Canals around Coventry

Kaga, I don't know about the cow. I know when I worked in the office of a farm next to Fradley junction a cow got on the tow path and we could hear the farm workers on the radio trying to round it up ! Yes I have read that they ran out of money at Atherstone. I think they built the Birmingham Canal before they joined it up. The Coventry canal crosses the River Tame a little way from where we live and that aquaduct was built in 1784. The Coventry Canal goes to Fradley. It meets the Trent and Mersey Canal from there. Near Alrewas it does run into the Trent towards Burton. We hired a day boat last year and had a very nice trip towards Huddlesford. Only trouble was none of us had steered a canal boat before and when we got to Huddlesford found there was some sort of fiesta on so we had to steer the boat down the middle of a long line of boats to get to the bit wide enough to turn round to return. There is truth in everything Kaga Cow swims through tunnel!

Annewiggy, that is just brilliant for me, so a lot of those tales were true, and I notice it was as far afield as Lancashire, so in those days news travelled down the cut. Thank you so much. Regards Kaga.

The Coventry Canal between Coventry and Fradley Junction was open in July 1790. This is a cutting from the Northampton Mercury about the day the canal was opened. The last portion to be finished was the aqueduct over the River Tame near Fazeley which is very close to where I live. On the end of the aqueduct was a cottage, probably built at the same time as a toll house or keepers cottage. This cottage was demolished as usual although it was still there in the 1960's. Underneath the cottage was this strange "room" now known as the hovel. I wondered if any of you canal knowledgeable people, Kaga! have any idea what its purpose would be. I thought it might be a boat house but it is a little far away from the river bank. Someone who used to walk his dog round there also said there was a foot square hole in the roof that would have been in the floor of the aqueduct cottage. The Hovel.

Annewiggy, enjoyed reading that, doubt if many could have read it at the time. The picture of the hovel reminds me of the tunnel that went under the road at New Inn bridge at the side of the 'cut' that was used for the tools the canal lengthman used, other than that I have no idea, the hole in the roof is intriguing, but then again you never know what you may find. A derelict convalescence house stood on top of a large grassy hill, about a mile from the sea. It had wings to the east and west, in the corner of the east wing there was a trap door (now sealed) in the wooden panels of the floor, below the trap door was a ladder that went down in to the bowels of the earth, the foot of the ladder was a small room that led into a tunnel about ten feet wide and high, the tunnel ran from east to west with openings at each end, at ground level. The tunnel had had electricity, heating, and air ventilation, smaller tunnels ran off the large one. There was sleeping accommodation for about a dozen people, a kitchen rest room and storage space, at each end just inside the openings (now sealed) was a 'pit'. At the time I went in 1957 with a torch, the electric did not work, water was dripping from the ceiling, a lot of the heating trunking had fallen from the roof, a lot of the wiring also was laying around, it was cold, dark, damp and dangerous. And it had been left to rot. I heard about it from a teenager in a pub, and curiosity and history got the better of me. Now I know the full history of the hill.

This news may interest Kaga - "Old power station site is back on the market"

Midland Red, part of my post 264 maybe is in the wrong topic, I thought it would generate some response to ex-navy personnel on the forum as the tunnel was HMS Forward. Regard to the power station, it would be nice to have a Canal and Colliery Museum, it was one of Coventry's great industries way back that fed and played a major part of the rest of industry in the city.

Why are people obsessed with museums?

Because being moribund themselves, they can't identify with the living ? No offence meant, humour solves everything.

Hey, this is an historic forum, so how else can you show the past, I only suggested for the young people. Not for me, I am the past, I lived through part of it, same for the old Coventry. A museum can only show you so much, then you have to have a great imagination. But perhaps the living can't identify with the past, you can rebuild the city but you cannot rebuild the culture that once was of this city Culture is not the right word, youth went away, when they returned they were not the same people you once knew, harder, angry, there's no words to describe it, and life changed for everyone and modernisation came in and community life and mood of before the forties will never be recaptured, but then today's people would do not wish it so. No longer can we leave our doors open, no longer can we not hear the word mugged, no longer can you walk through the city at night and feel comfortable. No, I can't identify with the life of today.

Heathite, no offence, criticism without replacement is moribund. For over a dozen years the power station supplied warm water for us kids to play and swim in, why not do the same for the kids of today. A big water park, with indoor and outdoor paddling and swimming pools, a shopping mall with food hall and a number of shops selling Lancashire food, a shop selling Yorkshire food etc., a large hotel, the top level with the canal and shaped like a narrow boat, the cabin a bar and sun-deck, a casino to finance the warm water, the lower floor a model canal, and the trimmings, a lift down into the basement as if you were in a 'pit' with colliery workings. But in Coventry, hotel like a boat, it will never happen (Singapore, yes). Cheers, Kaga.

Does any one remember some where along the canal where there was hot water coming out of a pipe straight into the canal and someone had put some tropical fish in and they were there for a few years. I think they where guppies. They all disappeared when they drained the canal for some maintenance work. Probably in the early 80s. If anyone has any info on this or what those fish were it would be very much appreciated. Also does any one remember thousands of 3 spined sticklebacks in the canal that totally vanished without a trace? I remember lots of convos along the canal at the time but was only a kid then so didn't really take much in. People asking each other where they have all gone etc

This looks like it's the canal at Aldermans Green Power Station, never heard anything about any guppies though.

There were also a number of pipes going into the canal at the old Courtaulds/Acordis factory at Little Heath. These were latterly labelled ("Acordis ...."), but I don't know anything about any fish. Peter.

Sorry I been told by a friend they where a type of non-native sub-tropical minnow and not guppies so I stand corrected on that. She also said it was a hot water pipe coming off the Electricity Board on Sandy Lane but I don't remember the pipes being that far down although I vaguely remember some railings. What you say seems to make more sense from what I can remember though around that big chimney area, after the bridge. Not sure how to change the post from guppies to minnows, if any mods know?

Back of Cash's was where the water was warm, there was talk of someone having put a piranha in there about 1965 - just a story I'm sure.