It came as a shock to cruise back through Horseley Fields and into Wolverhampton in the middle of September.I could see the original railway station building from the canal. It's a building I've long admired but the only reason I could see it from the canal was because the former Fellows, Morton & Clayton warehouse which used to obstruct its view has been demolished. Contractors were already on site preparing the ground for the new residentail development which is to take its place.

Before arriving back in Wolverhampton Marsh Harrier had cruised new waters including nearly all of the Thames, the Lee and Stort and those wonderful waterways around east London. I had more visits down the weedhatch on the Regents Canal and Hertford Union than on all my BCN cruising all this year. However, we'd better draw a veil over the incident of the whole bicycle round the prop, picked up on one of the most scenic parts of the Thames !

The Tipton Tunnel saga continues. Member Ray Tennision went to the public exhibition about the scheme and from the artist's impressions he acquired the road will cross over the cut as at present and then turn sharp right to descend parallel with the canal before turning to tunnel under the railway apparently just west of Caggie's yard.

With the loss of yet another historic canalside building in Wolverhampton comes the news of threats to Walsall's heritage. Albion Flour Mill which stands next to Walsall locks has the last remaining covered loading bay on the BCN. Proposals include filling in the arm and converting the building into..... I don't need to tell you " Objections have been made and hopefully the meetings mentioned by Martin in his Chairmans Notes will help to obviate the recurrence of such short sighted proposals. Latest proposals fot Walsall's Waterfront(The Town Arm to you and me) have included a hotal covered in red leather, restaurants and bars, a "hot wheels" centre, ice rink and indoor adventure park. The artist's impression shows a great rectangular slab-like edifice all the way down one side of the arm and doughnut shaped buildings down the other.

Here comes the editorial begging letter - the file is looking particularly empty at the moment and would certainly benefit from an infusion of articles, letters, comments,reminisences, photos; anything, in fact of BCN interest.

Yor editor has another e-mail address and can now be reached at phillipclayton@blueyonder.co.uk