27-03-2020, 11:31 AM
No! Don't stop, I'm loving the canal reminiscences. I was last on the cut a couple of years back and enjoyed a lunchtime stop at the Anchor at High Offley, a truly delightful place. Me, my pal and a couple of old boys who lived locally. Just a delight...
I first went on the cut in 1963. My father, who loved industrial archeology, was a bit of a trend setter when we rented a mid-cockpit cruiser, Paulabelle, from Belle Line cruisers in Fenny Stratford and went up into Gas St. In those days, the cut still had plenty of working pairs to keep an enthralled 11 year old entertained. Going up the Aston flight was amazing, with Aston Gas works just like a cathedral and the Farmers Bridge flight, where we got something stuck under a bottom gate and managed to empty the pound above the lock. We were rescued by the lock-keeper who was walking his flight last thing at night. We eventually moored in Gas St at about 10 at night in darkness. Onwards to Wolverhampton and through the middle of the steel works. The journey there was extraordinary through a maze of 'works' - - tall buildings right on the cut side on one bank, the other bank only being different by the addition of the tow path. The occasional open door gave us sights of what appeared to be Dante's Inferno. I find it hard to go back to Birmingham now with the changes to where Gas St once was...
I still keep a couple of windlasses handy, just in case I get a call....
I first went on the cut in 1963. My father, who loved industrial archeology, was a bit of a trend setter when we rented a mid-cockpit cruiser, Paulabelle, from Belle Line cruisers in Fenny Stratford and went up into Gas St. In those days, the cut still had plenty of working pairs to keep an enthralled 11 year old entertained. Going up the Aston flight was amazing, with Aston Gas works just like a cathedral and the Farmers Bridge flight, where we got something stuck under a bottom gate and managed to empty the pound above the lock. We were rescued by the lock-keeper who was walking his flight last thing at night. We eventually moored in Gas St at about 10 at night in darkness. Onwards to Wolverhampton and through the middle of the steel works. The journey there was extraordinary through a maze of 'works' - - tall buildings right on the cut side on one bank, the other bank only being different by the addition of the tow path. The occasional open door gave us sights of what appeared to be Dante's Inferno. I find it hard to go back to Birmingham now with the changes to where Gas St once was...
I still keep a couple of windlasses handy, just in case I get a call....