Bumble Hole Branch Canal

Last updated

Entrance to Boshboil Branch (under Boshboil Arm Bridge) Boshboil Arm Bridge with Boshboil Arm beyond.jpg
Entrance to Boshboil Branch (under Boshboil Arm Bridge)
Toll Island near Windmill End Junction Toll Island near Windmill End Junction.jpg
Toll Island near Windmill End Junction
Dunn's Bridge over the junction of Bumble Hole Branch Canal on the left with Bumble Hole Bridge on the right. The bridges were constructed in 1858 and were cast at the Toll End Works in Tipton. The Brick Built Dunn's Bridge and Bumble Hole Bridge.jpg
Dunn's Bridge over the junction of Bumble Hole Branch Canal on the left with Bumble Hole Bridge on the right. The bridges were constructed in 1858 and were cast at the Toll End Works in Tipton.

The present day Bumble Hole Branch Canal and Boshboil Branch surround Bumble Hole, a water-filled clay pit, in Bumble Hole and Warren's Hall Nature Reserve, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England. They formed a looped part of the original Dudley No. 2 Canal until the opening of the Netherton Tunnel in 1858 when the loop was bypassed by a new cut, in line with the new tunnel. Part of the bypassed canal loop, which surrounds Bumble Hole, is now in-filled giving access to the pool of Bumble Hole. An area next to the Bumble Hole and Dudley canals is the Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve. [1] [2]

Contents

Cobb's Engine House

Between Windmill End Junction and the tunnel portal stands Cobb's Engine House, built in 1831 to pump water from coal mines into the canal.

Bumble Hole railway

The Bumble Hole railway was used to cross the canal near Windmill End Junction, but was dismantled in 1969.

Canal map

Bumble Hole Branch Canal
BSicon utCONTg.svg
BSicon utSTRe.svg
Netherton Tunnel (South portal)
BSicon uSTR.svg
BSicon exPUMPHOUSE.svg
Cobb's Engine House
BSicon exCONTgq.svg
BSicon uemKRZu.svg
BSicon exCONTfq.svg
Bumble Hole railway
BSicon uSTR+l.svg
BSicon uSTRq.svg
BSicon uFKRZ.svg
BSicon uTOLLq.svg
BSicon uCONTfq.svg
Windmill End Jn. Toll island and Dudley No 2 Canal to Halesowen (right)
BSicon POINTERg@fq.svg
BSicon uSTR.svg
BSicon uSTR.svg
Boshboil Branch
BSicon uSTR.svg
BSicon uDOCKSl.svg
BSicon uDOCKSr.svg
BSicon uSTR.svg
Loop encloses Bumble Hole
BSicon gCONTgq.svg
BSicon POINTERg@fq.svg
BSicon ugFABZgr+r.svg
BSicon uSTR.svg
Bumble Hole Branch extended to Dixon's Green Furnaces
BSicon uSTRl.svg
BSicon uSTRq.svg
BSicon uSTRq.svg
BSicon POINTERg@fq.svg
BSicon uFABZgr+r.svg
Bumble Hole Branch
BSicon uCONTf.svg
Dudley No 2 Canal (to Parkhead Jn)

Features

Point Coordinates
(Links to map resources)
OS Grid Ref Notes
Netherton Tunnel south portal 52°29′36″N2°04′09″W / 52.4933°N 2.0692°W / 52.4933; -2.0692 (Netherton Tunnel) SO953884
Cobb's Engine House 52°29′34″N2°04′08″W / 52.4929°N 2.0690°W / 52.4929; -2.0690 (Cobb's Engine House) SO953883
Windmill End Junction 52°29′30″N2°04′13″W / 52.4916°N 2.0702°W / 52.4916; -2.0702 (Windmill End Junction) SO952882
Bumble Hole pool 52°29′28″N2°04′24″W / 52.4912°N 2.0732°W / 52.4912; -2.0732 (Bumble Hole pool) SO950881
Bumble Hole Branch (junction) 52°29′24″N2°04′21″W / 52.4900°N 2.0725°W / 52.4900; -2.0725 (Bumble Hole Branch (junction)) SO950880

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham Canal Navigations</span> United Kingdom legislation

Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and operated by the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company from 1767 to 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal</span>

Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal, in the West Midlands county, England, is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, (BCN). It was constructed at a 453–foot elevation, the Wednesbury or Birmingham level; it has no locks. The total length of the branch canal is 2.4 miles (3.9 km) and the canal tunnel is 9,081 feet (2,768 m) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dudley Canal</span> Canal in the West Midlands, England

The Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh network of connected navigable inland waterways and forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stourport Ring</span>

The Stourport Ring is a connected series of canals forming a circuit, or canal ring, around Worcestershire, The Black Country and Birmingham in The Midlands, England. The ring is formed from the River Severn, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Stourbridge Canal, the Dudley Canals, the Birmingham Canal Navigations and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tame Valley Canal</span>

The Tame Valley Canal is a relatively late (1844) canal in the West Midlands of England. It forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It takes its name from the roughly-parallel River Tame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lapal Tunnel</span>

