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The BCNS was orginally formed as a Registered Charity in 1968.
In 2002 the Society was reconstituted as a Company Limited by Guarantee having a company number of 4306537 and a Charity number 1091760.
The Society's original aims continue:- to conserve, improve and encourage a wide range of interests in the 100 mile network of the Birmingham and Black Country Waterways know as the BCN.
Use the above control bar to navigate the site. To assist with navigation the following topics can be found in each section:-
Selected past and current articles from the Society Magazine 'Boundary Post'
Various articles concerning our 'HQ' The Restored Titford Pumphouse
Details of the Society Workboats 'Phoenix and Crow'
List of Social and Boat Events on the BCN: Contact details for BCN Talk:
Has a number of Photograph Sections covering all activities of the Society:-
Articles on Work Boats
A Photographic Guide to the BCN: With basic cruising/Security and Sfety Information
History and Photographs of BCN Tugs
Work Party: Rally: and Social Events
Photographs from the Recent Past
Atlas and Malus:-Details/Photographs of joint venture by BCNS/Coombeswood Trust to run a working pair of boats
Details of how to become a member of the Society
History and List of Boats built by well known BCN Boat Builders: Les Allen and Sons
This piece was written by Kevin Maslin a former Editor of Boundary Post, originally for
publication in Navvies, the journal of WRG. Although first published many years ago in the 1980's when the BCN was not as re developed as it is today it still paints a picture that represents the system in the eyes of many.
"We have changed and brought up to date some passages in the text but the general theme of Kevins article remains intact." Ed
"Rural, in the context of the Black Country, meant pastureland mixed with the remains of old mineral workings. New housing estates were fast encroaching on this part of the cut, with the result that, although there was a fair depth of water, heavily loaded boats used to have to creep along because of the danger of hitting obstacles on the canal bed".
Two evocatively contrasting images as observed by the same author. Tom Foxon's 1950s view from the tiller is, perhaps, not too far removed from today's scene forty-odd years on, save for the almost non-existence of commercial traffic.
Birmingham is widely reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice - the upshot of a chance remark, believed to have been made by a British Waterways official, several years ago. The story is hitherto unproven but the myth has remained and has been used to good effect in much promotional literature! In fact, Birmingham forms a relatively small part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), an intricate network of narrow canals situated at the very heart of the Midlands waterway network.
The original reason for the BCN's existence was to provide a convenient means of transporting raw materials and goods, produced by local industry, to wherever they were needed. The idea of the new transport system was born in 1767 at a typical hostelry in what was then just the town of Birmingham. The White Swan was a coaching inn and a popular meeting place for the entrepreneurs of the day. Far sighted businessmen rushed to invest in what was seen as a potentially profitable venture and the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company was formed. In later years it was to become known as, arguably, the wealthiest of all the canal companies.
The original section of the Birmingham Canal was completed very quickly and the first boat load of coal was delivered from West Bromwich to Birmingham on 6th November 1769. Amalgamations with neighbouring canal companies soon followed and many new canals were built. An Act of Parliament, passed in 1794, authorised non-canalside industries to construct their own links with the main canal system. As a result, over 500 additional private arms and wharves were constructed, some of which remain today or can at least be traced. At its peak the Birmingham Canal Navigations system reached a total of 159 miles, with some 200 locks, pervading every nook and cranny of the heavily industrialised areas of the West Midlands.
The arrival of the railways in the mid 19th century heralded a change in fortunes for the waterway network nationally. However, the subsequent widespread abandonment, decay and dereliction did not extend to the BCN as a whole, partly due to the fact that local industry was heavily canal orientated. So whilst goods were rail bound for longer journeys, Birmingham and Black Country industry was encouraged to collect cargoes by boat from numerous rail/canal interchange basins which sprang up around the region.
Gradually, as carriage by water was superseded by road transport, the BCN fell into a steady decline. Most collieries had been worked out - the transportation of coal being the lifeblood of many BCN carriers - and much of the heavy industrial trade had ceased by the 1930s. A few stalwarts, most notably Thomas Clayton's tar boats, continued to ply their trade between the Midlands and the North until the mid 1960s. Long term neglect was to follow with oily, weed-infested, rubbish-strewn waters becoming commonplace. Through sheer lack of use and subsequent closures much of the BCN mutated into what could be fairly described as a stinking ditch.
