCORE :60% COMMENTS: This is about the fourth time we have stopped here and eaten and I can not fault the meals/service etc. This friendly canal pub does not try to pretend it is anything more than it is, a pub that does value meals. MENU RECOMMENDATIONS: We would both recommend the meals that we had this time and the times before which were a really succulent lamb shoulder and a gammon. (Every time Dawn has had the Beef Mushroom ale pie. TOILETS: Ladies toilets clean BEERS: A good selection of ‘real ales’ including Bank’s, Bass and Marston’s Pedigree. The Guinness was how it should be, not too cold and creamy. The bar also sports a wide range of wines. COST: £25.65 in total for both main meals and two deserts. which, had they been restaurant quality meals would not have been too bad but the meals were no more than ‘pub grub’ meals.

A weekend Frolic with frost and food.

Well a good three days boating was had last weekend taking Minnow up to Norbury Junction for the ‘end of season bash’ next week end. It all started on Friday after work when I went to pick up my new car. An hour old with about twenty miles on the clock and I was parking it an the grass verge opposite ‘The Junction’ car park to leave it there for three days for the birds to sh*t on and tractors to scrape down the side (tractors didn’t but by god there’s some big birds round there!)

Originally Dawn was going to work Saturday morning while I fetched Minnow up to the house from the moorings but Dawn decided to let the girls look after the shop so I thought oh good we’ll get an early start! Well first we went shopping then Dawn had a shower then we packed all the food and clothes into plastic boxes and we finally drove down to the moorings about 12.00pm and after loading up Minnow we set off about 12.30.pm. Had a good trip up to Great Haywood and managed to get moored right up by the Junction. After washing the boats down we had a wash and change and headed off into the village for a meal and a drink or two at the Clifford

Arms (more in the next blog) Sunday we were off by 8.30am and were greeted by a heavy frost with all the ropes stiff and everything stuck to the cabin top. Another great day and by about four in the afternoon we were moored up at Cross Green for a meal and a drink or three in the Fox and Anchor (more in the next blog) Monday and another 8.30 start and again greeted by a beautiful heavy frost which as the morning started to warm presented some beautiful scenes of mist off the cut and trees festooned with whitened spiders webs.

An hour saw us failing to make the turn into the Shroppie at Cut End

and then onto a canal I love/ I hate / I love / I hate. I love its depth and width, it’s straightness, its embankments and it’s rocking’s but at the same time I hate the miles and miles of moored boats, so do Bolinders as they like to be working not idling!

By about four we arrived at Norbury. I dropped Minnow into a gap just before the start of the BW moorings and dropped Dawn off to go and see what room was available nearer the junction. Dave Ray, the manager at Norbury Wharf had heard Minnows Bolinder coming along through Shelmore woods and was waiting for us and met Dawn at the junction and said to bring Minnow down and moor in front of The Junction Pub ahead of Kangaroo and Australia.

By 6.30pm we were all packed up and car loaded and we headed back, stopping at the chippy in Gnosall (more in the next blog) and sat in the rear car park eating fish and chips, big bottle of full fat Coke and all with Bolinder hands! Can’t beat it. Talking to Dave and Sue Cawson outside the Junction pub (from which Dave’s barred) it looks like it’s going to be a good weekend with quite a few working boats expected, but will report back after the event, but until then as always

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom

A quick update

It's amazing how quickly news travels round the system and talk about Chinese whispers! First of all many thanks for all those friends who have contacted me to hope I am over my ordeal and that my leg is mending - to put the record straight, I have not or did not break my leg/knee when the Bolinder kicked back as was asked of me from a couple of sources, it was just badly bruised as I stated in my blog after a few hours rest I kicked her over and we got back home. We had a little sally out with Minnow last week end, only up to the boat turn at Handsacre and back and enjoyed a couple of hours Bolinder boating in glorious sun shine and good company. One of the things to come from this trip however was an E mail to a British Waterways manager (10th Oct) regarding the illegal infilling of this winding hole. I have copied the e mail here for your perusal, its contents are quite self explanatory:-

Dear Mr Davies,

please forgive me if you are not the right person to whom I should be sending this E mail, but if not I hope you will be able to forward it's contents to the right department.

