Boat trip on the Birmingham Main Line Canal, May 2024

Friday 24th May 2024:

After seeing the ‘Dragonfly’ doing boat-trips on the canal at Brecon the other day, I wondered if something similar operated on the canal in Birmingham.

Well, yes, there are at least two companies doing it – so it was time for me to jump onto a West Midlands Railways train again, and off I went, from Hereford to Birmingham New Street – a journey I have come to know very well! WMR’s trains there and back were bang on time and I soon found myself at Gas Street Basin on the Birmingham Main Line Canal.

Come with me on the trip I took on ‘Bosworth Lady’, a 70-foot long boat, where our guide, Alan, gave a very interesting commentary during the 1-hour ride.

Lots of boats to see, really old bridges, lovely wide canal, and plenty of local history too!

Hope you enjoy watching the video.

Cheers,

Jeff

By the way, if you do enjoy the video, then please consider subscribing – it really helps me to grow the channel!

You can see more of my videos, including my journeys along the canals, and of my Brompton bike at:

https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCpU5ERG8MwVJN7vRLVvrHMg/content/playlists

[Music] this is what drove the Industrial Revolution in this country now the water level in there is 47t deep now that one’s been deliberately sunk that us yeah cuz that’s the best way of preserving raw tire and here I am at Birmingham New Street Station once again back at gas Street Basin here in Birmingham city center yeah the BBC are after me again let’s see if they make a better offer this time well the BBC were very nice to me and uh offered me the Earth but uh once again I’m afraid the canal has got to come first for me so oh they were bitterly disappointed about it but um there it is I’m really hoping that one day before too much longer I’ll be able to bring gladers down for here and maybe I’ll be uh M up here I have a feeling these are permanent moing boats here I think the visitor moing is just the other side where it says Regency Warf so West Birmingham Canal to my right and from here on we’re on the Birmingham Mainline which of course I’ve filmed before got to watch your head going for you I think look like that’s a tour booat over there that’s an interesting idea remembering the dragonfly which I saw last week on the mro and braen there’s another one here it goes at 2:00 so it’s just about 1:00 now maybe I’ll go and get something to eat and come back and have a look so over there that’s the Birmingham and feasley Canal which I’ve uh I did that on my bromton I think uh last year it’s a really cool roundabout here you don’t see things like that very often uh on the canals so I need to try and find something to eat now I think and here we are Brindley cruises it’s due to go off at 2:00 I think the tour lasts about an hour so I think I’ll take advantage of this man to get myself a seated the very front that’s cool they do that SM just SP line and then um to cold wheel com into the wor bar now you thought it was gas Street Bas didn’t but that’s the new name for it so originally it was called the Worster bar and it was the Terminus it was the end of the Birmingham wolver Hampton Canal came to a dead end on a big triangle so they can turn around a few years later coming the other way was the Worcester Birmingham Canal yeah two private canals on the summit were these two private canals going to share any water no way so they built what they called a bar 6 strip of land all the way across so if you wanted to send cargo further on you took it all off one boat and put it on another and they did that for about 60 years and that’s when it became gas Street the first place in Birmingham to be gas lit toall Keeper’s Cottage was the tapen SP P behind us so there’s a number 34 underneath the word tap and spire on the building and that’s the bcn number these canals are all private next thing D made it twice as wide we’re on a summit everybody’s going down now Canal taking a lot of water off the top full boats were getting stuck while making it twice as wide became its own Resturant the third thing to toas two blast of horn sharp blast we’re going to the left or port one short blast we’re going to the right of starboard one long blast we’re going start here there a commercial B we have to use it the trip we the trip we’re doing is actually uh some of the the old brindle can out and some of the main lines so we’re going to mix between the two and my decided to do this without s in New York so never mind can see around the corner but we’re going down there two glass going to there we’re going to go and have a look at some canal side living they’re in the what 6070s somebody said there’s a house for the canal nobody wanted it they built a big O fence stol or garden was over the top you’d have you could buy an house water canal loads cheaper than anywhere else red one yeah so that’s the 1930s ice breaker tug so that little boat is rated to pull about 500 ton and you can M on most of the network there’s actually signs with so many days dotted around tells you how you can stay in any one place yeah so uh we’re going out the main line now so I’ve got a spot remember what I was saying about it being the same for mes but also on the second bridge there just with the left that bit of graffiti there’s some big stone blocks the big stone blocks sorry holding the bridge up as we come past them you can see all horizontal lines in them yeah so that was done by the piece of rope off the horse piece of rope all those bridges are grade two listic yeah only made in two places as and to what we had was the blast furnaces the forges the heav yeah made the anchor for the Titanic down there yeah right we’ve got the coal the iron ore the Limestone the clay so we got all the raw materials and that big heavy stuff the promis did the Precision Engineering this canal joined them together this is what drove the Industrial Revolution in this country as we turn this corner Everything Changes now there was a brick wall there blocking that off this side there’s no Toe Path at all now the water level in there is 47t deep so if they undo the tap and the bottom the water pressure take the planes out the sky of the airport sunk on this side now that one’s been deliberately sunk that is yeah cuz that’s the best way of preserving raw iron deprived of oxygen they pull that out the water jet wash it give it a cat of black paint be good as new now on the other side here we’ve got some of the historic Fleet so the first one nassen that’s a 1940s tug yeah so that’s about 10 15 years newer than the other one right you all no electric no power massive Rudder right would be loaded about that far out water the family live in the back the one on the inside is a motor in same as this it’s got smaller Rudder now that’s called a vo be it’s as long as this but twice as white won’t go through the bridges so what’s going on well when they built this place they s they were selling it as an oil community so they planned they thought having a boat is a sails off this should be a good idea they finished the job and they left it to the community it’s been [Music] be so if this L had leaked that became one of the buy things during the war time what have got bombed so every night they put all the stop planks in the bridges that’s what’s this is real I’m working on it did you any as uh what did we right they do they do a desperate D point off and it comes with owns right and you got real you all they it’s a lot cheaper when you get out as well yeah well I enjoyed that trip on H BOS with Lady and uh three great guys there Alan Scott and Sam uh Allan was doing the commentary this time but I think they sort of take it in turns very good value for 650 uh a whole hour uh very knowledgeable too I learned quite a lot about history of this canal which I I would never have known otherwise is so really good prob really recommend it so I hope you enjoyed watching the video uh if you did well you know what to do please give it a like leave a comment think about subscribing if you haven’t already I’ve really enjoyed myself I thought that was a great ride and uh I really love this canal and uh well booming them myself actually I’ll catch you again uh next week from somewhere else doing something else bye and back at Harry food once again West Midlands Railways bang on time uh as they always are