Cobley Hill Homepage


Dist:0.2km<br/>
©Colin Park
Dist:0.3km<br/>The wreckage next to the pillar was a windpump. I am told it has now been removed, but it is still marked on the OS 1:50 000 map.
©Richard Webb
Dist:0.5km<br/>Most narrowboats on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal have a beam of just under seven feet (two metres), but this vessel is considerably slimmer. Having said that, it is an inflatable craft, probably cheap, and wider than some of the really narrow kayaks and canoes that speed past the 4 mph speed limited seventy footers!
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.5km<br/>
©Row17
Dist:0.5km<br/>Looking through the arch of Grange Lane Bridge, No 59.
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.5km<br/>This is Bridge No 59 on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. This canal was constructed in stages between 1791 and 1815, with John Woodhouse as engineer.
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.5km<br/>Approaching Grange Lane Bridge, No 59. [[2114712]]
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.5km<br/>Field immediately to the south of Scarfield Hill.
©Martin Wilson
Dist:0.6km<br/>The canal narrows about forty metres ahead where an aqueduct carries the canal across a brook. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal was constructed in stages between 1791 and 1815. Grain, timber and agricultural produce were carried to the Midlands. Industrial goods and coal were carried down towards Worcester, often for onward transport to Bristol. Later, salt carrying was added as a regular cargo. Pairs of donkeys were often used in preference to horses, maybe because they could easily be put onto the boats which had to be legged (or pulled by tug) through the four tunnels near Birmingham.
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.6km<br/>The Worcester and Birmingham Canal was built in stages between 1791 and 1815 to connect the River Severn in Worcester to the Birmingham Canal System using a quicker route than the earlier Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Opposition from other canal companies meant that for twenty years there was no direct connection in Birmingham, the last two and a bit metres of canal there being left uncompleted in 1795. http://wikimapia.org/78582/Worcester-Bar This lunacy was eventually resolved by an Act of Parliament in 1815 and a stop-lock constructed. Grain, timber and agricultural produce were carried to the Midlands. Industrial goods and coal were carried down towards Worcester, often for onward transport to Bristol. Later, salt carrying was added as a regular cargo. Pairs of donkeys were often used in preference to horses, maybe because they could easily be put onto the boats which had to be legged (or pulled by tug) through the tunnels. The canal has five tunnels. The longest at Kings Norton is just under two miles long. Steam tugs were used from the 1870s to haul strings of narrowboats through Wasts Hill, Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal has locks, 58 of them, climbing 428 feet (130 metres) from the level of the River Severn in Worcester up to Birmingham. In the twenty-first century the ring now formed by the two canals and the river makes a popular two weeks holiday route, albeit partly a strenuous one, lockwise, but there are plenty of pubs, though some are now merely restaurants with a bar. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal travels through some very pleasant countryside, climbing from the Severn through rolling fields and wooded cuttings and slicing through a hilly ridge south of Birmingham. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_and_Birmingham_Canal
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.6km<br/>This rusting dilapidated Commer van was corroding away quietly in a snowy farmyard close to the junction of Foxhill lane and Scarfield Hill. The cold horses in the yard looked meekly on.
©Nigel Mykura
Dist:0.6km<br/>Junction with Foxhill Avenue.
©Martin Wilson
Dist:0.6km<br/>Here the canal is approaching the northern end of Shortwood Rough Ground, a large deciduous wood south of Alvechurch. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal was constructed in stages between 1791 and 1815. Grain, timber and agricultural produce were carried to the Midlands. Industrial goods and coal were carried down towards Worcester, often for onward transport to Bristol. Later, salt carrying was added as a regular cargo. Pairs of donkeys were often used in preference to horses, maybe because they could easily be put onto the boats which had to be legged (or pulled by tug) through the four tunnels near Birmingham.
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.7km<br/>
©Roy Hughes
Dist:0.7km<br/>Here the canal is approaching the northern end of Shortwood Rough Ground, a large deciduous wood south of Alvechurch. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal was constructed in stages between 1791 and 1815. Grain, timber and agricultural produce were carried to the Midlands. Industrial goods and coal were carried down towards Worcester, often for onward transport to Bristol. Later, salt carrying was added as a regular cargo. Pairs of donkeys were often used in preference to horses, maybe because they could easily be put onto the boats which had to be legged (or pulled by tug) through the four tunnels near Birmingham.
©Roger Kidd

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]

Members Nearby

Cobley Hill Discussion Forum


Places Near Cobley Hill

Alvechurch • Apes Dale • Arrowfield Top • Bank's Green • Barnt Green • Batchley • Bellevue • Blackwell • Broad Green • Burcombe • Cattespool • Cobley Hill • Cofton Hackett • Enfield • Finstall • Foxlydiate • Hall Flat • Hopwood • Kendal End • Lickey • Lickey End • Linthurst • Riverside • Rowney Green • Slideslow • St. Godwalds • Staple Hill • Tardebigge • Tutnall • Withybed Green •