I am the owner of a historic narrow boat and have been involved in the canals for almost half a century and it really makes me angry when people try and do just what they want to irrespective of the effects on others. At 70 foot in length it is very limited as to the places/winding holes where it is possible to comfortably turn such a craft round. On the Trent and Mersey canal, Just below Handsacre Crown Bridge No 58 there exists one such winding hole and on passing it a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the private property whose rear garden surrounds the winding hole, were building a wooden garden shed/summerhouse right on the point of the winding hole at garden

height about four foot above canal level, also that in front of it they have built a wooden decking platform that actually extended right over the point of the winding hole the supporting legs for the decking being driven into the edge of the canal making turning of a seventy foot boat very dangerous and at risk of the bows hitting the legs of the decking causing it to collapse and in danger of injury to both the boat turning and anybody on or in the said building. That was bad enough, but today (Sunday 10 th Oct) we went up to this winding hole with our boat and they are now in the process of infilling the corner of the winding hole, as can be seen in the attached photo's, using a small 'JCB' type digger with loose rubble/dirt. The effect of this is that now with a 70 foot boat you have to position your bows 20 foot either side of what was the centre of the

winding hole and this makes the process of turning very difficult. As well as the health and safety considerations, and the inconvenience to boat users, I always understood that local canal by

laws stated 'the throwing of refuse, dead or alive, into the navigation is strictly forbidden and offenders will be prosecuted.' as well as the fact that I understood that British Waterways actually owned about a yard of the land surrounding any of their canals, including private gardens. If these people are allowed to get away with this, then I feel it will only be a matter of time before all canal sided property owners will start extending their gardens by infilling of the canals at will. As this winding hole is only a short distance from British Waterways depot at Fradley Junction it would be easy to despatch someone quite quickly to stop further infilling taking place I look forward to you response/reply.

Yours sincerely

Mr M J Edge

I received an E mail back the next day stating :-

Hi Mr Edge,

Thank you for highlighting this problem. Unfortunately the Trent and Mersey Canal no longer lies within West Midlands waterway. Following a restructure last year the Trent & Mersey at Handsacre comes under the jurisdiction of Central Shires waterway, under the management of my colleague Darren Green. I have therefore passed your email on to Darren, and I am sure he will be in touch in due course.

Regards - Dean

As to date I have not heard anything else so I will see. Below are a couple of the photo's I sent, taken on mobile phone so quite poor quality but good enough to see what's been done.

On the left f this photo can bee seen the steel piles which then disappear underneath the unfilled rubble

Anyway that my update so until next time, unless your the legs to a summer house then :

I'll bang 'em about

Blossom.

Things that became apparent part 2

Old fools and Bolinders.

Something that those of you who know me really well will have heard me say before is that a Bolinder’s engines are great, in someone else’s boat! It is certainly a love hate relationship. Sunday we had a great day with the Bolinder skipping along all day and with Minnow flying through the deep water of the BCN and down the twenty one then along the twelve mile pound. Day two, again we were flying until we hit the problems I’ve already blogged about with low pounds. Hovering about mid channel at Shutt Hill lock for ages while other boats were fannying about and the Bolinder went out. Jumping down into the engine ‘ole to re-start it and it finally had its revenge and kicked back and copped me good and proper. This is the first time it has copped me properly in the whole of the four years we have had Minnow. As I have had a full knee replacement about five years ago, this was very painful and I was really struggling to bend my knee to lift my foot onto the flywheel pin to kick it off. Dawn tried but to no avail. She has made several attempts over the last three years to kick start the Bolinder and she just can’t start it. For one she is quite short and struggles to get her leg up high enough to get her foot on the pin and also she is frightened of it and one thing you can not afford to be is scared of a Bolinder or they will kick back and have you every time. (This time it kicked back on me because I think it was very hot and I probably should not have primed it before kicking it over again) we spent the next two hours below Shutt Hill lock after me bow hauling Minnow through and waiting for the pain to subside in my right knee. Dawn’s topic of conversation (and for the next couple of days was all about Minnow. The result of these long and drawn out conversations are that certain things have now been agreed about Minnow’s future and some of the salient points to come from these discussions were:

1. Dawn can’t master the change of direction of the Bolinder and get it to come over in reverse.

2. Dawn can’t work boat through locks etc because of above

3. Having a titanium replacement knee it’s getting too painful to just kick it over.

4. Silly old farts like me should realise I’m too old for all this palaver.

5. Dawn wants something that starts with a key/button!

And so this brought Dawn and I to an agreed decision on Tuesday night as to the future of Minnow.

