Pumphouse Opens

The culmination of many years of work came on Saturday July 13th when the Titford Pump house was officially opened as the BCN Society headquarters. We had a fanfare of trumpets, Graham Fisher spoke eloquently, the ribbon was cut, The O’Keefe Room was named, the cake was consumed and everybody had a great weekend. Some of the impressions of the weekend are made later in this article.

Phoenix Victorious.

The fifth Dudley Festival of Water and Light, held at the Waterfront, Merry Hill on Saturday, October 5th, proved to be a great event for Phoenix. Taking the Festival’s theme to its logical conclusion, her intrepid band of designers and crew combined the two elements into a magical display which won the prize for the best decorated boat... A crowd of around eight thousand were there to witness Phoenix’s success.

Barrie Johnson has just about dried out. Report later in this article.

Pointing to the Future.

have considered myself fortunate as Editor of BP to have a group of correspondents and contributors who can always be relied on to come up with interesting and informative articles. How doubly fortunate I felt when I received two articles in quick succession, one of which was asking questions while the second provided the answers. Kevin Maslin raises some interesting points in his thoughtful piece on Society Signposts, while Jeff Barley reports on progress with signposts.

Mike Butler takes us back to the beginning of the summer with his piece about Phoenix’s travels during the BCN Marathon while Norma O’Keeffe suggests some possible Christmas presents for anyone who enjoys a good read.

It seems a long time since we began our alphabetical and historical tour around the BCN with the first of Edward Paget-Tomlinson’s drawings, that of Anglesey Basin. Accompanied by Ray Shill’s erudite and detailed articles, these have contributed greatly to our historical understanding of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. In this issue we have reached “W is for Witton” and the industrial history of this part of Birmingham. I am conscious that we are only three letters away from the end and hopeful that, in the words of the cliché, we’ll be able to “follow that”!

Phil.