#anglesey branch

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking Listed:

January 5th - I went for a spin up the McLean Way - the rail to trail cycleway that Brian Stringer and Back the Track have been reclaiming on the old South Staffordshire Railway line that runs through Brownhills. 

It’s a bit muddy in places but easily rideable on a mountain or off-road bike. The mud is shallow, and sits mostly as a 3 inch layer on top a solid ballast base, so once you cut into in, it rides well.

On the whole it’s brilliant, it really is and a credit to all involved.

This aqueduct over the former railway conducts the Anglesey Branch Canal from it’s terminal feeder point at Chasewater to Ogley Junction. The bridge is a nationally listed building, considered almost unique in construction and style.

It’s in a sorry state, and I think the Canal and River Trust will have to do a fair bit of maintenance before too long.

But it’s a beautiful thing, and incredibly well thought out.

Unusual to see if from underneath.

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[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking - Interregnum:

February 5th - In that odd, vague and lifeless interregnum between ‘rather ill’ and ‘quite a bit better’ I found myself bumbling around the canals of Brownhills on what what was not an altogether bad day.

Here at Middleton Bridge - overlooking open farmland not a ringtoss from where the Staffordshire Hoard found a local metal detectorist - it’s hard tnot to look at this view and reflect.

On the left was a chemical works in the late Victorian period, that made tar and other such products; latterly an alloy smelter that seemed to process war scrap. Local kids were attracted to the yard full of warplane fuselages and engines for scrap, and for fun, but down in the valley, real metal riches lay just below the surface in a ploughed field.

This stretch of canal is still called ‘The Chemical’ by older locals. 

It looks a damn site better now the scrapyard has gone, mind...

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[brownhillsbob]

August 17th - I see there are patches of scum on the canal again in various spots. These seasonal bands of detritus are ugly, but are organic in origin - usually pollen, blossom debris or seed mast. 

I couldn’t work out what was generating this one, and it’s sporadic, but suspect it’s connected with nearby trees.

It’s a sign of the much cleaner times that such events are now so noticeable.