We have had the boat for 4 years. It took me the first year to get the Bolinder running something like (with a little help from Joe Hollinshead of cause) but in the last three years we have thoroughly enjoyed four to six weeks boating every year covering well over 500 miles and 400 locks each but now the time has come to pass her on to her next custodian. I have already said that I will never be without a boat again and so we are on the lookout for something suitable and we are going to be putting Minnow up for sale. Dawn thinks something suitable will have cookers, shower, flush toilet etc. etc. when in reality it will most likely be a Grand Union, as I have always wanted a pair of Little Northwich boats, but I also like Woolwiches as well Big and Little!

Blossom

Things that became apparent part 1

British Waterways.

As I mentioned in my last blog we had quite a struggle from Gailey lock down to Tixall lock with some low and some very low pounds and when you are grinding your bottoms away as you plough a channel along the whole length of a pound then it does get a little annoying to say the least and, I might add not for the first time for at least the last four times we have gone this way we have had to plough our way through. The problem is not ‘ as suggested on two occasions by BW staff’ “someone left a paddle up last night” but in fact a complete lack of maintenance. The gates at both ends of Tixall lock are leaking like a sieve and it takes two locks of water to fill the chamber and you don’t have to draw a paddle to empty it. The top gate is leaking all round and water is even pouring from underneath the ‘babby’. This is bad enough but to infuriate even more BW have got a tug, hopper and dredger spot dredging all along this whole stretch instead of fixing the leaking gates, and to infuriate even, even more the dredgings are being placed on the offside edge of the canal only to immediately start to wash/slip/slide back into the canal and within a few months will be back into the channel again. Early Monday morning we saw a BW employee with a black bag and an litter picker walking the pound at Boggs lock. While I accept that stretches of canal through towns/cities will suffer from litter louts but this is a stretch of canal miles from anywhere, in the middle of the country and not suffering with litter. The second irritating BW staff usage was just along the Staffs & Worcester from Hayward Junction where an employee was observed cutting waters edge reeds down with a petrol strimmer on a little used stretch of towpath and which were not causing any inconvenience anyway. I am sure that the working hours of these five members of staff along with the dredger,tug, hopper, fuel, wages etc. etc. could have been put to much better use. My final moan is regarding overhanging vegetation. When oh when are British Waterways going to start serving notices on home owners who allow their trees to block the canal navigation. On the stretch of the Trent and Mersey just between kings Bromley and Brindley bank are several examples where huge weeping willows hang right down to the water and block over half the width of the canal, the problem being for deep drafted historical craft you have a choice either go through the green curtains not being able to see through or past them or go round them with the risk of grounding. In this instance I have noted the exact positions of these offending trees (houses in Leyland Drive, Poplars Road, Little Brickyard Gardens and 153 Armitage Road which only took ten minutes on 'Google earth' and 'street map') and am sending a letter to BW’s area manager warning him that now that I have brought these risks to his notice and that he is aware of them, then any accident or injury resulting from these overhanging trees will be his responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Ok so whinge and moan over until the next blog!

Blossom.

Good food and shallow pounds

Another wonderful weekends boating. NOT! Started off great and ended great but the middle bit – We had booked a couple of extra days off work to bring Minnow back from the Black Country Museum. Left the museum at just after 8.00am and ‘bonked’ round to the top of the 21 by half ten. 1.0pm saw us pulling round the turn at Aldersley after having a bad road all the way down the flight as we were following another boat and did not pass anyone coming up the flight . By half two we were mooring up outside the Fox & Anchor where we spent an enjoyable evening, me with a beautiful tender shoulder of lamb and Dawn with her usual Beef and Guinness pie, little did we know what sort of day lay ahead of us. With the lamp on at 8.00am we were away by quarter past and were making the turn at Hatherton by nine. All went well until we came down Gailey lock wnen we were greeted with the pound running about 4inches low, but that was nothing for every pound from here to Tixall lock were all running at least this low with a couple at least nine inches down and the pound running down to Otherton lock about 12” down. It was such a relief when we eventually got through Tixall lock and back to a reasonable depth. The second night we tied up at The Radford Bank for one of our regular ‘value for money’ carvery. We were away by 7.50 the next morning and were making the turn at Great Hayward Junction by 9.50am. By just after 1.00pm we were back at our mooring and tying up. Loaded the car and headed home after collecting my car from the Black Country Museum. Apart from a trip up to Norbury at the end of October this brings our 2010 boating season to an end and once again we have enjoyed ourselves but a couple of things have become very apparent to us which I will blog about over the next couple of days. One is to do with the inefficient use of moneys/labour by British Waterways, and then second to do with old fools and Bolinders, so till next time as always

