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Dist:0.3km<br/>As new residential homes are built (in background), the old remain boarded up (junction of Monksway and Walkers Heath Road)
©Michael Westley
Dist:0.3km<br/>A pipe bridge can be seen ahead. These are fairly commonplace on the canals. No doubt someone local can tell us what this one carries. 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:0.4km<br/>The [[175047]]. At this point Wharf Lane, from the left, becomes Parsons Hill leading away to the right. Notice the red panel with the fire hydrant sign above. These are still a common sight in Birmingham and the surrounding areas. The red panel would originally have been a small wooden doorway and was installed during WWII. These doorways allowed firemen to pump water directly from the canals particularly after bombing raids when main water supplies may have been disrupted.
©David Stowell
Dist:0.4km<br/>Three icons of the past gradually disappearing from our streets - the corner shop, a red telephone kiosk and a Zebra crossing.
©David Stowell
Dist:0.4km<br/>On the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.
©John M
Dist:0.4km<br/>
©Row17
Dist:0.4km<br/>Parson's Hill Bridge near Kings Norton, Birmingham Bridge No 71 on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. 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. 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 through the tunnels near Birmingham.
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.4km<br/>Bridge No 71 on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. 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. 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 through the tunnels near Birmingham.
©Roger Kidd
Dist:0.4km<br/>On the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.
©John M
Dist:0.4km<br/>Looking north from the Wharf Lane/Parsons Hill road bridge. The stretch ahead leads up to King's Norton Junction at which the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal branches off to the right.
©David Stowell
Dist:0.5km<br/>On the corner of Chapel Walk, Wharf Road at the start of Parsons Hill.
©Roy Hughes
Dist:0.5km<br/>This fast food restaurant is situated in the art deco building that was once home to the Cartland Arms public house. The pub was named after the local family which owned land in the area. At least this fine building is still standing and being cared for.
©Roy Hughes
Dist:0.6km<br/>Beside Wharf Lane, opposite the Navigation Inn.
©David Stowell
Dist:0.6km<br/>This public house is in Wharf Lane which not surprisingly leads to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. Up until the 1930s a cattle market was regularly held in what is now the pub car park. In those days this was a rather more rural area than today!
©David Stowell
Dist:0.6km<br/>
©Row17

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