Walsall Town Arm - "Hit or Miss"?

Monday, 15 February 2010 09:00

We are glad that we caught the bus instead!

Whilst moored at Longwood Junction on the Daw End Branch/Rushall Canal we caught the bus into Walsall from Longwood Bridge. There is a very convenient bus stop just about 5 minutes away.

Once in Walsall - a typical small Midland town shopping centre  - we made a bee line for the canal. We wanted to check out the moorings in the Town Arm. They had recently been featured on TV on Midlands Today: accidentally though, as they were doing an item on the "prestigious" Art Gallery, on the so called "Waterfront" there.

 Art Gallery

Walsall Town Wharf,  as the area was known,  was a very busy area in the time of canal transport. The many wharves were used for off-loading domestic coal and coal for the ironworks. Local factory goods were transported to the wharf by horse transport and were loaded onto the many barges awaiting cargo.

As trade declined and other means of transport took over, the Arm declined and by 1958 the Arm was full of rotting boats. The Walsall Canal became derelict until interest in the canals as a leisure resource revived.

We had planned to come up the Walsall Canal and moor on the pontoons at the Town Wharf but we saw there were two impediments to this!

Fi at Town Wharf

Firstly there was a lot of ice and secondly as we walked around the Wharf we saw this

A yellow boom blocking the entrance

So were there any warnings about this mooring being closed? We had not seen any on the WWW, nor on publications, notices or even by word of mouth. We speculated on the reasons for closure. Ice? Building work around the area? Lack of dredging? Local vandalism problems? Does anyone know?

There certainly is a lot of building going on - flats, apartments - canalside luxury! Nearly all the old wharf buildings have been knocked down. Those that remain are dwarfed by modern buildings and seem long forgotten. The covered wharf that remains is silent, locked shut and handy for the local kids to hang around by, away from watching eyes.

Covered wharf

We wandered down the towpath and I have to say that looking back towards the Town Wharf, it all looked rather uninviting. What a shame!

Looking back down the Town Arm to Town Wharf

We spied some pontoons on the off side - the sign was "BW operational moorings, 24 hour if vacant after 6pm. We suppose that to mean that if there is no BW workboat there, other boats can use the moorings, but not until after 6pm and then only for 24 hours.

BW sign

Pontoon moorings, lovely!

Oh and look at the end of the pontoon moorings a yellow warning sign - "Boom in operation"

Warning sign on gate from moorings

It all looked rather bleak and overgrown - this panorama makes it look as if it is on a bend - not so, the Arm is straight!

Panorama of pontoon mooring area

At the Junction with the Walsall Canal, another small warning sign about the boom greets the boater, but what does that mean? What is a boom and where is it? To the right are the Walsall Locks that climb up towards Birchills Junction and the Wyrley and Essington Canal.

Walsall Bottom Lock

The Junction sign

To the left was Bridgeman Street Bridge and we wandered along and under the bridge to see if we could see more ice on the Canal. There did not seem to be any on this stretch, but we had already decided that we would not be coming up to moor on the Walsall Town Arm. It felt so desolate, unloved and unwelcoming.

Entrance to the Town Arm and boom sign opposite

So we were really glad we had travelled by bus to explore first. The good news is that we did a bit of shopping, caught the bus back to Epiphany and were glad to be back away from the town again!

Sorry Walsall!