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom

Homeward bound

Oh well, here we go again. At present Minnow is at the Black Country Museum and over the next couple of days we are bringing her back to her moorings at Kings Bromley where she will be prepared for the winter season. I have taken her top cloths across to Tarpaulin Supply and Repair Co Ltd in Birmingham to have them altered as they were too wide and overhung the gunnels and have arranged to pick them back up next week, so next weekend I shall be clothing her up to keep out the Winter weather. After that the only other action we have planned is to Take her up to Norbury Junction for the end of season open day at Norbury Wharf Limited on the 30th October where there will be opportunity to see all the facilities they have on offer for docking,blacking, painting, maintenance etc. and a beer tent. There are a few other folks we know that will be attending as well so a good day/night should be on the cards. (Did I mention there was a beer tent.)

It will be an ideal time for us to catch up with old friends and have a good old chin wag probably in the beer tent. After this little 'jolly' it will be back to her moorings for some serious Winter maintenance. So if any of you see me over the next couple of days give me a shout/wave/nod but whatever you do

Don't bang me about

Blossom

More beer an bostin company

Oh what a wonderful weekend we’ve had, two whole days with people ‘spakin proppa’

It was Tipton Community and Canal Festival a lovely event based around the canal either side of Owen Street bridge at Coronation Gardens and what used to be Mitchards coal yard. It is only a very small event in canal terms but quite a big event in Tipton’s calendar. Working boats in attendance were Atlas and Leo, Ex Cowpar Swallow, NBT pair Nuneaton and Brighton, (which I must say were looking quite respectable), DCT’s display boat Saggita, Alan Stevens tug Caggy, BW’s heritage tug Nansen and Minnow, as well as The Cheese Boat, two trip boats and many other private modern boats.

Minnow was at the museum so we went over on the Friday night, had a lovely fish and chips from the Britania chippy on Tipton cross roads and spent the night on the Tunnel approach moorings. As there were several other boats on the moorings I thought it best not to start the Bolinder up too early, so I put the lamp on at about 8.00am, kicked her off and tootled around to the rally site. Passing through Coronation Gardens one of the guys off a moored boat shouted across “are you stopping or passing through” I told him I was stopping so he stated to moor alongside Leo and Nansen so I went down to Factory Junction, winded and came back alongside Nansen, moored up and stopped the Bolinder. All weekend we were in good company with Joe Hollinshead keeping me well amused with his anecdotes and humour while he entertained the locals with his fender making. On Saturday afternoon we were visited by a group of friends and, while we were chatting the heavens opened up so I said quick come in our back cabin out of the rain. And so we tried to break the world record for ‘number of bodies in a Josher back cabin and managed to squeeze six of us in. Unfortunately for Trish, Dawn was cooking butchers home made faggotts and so had banked the fire up and she ended up sitting opposite the Goodwife and ended up with a nice rosy red face.

Saturday evening we had arranged to meet up with old friends and retired boaters Henry and Phyllis Johnstone, Horace Foster and Trish and Steve.The evening was spent with this motley crew in the ‘Fountain Inn’ home of the Tipton Slasher and at 11.30 we all made our way back to our boats. Unfortunately for Dawn and I, for security reasons, the access gates to our part of the site had been locked and this called for me to scale the iron railings. Unfortunately Dawn could not make it over the fence and so I had to go down onto the boat and shaft her over to the towpath side for Dawn to get on. The next morning she collared hold of the security man and had a word in his ear! As the day wore on the crouds started to drift off and we decided to make our way back to the museum and so the lamp was lit, Bolinder kicked into life and we made our way back to the museum where our car was parked and then home for hot shower oan food. The week end had lots available to keep people interested for as well as the many trade and charity stands there was Beacon radio intermixed with live bands, gospel Choir, Bangrah dancing, a brass band, as well as burger stand, Afro Caribbean curry & chicken, and much, much more.

