2020-04-25 Canal Furniture trek

 

It has been a few days since the last new additions to the Canal Furniture Map, so I steered meself and the missus down another section or two during our Government Mandated Hour of Exercise Saturday.

After our overland trek via Hill Top (J’s first journey this way), we joined the Tame Valley Canal at Holloway Bank Bridge followed straight on with the gas line footbridge next to a bunch of old steel factories:

Next, a Big Pink Bridge which ushers the tram across:

And, the Jones Bridge covered in grass:

I noted a cluster of features near Golds Hill with a defunct railway bridge:

A gauging station underneath:

And, a roadway bridge where there is no longer a road:

The sweet smell of cannabis burning drifted over from some boys on the otherside of the aqueduct high over the River Tame:

Next, the massive bridge at Black Country New Road:

This marked the intersection of the Tame Valley Canal with the Walsall Canal.

The junction features a double crossover with the section on the Wednesbury side seen above and the bridge on the Great Bridge side, below:

Adjacent to these is a footbridge over what is now a private mooring branch off the canal:

Down the shaded pathway, another footbridge over a long filled in branch emerged:

Tree debris filled the canal as we approached Moors Mill Lane:

And another cluster of bridges starting with Hempole Lane (no longer called that but almost certainly in MDCCCXXV):

Part of this cluster includes a number of rail crossings where there are no longer rails:

And another gauging station beneath the bridge (sort of a Troll’s Toll Island):

We climbed a bit as we passed this lock with no identifying marks (but a nice sluice to the left where some ducks were taking in the afternoon):

The Great Western Road crosses at Ryders Green Locks Bridge, which has decent graffiti but is otherwise just standard large roadway fare:

Soon after that, on the hand, Brickhouse Lane Bridge is mighty mighty and just lettin’ it all hang out (ow):

The last new feature to add was the Wellington Bridge (1998), a footbridge to (or from) the superstore on the east side:

Previously called the Poundland Bridge in this post, I now see that this one is just as ridiculously called the Great Bridge Bridge.  This is where we rejoined the landlubbers and made our way back to West Brom.  Another successful outing.