The Lapal Tunnel is a disused 3,795-yard (3,470 m) canal tunnel on the five mile dry section of the Dudley No. 2 Canal in the West Midlands, England. It takes its name from the settlement of Lapal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannock Extension Canal</span>

The current Cannock Extension Canal is a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) canal in England. It runs from Pelsall Junction on the Wyrley and Essington Canal, north to Norton Canes Docks and forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Historically, it ran to Hednesford, and served a number of collieries, which provided the main traffic. It opened in 1863, and the northern section closed in 1963, as a result of mining subsidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gower Branch Canal</span>

The Gower Branch Canal is a half-mile canal at Tividale in England, linking Albion Junction on the Birmingham Level of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and Brades Hall Junction on the BCN's older Wolverhampton (473 ft) level, via three locks, the Brades Locks, at the Southern, Brades Hall end.

The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water levels of the Birmingham Canal Navigations</span>

The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), a network of narrow canals in the industrial midlands of England, is built on various water levels. The three longest are the Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Walsall levels. Locks allow boats to move from one level to another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titford Canal</span>

The Titford Canal is a narrow (7 foot) canal, a short branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) in Oldbury, West Midlands, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walsall Canal</span>

The Walsall Canal is a narrow canal, seven miles (11 km) long, forming part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and passing around the western side of Walsall, West Midlands, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rushall Canal</span> Canal in the West Midlands, England

The Rushall Canal is a straight, 2.75-mile (4.43 km), narrow canal suitable for boats which are 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, forming part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) on the eastern side of Walsall, West Midlands, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wednesbury Oak Loop</span>

The Wednesbury Oak Loop, sometimes known as the Bradley Arm, is a canal in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), and was originally part of James Brindley's main line, but became a loop when Thomas Telford's improvements of the 1830s bypassed it by the construction of the Coseley Tunnel. The south-eastern end of the loop was closed and in parts built over, following the designation of the entire loop as "abandoned" in 1954, including the section which was filled in at the beginning of the 1960s to make way for the Glebefields Estate in Tipton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrewley Tunnel</span>

Shrewley Tunnel is a canal tunnel near Shrewley, Warwickshire, England, which opened in 1799. It became part of the Grand Union Canal in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Icknield Port Loop</span> Historic English canal

The Icknield Port Loop is a 0.6-mile (1 km) loop of the eighteenth-century-built Old BCN Main Line canal in Birmingham, England, about 2 miles (3 km) west of the city centre, which opened to traffic on 6 November 1769 and in some definitions includes its straighter bypass built in September 1827, a 550-yard (500 m) section of the New BCN Main Line. Most of the 56 acres (23 ha) of land thereby enclosed is derelict meaning the canal serves the Canal & River Trust maintenance depot at Icknield Port and conveys water from Edgbaston Reservoir to the BCN Main Line. The enclosed land has no pedestrian or vehicular access. Icknield Port (Loop) takes its name from the Roman Icknield Street which passed nearby, the exact route of which is unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soho Loop</span>

The Soho Loop is a 1.2-mile (2 km) section of the eighteenth-century Old BCN Main Line canal in Birmingham, England, about 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west of the city centre, which opened to traffic on 6 November 1769, and was bypassed in September 1827 by a straight 0.75-mile (1.2 km) section of the New BCN Main Line. Much of the 110 acres (45 ha) of enclosed land is occupied by the 49 acres (20 ha) of Birmingham's City Hospital, and the canal itself serves private residential moorings at Hockley Port Basin via a 310 yards (280 m) branch extending north-eastwards. This is all that remains of the former Soho Branch that once served Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory. There is pedestrian access to a tow path for the entire length of the outside of the loop, which skirts the southern boundary of Winson Green Prison and twice passes underneath the Stour Valley Railway. The Centre of the Earth environmental education centre is adjacent to the canal and has a long wharf frontage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pensnett Canal</span>

The Pensnett Canal, also called Lord Ward's Canal was a private 1.25 miles (2 km) long canal near Brierley Hill, West Midlands, England, which opened in 1840 and served the industrial enterprises of Lord Dudley's Estate. The engineer was Mathew Frost. Since its closure to navigation in 1950, much of it has been lost by overbuilding, but a small section at its junction with the Dudley Canal was restored in 1995, and the section through Brierley Hill remains in water, although it is polluted and not navigable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve</span>

Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve is situated in the Netherton area of Dudley Metropolitan Borough in the county of West Midlands, England. This former industrial area now features canals, ponds, grassland and wooded areas. The reserve lies adjacent to the Warren's Hall Local Nature Reserve. It was declared a local nature reserve in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren's Hall Country Park</span> Local natural reserve in Sandwell metropolitan Borough

Warren's Hall Country Park is a local nature reserve situated in Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in the West Midlands of England. It lies next to Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve. It includes ponds, canals, grassland, small wooded areas and the entrance to Netherton Canal Tunnel.

References

  1. "Bumble Hole". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  2. "Map of Bumble Hole". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 3 August 2013.

Further reading

52°29′30″N2°04′13″W / 52.4916°N 2.0702°W / 52.4916; -2.0702