On the whole there was something for all the family and a bostin day out, certainly a venue we will go to again but till then

Dow bang 'em abaht

Blossom

Water pumps, generators and Beer.

Well finally got time to sit down after a couple of hectic weeks/weekends boating. I really don't have much to say about our journeys as they have been very well reported on Chertsey's blog. But here's a few additional bits of info. Spent the first weekend getting from Kings Bromley to Top of the Wolverhampton 21 (always has and will be my favourite flight of locks) spent next weekend from top of 21 round to Windmill End for the 25th Black Country Boating Festival and as always a cracking boat gathering/ fair /wake etc. Marred only by the amount of time I had to spend in the engine 'ole messing with the water pump spring on the Bolinder. Mark Mayo off another Bolinder driven Josher, Adder, came to the rescue with a new spring, thanks Mark. This was then followed by the starting recoil handle on the generator breaking, luckily someone at the show had a genny for sale so that was replaced otherwise we would have not had any lights for the return journey through Netherton Tunnel (my favourite canal tunnel) Highlights of the weekend - Meeting up with all our old friends like John Blunn and Mavis, John and Marion Thornett, Henry and Phyllis Johnston, Horace Foster and Trish, Dave Newell off Stour as well as new friends such as Blog watchers Les & Chris H (very nice to have a chance for a chat) and Ian 'the swanman' who I spent an hour with chatting about Alfred Matty's boats used on the Albright & Wilson chemical run. The beer tent, again as always, was brilliant with some excellent beers of offer at sensible prices such as Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild at 6%, Stout Coffin, Black Ram Stout, Black Swan to name just a few of those I can remember drinking. Another memorable event happened on the Sunday morning when we were all serenaded by the atmospheric sounds of Glen Miller 78's played on a wind up gramaphone on the cabin top of Dove. He has the exact same wind up as I have at home which I am now tempted to take to the boat next time we are out and about.

Minnow is now round at the Black Country Museum as we are taking her to the Tipton Community Gathering next week end and meeting up with Henry and Phyllis, Horace and Trish for hopefully a repeat of a pleasant nights entertainment, drink and good company, so until then

Don't bang 'em about

Blossom.

PS for any one who's interested the new set of cloths that Andrew has had made for Dove by Sam Noon look very good indeed very tidy and well made.

finding your way underground!

Oops sorry, this was the map that I had drawn to go with the last blog on the underground canal system under Castle Hill and I forgot to post it so here it is anyway.

Blossom

Just left click on the map to enlarge it then left click again to enlarge it again.

Like the Jam - Going Underground

I was recently given a copy of the Dudley Canal Trust’s newsletter called The Legger from Spring 2009 to read.

The main reason it was lent to me was the fact that within it was a re-print of the first newsletter of the Dudley Canal Tunnel Preservation Society[DCTPS] (Dudley Canal Trust’s forerunner) It was lent to me by Margaret, the owner of the next boat to Minnow on our moorings, having had quite a few discussions with each other over the last couple of years we have both been around a few years and both know a lot of the same people from the same 1960’s – 70’s period and also that I had been an early member of the DCTPS, so she knew I would be interested. Reading the articles and looking over the pictures reminded me of my early beginnings as far as canals are concerned and also my other hobby of the time of potholing/caving /mine exploration.

The DCTPS had been formed in 1963 when the tunnel was under threat of closure from British Rail wanting to build an embankment over it’s Tipton portal to support/replace a collapsing viaduct, their first bulletin was produced in September 1964 and I joined in early in 1965. As the tunnel went through and was linked to the Limestone workings it was only natural for me to be also interested in the ‘Caves’. Through the 1960’s and 70’s I spent many hours poking about down the mines mainly under Castle Hill and less time under Wrens Nest Hill, and even one sortie in the middle of the night within the Zoo grounds and under the castle itself. As this system of mines were directly connected to and serviced by the canal network, I thought this may be of some interest as it is part of our ‘canal system’ that is no longer available in the main to the general public apart from the ‘Disneyfied’ sections seen on the current tunnel trips undertaken by the Dudley Canal Trust.

