When the weather is fine,
You know it’s the time,
For messing about on the… canal
It’s another gorgeous day, so I’ve decided to go for another stroll along the canals of Birmingham. I will be starting at the same place as yesterday, Bordesley Station (bottom right hand corner of the map below) then anticlockwise around the canal triangle.
And we’re off! I’m planning on taking little snapshots of life as I have my stroll. I don’t have a blog, so I hope no one minds me taking up this little corner of the forum with photos and observations (which may or may not include puns)
Just spotted one of those test cars that have the mad colour scheme to make it harder to photograph. I tell you what also makes it tricky… being on the top deck of a bus as it bounces over potholes!
I had a look, and it turns out they were both the creation of Walenty Pytel, a Polish artist famed for his metal bird sculptures. The one on the canal is Wings Over Water, made back on 2000. The one at the airport is called Take Off, and was designed in 1985 to celebrate 40 years of peace in Europe. As today is all about me relaxing, I won’t be making any satirical comments here…
I’ll be referring a bit to yesterday’s walk. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s here:
The sense of peace is still just as prevalent as yesterday, but the environment is so different. Whereas yesterday it felt more like walking through the open countryside (or through caverns when passing under The Jewellery Quarter), today is more jungle. A mix of concrete jungle and walls of trees.
All around here are examples of the modern living next door to the abandoned; a forgotten and neglected history rubbing shoulders with the contemporary.
The canals themselves are an example of rapid obsolescence, only in recent decades being restored for holidaymakers to enjoy narrow boat vacations.
They were built at the start of the Industrial Revolution to allow the mass transit of goods, such as coal, steel, flour and anything else you wanted sending to other parts of the country.
And for a while, these truly were the motorways of the country. Until the train came along.
The train had many advantages over canal barges. Speed, amount that could be carried, and could cope with minor slopes without the need for a lock to get the barge to a different height.
There was much rivalry between canal and railway builders, to the point that sabotage often happened whenever bridges were built over canals.
Welcome to Salford Junction, once one of the busiest canal junctions in the country, underneath Spaghetti Junction which today has that honour (if you replace canal with motorway)
Straight ahead is the Tame Valley Canal, and to the left is the Birmingham Fazeley Canal, which I will be heading on. This joins up with the Birmingham Main Line Canal.