In more enlightened times the modern day BCN is an explorer's paradise, consisting of just over 100 remaining miles of liquid history. It now provides a source of recreation for thousands of people each year, including pleasure boaters, anglers, towpath walkers and cyclists. Much landscaping and towpath improvement work has been carried out together with, often, sympathetic treatment of existing and new waterside buildings. To pinch someone else's axiom: "the Black Country is no longer black".
Fiery furnaces belching forth smoke and the once familiar sight of boatmen leading their heavy horses along well-trodden towpaths may have long gone. But clues to a bygone age abound and can be readily apparent to the latter day canal user. Look out for rope marks - worn deep into the parapets of graceful black and white cast iron bridges - evidence of the sheer volume of horse boat traffic. A wealth of history is built into the towpath edge or on locksides, where the coping bricks often bear the name of their maker, a testimony to the workmanship of local craftsmen. The ubiquitous boundary post, once employed to mark the extent of the canal company's land is not such a common sight, most having been buried or taken by souvenir hunters.
Birmingham's Gas Street Basin and the whole of the waterfront area has undergone something of a radical change in recent years, with tumbledown warehouses replaced by low level offices and trendy pubs, restaurants and many other liesure orientated buildings. The once derelict land giving way to glaring multi-storey hotel and conference complexs. Traditional, it certainly ain't, but the new age planners can in some way be forgiven as the smart, new appearance coupled with easy access walkways, has rekindled public interest in these once forgotten city centre cuts.
Hundreds of boaters must pass this way each year, but sadly only a small percentage take the trouble to stay and discover for themselves exactly what the BCN has to offer. To many the BCN Main Line - providing just fifteen miles of comfortable cruising into Wolverhampton - is seen as a necessary evil: a link with the green pastures of the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal which must be traversed in the shortest practical time.
For this and other reasons the Birmingham Canal Navigations are largely underused and undervalued canals. approximately three quarters of which were designated Remainder Waterways under the provisions of the infamous 1968 Transport Act. As such, the majority of the system is required only to be maintained to a minimum safety standard by British Waterways due to increasingly acute financial constraints imposed by central government. Like it or not, the canals of Birmingham and the Black Country remain under constant threat and are available today for pleasure cruising only through the concerted and continued efforts of local waterway enthusiasts.
Despite recent favourable developments - the re-opening of Dudley Tunnel to through navigation, a new lease of life for the Walsall Town Arm and the construction of the Birmingham & Black Country Cycleway for example - the system cannot by any means be considered "safe" and a consistent vigil must be kept to ensure that the BCN remains for the benefit of all users. Therefore, the "use 'em or lose 'em" adage has to be good advice in order to retain this priceless legacy of the industrial revolution.
The interests of the BCN system are ably supported by members of the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society and both Birmingham and Lichfield branches of the Inland Waterways Association, collectively striving to promote usage of the system and constantly to monitor canalside developments.
![Pelsall Junction. Showing 1 of 27 signposts.](../images/peljun_1_small.jpg")
Such is the complexity of the network that a major project undertaken by the BCN Society over a ten year period has been the placement of direction signposts at every one of the BCN system's twenty-seven navigable junctions. This being a direct response to all those boaters and walkers who complained of getting lost when straying from the "safety" of the main lines!
Generally speaking, the conglomeration of canals to the north east side of the Birmingham Level is referred to as the "Northern BCN". Names such as Curly Wyrley, Tame Valley and Daw End conjure up images of a peaceful countryside haven, but were all once part of a thriving industrial workaday community. Today, the Northern BCN exists as a miscellany of light industry and urban dwellings in its lower reaches, metamorphosing into almost unbelievable lush, tranquil settings, progressively towards its uppermost terminus and feeder reservoir at Chasewater. This is the BCN at its historic and rural best. So why is it that despite the eminent rustic charm and pastoral delights of the Rushall Canal, Anglesey Branch and Cannock Extension, boaters seem to favour the relatively rugged townscapes of the main lines? It is widely conceived that the answer lies in the missing connection with the rest of the canal system.