The network of mines were served by a series of interconnecting canals, sometimes through brick lined tunnels, sometimes through rock tunnels and sometimes in open sections (although inside the mine of course) There was also underground brick built loading wharfs which in some cases were served in turn by tub type tramways/railways although long gone, visible evidence of their existence was still in place such as in the brick lined tunnel sections of Flooded Mine where the imprints of the sleepers were still clearly visible. The craft that were used in this subterranean network of canals were of very crude construction being similar, but much shorter, to the ‘Starvationers’ used in the Duke of Bridgewater’s coal mines at Wordsley.

(A mine boat in Castle Mill Basin in 1917, 3 years before limestone extraction finished in Dudley)

I remember spending a couple of weekends in about 1967 along with several other DCTPS members trying to clear away all the limestone rocks and mud in and around one of these mine boats which was sunk just inside the rock tunnel leading from Singer Cavern to Little Tess.

What follows is a reflection of a typical Saturday or Sunday down the mines. I will attempt to remember as much detail as I can. Equipment we would take with us would be :- a complete change of dry clothes, 2 pairs of boots (1 dry, 1 wet. The wet ones had ½ “ holes drilled in the soles, overalls, hard hat, ex-miners battery pack & lamp, a carbide lamp, various ropework and climbing equipment, an inflatable ex-RAF one man survival dinghy (although we have had three in it) Flask of hot soup/drink, sandwiches, small emergency tin (match/candle/safety pin/plaster)

(1965 and ready to crew another trip through the tunnel and left to right Eddy Sherwood, Me and Phil Ritchie all dressed the same as we did for a day ‘down the mines’)

We would all meet at a pre arranged time at Castle Mill House, which at the time was owned by the DCTPS and situated above the top of the construction shaft in the Lord Wards Tunnel close to Shirts Mill Basin, it actually came up into the kitchen floor of the house by means of a square access manhole. All unnecessary items including dry clothes and food were stowed in Castle Mill House and then we would set off to make the short walk past the Hexagon shaped ‘gatehouse’ to the Zoo grounds/castle hill, which at this time was still inhabited, then follow the pathway off up the gradual climb up the back of castle hill. The ground around this area was pitted with depressions where early limestone excavation had taken place and also some the result of subsidence where the mines below had suffered with roof falls and collapse, some of these occurring while the mine was still active the miners response being to drive a brick lined tunnel through the roof fall accessing the remaining mine such as at Sam’s Dig in Mud Hole . After a walk of just under a mile the entrance of Big Ben would be reached, a large triangular shaped entrance in the bottom of one of the larger depressions.

(View from the bottom of Big Ben looking back up towards the surface)

With lamps lit we would start our descent into the mines. The entrance sloped down at an angle of about 45° and this ‘ramp’ would be approached by a succession of continuous jumps, with each jump managing to cover about 20feet in distance. The other way to travel down (for the less ambitious) was sitting either on your bum or on your own feet and ‘skiing’ down the limestone screed. After about 100 yards the bottom of the mine would be reached and we would either turn left for about a further 150 yards towards a total collapse of the mine although many hours of fun could be had crawling over, under, around the huge slabs of fallen limestone, some as big as a car. Turn right and it was about 100 yards to the roof fall at the other end of Big Ben. At the very bottom of this mine, it was about 100feet wide and about 75 feet from floor to roof and before the roof had collapsed, it was all part of the Dark Cavern or 144 making the Dark Caver originally in excess of ½ mile long. Over the years, cavers/potholes etc had found/dug/opened up a very small passage through the roof fall going over, under, around the slabs of fallen limestone which lead out into the end of 144. I’m afraid that nowadays I would not have been able to crawl through it, but back in those days I flew threw it. It was that small and tight that it was nicknamed The Virgin so I can safely say that when I was younger I went through a virgin most Saturday afternoon’s! When once through The Virgin you dropped down over the other side of the roof fall again made up of huge blocks of limestone into another cathedral sized mine, Dark Cavern. Over to the left and at the very base of the mine was a partially covered brick wall in the centre of which was a tunnel entrance which led into a brick lined tunnel of identical design but of smaller section than the associated canal tunnels. This was one of the brick lined tunnels driven through the roof fall to allow continued extraction of limestone from the ‘Big Ben’ section of this mine to be taken out via the canal in Dark Cavern.. After a short distance the brickwork had collapsed and this tunnel closed. There was evidence of ‘sleeper imprints’ in the floor of this tunnel showing that Big Ben’s limestone in its latter years was removed in tub’s via this tunnel then following along the rock wall at the base of the Dark Cavern for approximately another 50 yards then making a 90° curve, terminating alongside a brick built loading wharf. Running along the right hand side of the mine was an elevated flat level ‘pathway’ about 20 feet above the base of the mine. The roof along this section of Dark Cavern was supported by huge pillars of limestone being left in place during limestone extraction. Due to the beds of limestone running at an angle of about 30° then these pillars lurched up from the right hand side of the mine at an angle of about 60° and about half way up their length there was a fault in the limestone with a 2 foot thick layer of softer material which, on some of the pillars was supported with large timber sections and wooden wedges, which often fell out. In total there were ,I think, thirteen of these huge pillars running in a row along the length of the mine. As I mentioned the tub way from Big Ben ended alongside a brick loading wharf, at this point was an underground canal basin from which the canal ran back from this point along the bottom left hand edge of this mine for about 150 yards then the canal, which was about 20 foot wide and 5 foot deep entered a brick lined tunnel about 14foot bore and about 50 foot in length. After this the canal emerged into another open section about 50 foot long to disappear into another brick lined tunnel originally about 50 yards long but blocked by a roof fall half way through, which lead the canal into Little Tess Mine by an open canal about 75 yards long then finally into a 50 foot section of tunnel leading to the underground junction with the main bore of the Dudley Canal Tunnel at Cathedral Arch.

(1966 and an empty trip boat returning to Tipton, behind the boat is the main Dudley Tunnel bore while to the left can be seen the entrance tunnel to Little Tess known as Cathedral Arch.)

Back to the canal basin in Dark Cavern, also at this point the canal makes a 90° turn then immediately disappears into a brick lined tunnel about 80 yards long until it opens back out into a mine about 75 feet in length called Mud Hole. At the far end of this mine the canal stops but running along each side of the canal are brick built loading wharves form where the limestone was loaded into the mine boats described earlier. This limestone mine actually ran at 90° to the canal and the mine ran off both to the left and the right. On the right the roof had collapsed and a brick wall ran parallel with the wharf about 20foot away and at the middle of it was a partly covered tunnel entrance called Sam’s Dig which lead into a small brick lined tunnel that had also collapsed a short distance in. On the right hand side running away from the loading wharf was a short mine that terminated in a total roof collapse called The Conference Room. At this point the limestone was quite soft and crumbly and lumps were easily split open with a welders chipping hammer or a brickies hammer to reveal loads and loads of the famous Trilobite known as ‘The Dudley Bug’. Continuing straight on from the loading area, lead through a very unstable section of mine regularly collapsing, then to a rising passageway leading to the surface and bringing you out through a small climb/crawl into the bottom of another of the surface depressions or pits. Back into the Dark Cavern at the canal basin, the pathway we were following passes over the top of the tunnel entrance to Mud Hole then past the next limestone pillar and finishes at the base of a stone set of palatial steps leading up the sloping side of the mine to a higher level.

(A view inside Dark Cavern showing one of the huge pillars and its fault line. Also the stone steps and the tunnel leading to Mud Hole)(photo Roy Fellows)