In this context it is pleasing to note that the local restoration movement is alive and kicking. The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust is confident that plans to reinstate links with the Coventry Canal via the Ogley Branch of the Wyrley & Essington (the "Lichfield" Canal) and the Hatherton Branch with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal are beginning to bear fruit. The major threat to the whole restoration programme, was the proposed construction of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, today re-named the M6 Toll Road. Trust supporters fought long and hard and won the right for the canal to cross the road. Today the canal crosses the road on a new aqueduct that at present stands alone unconnect to the rest of the canal. So much more has to be done and the Society along with other groups fully support the L&HCRT in its efforts to re open this vital link to the BCN.
An equally pressing problem presents itself with the on and off plans for the widening of the M6 motorway, the plans for which do not include for the continuation of the restoration of the Hatherton Branch Canal, presently culverted near Calf Heath. A long term project? Maybe, but the provision of an access/exit route will no doubt breathe new life into the Northern BCN and open up a further two possible cruising rings.
Meanwhile to the south, following a long period of careful
planning, the Lapal Canal Trust has made measurable headway with
plans to extend the presently truncated Dudley No.2 Canal. A
ceremony to mark the official start of restoration took place in
early March 1997 and the Trust plans to eventually reinstate the
entire line from Hawne Basin - the present terminus - through to
the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak.
Work has restored and safe guarded the 800 yard Leasowes Embankment, at the Halesowen end of the line, the embankment being one of the largest of its type ever constructed.
At the Selly Oak end where link would join the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, the Trust has won the right for the Junction to be reinstated. A lenght of canal will link the junction to a new Supermarket development that will take the canal to the Harbourne Park Road/Selly Oak Park area. This development in 2008 is hopefully about to start. From the park to the lost entrance to the Lapal Tunnel the de-watered line of the canal is still present.
The Trust has also engaged civil engineers to explore the various ideas of over coming the Lapal Tunnel problem, so again much movement but with more to do, to hopefully restore another link to the BCN.
It is envisaged that not only will both projects expand
possibilities for cruising but will attract considerable prestige
and additional revenue to the areas concerned. Both restoration
groups, it must be said, have been supported by a healthy
contingent from the Waterway Recovery Group.
All groups have a good working relationship with British Waterways who maintian a close interest in both of the projects. The Society due to this relationship was used by BW to unlock funding to restore the Titford Pumphouse that in turn unlocked more funding for the improvements to the canal corridor. British Waterways nationally recently has had many funding problems and has ungone much re-structuring, but on a local level the outlook is positive.
Not so much a restoration as a conservation group, the BCN Society holds regular work parties, currently in the Smethwick and Titford Canal area, where some useful landscaping and building work has been carried out as part of BW's "Adopt A Canal" scheme. To further expand its horizons the society purchased its own purpose built work boat 'Phoenix' following a successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Reports would suggest that a reasonable percentage of visitors
to the Black Country National Waterways Festivals in both 1991 and
1996 took the opportunity to discover the "less accessible" areas
of the BCN for themselves. Each year since the Society and other groups have continued this theme with Rallies, Boat Gatherings and Explorer Cruises to all parts of the BCN.
Although not strictly the BCN the National Waterways Festival again returned to the area in 2008, holding the event at the bottom of the Wolverhampton 21 around the Aldersley and Autherley Junctions at Pendeford, again bringing many new boats to the area.
From the typically urban contours of the Walsall (currently the focus of much local attention) and Wyrley & Essington canals, to the arrow-straight Tame Valley and Rushall canals. The waterways of the BCN are all worthy of retention, but will rapidly decline and face ultimate consignment to the history books if we cannot demonstrate their full potential as living, cruising waterways. The sad loss of the Ridgeacre Branch is, indeed, a case in point.
Birmingham Canal Navigations - three words guaranteed to make your average boater cringe and head feverishly for the weed-hatch. Just as sure as exaggerated tales of 'bandit country' infest boat clubs and canal societies throughout the land like weed growth on the 'ampton pound. Heed the tales of horror at your own peril! If your perception of the BCN is that of a linear rubbish tip, then please, take a word of advice - come and see for yourself - experience the delights of the real BCN. You are assured a warm welcome.