At the top and at the left of this stone staircase, is the Bandstand a flat ‘stage’ area surrounded by a low stone wall, again all built out of limestone. It was from this stage that in 1849 Sir Roderick Murchison gave a lecture on Dudley’s limestone and fossils to an invited audience of 15,000. Evidence of the gas lighting installed for this and subsequent visits were around this area with iron gas piping and supporting brackets. Continuing along this higher pathway brings us past another six limestone support pillars and then to the main entrance on the right hand side which consisted of a large pit breaking through into the mine with a set of stone steps leading up through the pit to the surface. Continuing on a further 50 yards you are confronted by a most impressive stone arch way in which was a large iron gate. Between the top of the arch and the roof, large sections of tree trunk were fitted as supports and from a distance, especially with a light behind the archway, it looked like a set of monster teeth hence its name The Dragons Teeth. Behind the gateway was a pathway that lead up to the surface which I understood to be a mine workers entrance. As there was no access forward to link to Little Tess, you had to leave the mine system here at this point and walk the short distance across to another small surface fissure which led down into Little Tess via a climb/crawl. Little Tess was only a small mine in comparison to the Dark Cavern being about 70 yards long, 50 foot wide and about the same height. At the bottom was the open section of canal with a tunnel leading off to the right to the Dudley Tunnel, originally a tunnel went of to the right leading back to Dark Cavern, but this had been lost in roof fall. Leading off on the left at an angle to the through canal was another tunnel, this time not brick lined but of natural rock. This tunnel being about 9 feet wide and with water 5 foot deep. This 80 yard tunnel leads through to the Singing Cavern, which now forms part of the modern day Tunnel trips and has been ‘altered and landscaped’. In the 60’s the canal continued along the whole length of the mine up to the roof fall at the end, approx 100 yards. About half way along its length and on each side of the canal were brick built loading wharfs. Leading back from these wharfs were short 25 foot rock tunnels and at the end of each of these tunnels was a 10 foot circular brick lined shaft leading to the surface but capped off and leading down to a second set of galleries about 70 feet below and totally flooded. Above where the rock tunnel emerges from Little Tess, were three large limestone pillars similar to those in the Dark Cavern and also at this time, above and behind the rock tunnel were two large holes leading out to the surface giving both fresh air and easy access. Some say this mine was called ‘singer’ because the wind used to blow through these two holes and make sounds, but I must say I’ve been down there from slight breeze to gale force and never hear any sounds, however this mine was very close to the surface and as a result was always very wet with drips continuously falling and as the floor of the mine was all canal, if you stood quietly all you could hear was plop plop plip plop plip plep plip plop plap plup plip plop! And I was told that this was where it got its name from! The last two mines I will describe were not connected to any of those previously described, other than they all connect back to the main Dudley Tunnel. Leading off the Castle Mill Basin on the Dudley side is Murder Mine. Originally both Castle Mill and Shirts Mill Basins were not basins as such but were roofed over and were limestone mines in their own right but later had their tops taken off opening them up to the surface. Murder Mine was named after a dead body found there many years ago ( there’s always a body!) It is a bit non descript really being about 80 feet wide 30 feet high and 125 yards long and terminating in a roof fall. The other mine, known as Flooded Mine , for fairly obvious reasons, ran at 90° to the main canal off Shirts Mill Basin. As you come out of the main Dudley Tunnel into Shirts Mill Basin, or to give this section it’s proper name , Lord Wards Tunnel, you are flanked on both sides by brick built loading wharfs. The tunnel entrance you had just come out of had two side tunnels, now bricked up, to enable boats to await loading and leaving a through route open for boats using the main Dudley tunnel.

(The Lord Wards Tunnel looking back towards the Tipton portal showing the two ‘loading tunnels’ either side the main tunnel.)

On the right a short brick tunnel lead to a round vertical shaft leading both up presumably originally to winding gear, and down to Tipton Colliery running through this short tunnel was excavated a short length of tub rail track with cast rails and sleepers into which was cast the name Ward, the Earls of Dudley family name. On the left hand side was a small triangular mine entrance which lead into a small chamber about 20feet square then leading off from this was a brick lined tunnel of similar dimensions to the brick lined tub track tunnels in Dark Cavern and Mud Hole. This tunnel was about 100 yards long then it opened out into another small mine about 70 feet long and 40 feet wide only to again disappear into another brick lined tunnel about 100 yards long which again opens out into a small mine with a larger section of mine going off and upwards to the right hand side. Continuing into a third 100 yard section of bricked tunnel you finally come out into the main mine. So far you have been wading through 2 feet of water from the very start of this mine, also the remaining imprints of the tug rail sleepers can be seen through the whole length of this mine before you disturb the crystal clear water that is! As you emerge into this last part of the mine the water gets shallower and shallower until over on the left hand side of the mine you are walking on dry floor. Over on the right at this point there is an iron pipe about 4 inches diameter running vertically from ceiling to floor and into the water. At a point on the surface that we worked out to be over the top of this point is a small brick building with a 4 inch pipe coming up through the floor and on the top of the pipe was a series of ceased levers and mechanism which I would say was some pumping system. Eventually after a further 100 yards the floor of the mine gradually gets nearer the roof as you clamber over another roof fall. In total you have probably travelled close on half a mile or there abouts and in freezing cold water just below your tender bits, (so long as you don’t splash about to much and walk gently) Well there you go that’s about it, once again my biggest regret is, same as the canals at this time, that I didn’t take loads of photo’s. Anyway I have only one word of warning for you, if you still could venture down and you did, then as far as those big loose lumps of rock are concerned – Don’t bang ‘em about,

Blossom.

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