Black Country Canals
£9.95
This book is out of print. The copies available are second hand, in near-as-new or very good condition. Published by Sutton Publishing.
Black Country Canals includes a wide range of photographs, many previously unpublished, and is accompanied by fascinating and informative captions which combine to illustrate the canals in their heyday and more recently. The book is sure to appeal to all who live in or visit the Black Country, and to transport historians everywhere.
Only 1 left in stock
The Black Country has more miles of canal than Venice. During the industrial revolution this transport system developed to serve the steel, coal, lime and glass industries that grew up so extensively. Now, much of the area’s heavy industry has disappeared, but many of the canals remain – to be utilised as an integral part of the Black Country’s thriving tourist industry. The importance of this is indicated by the £1,000,000 visitors centre at Bailey’s lane, Tipton, opened by the then British Waterways Board at the turn of the century.
This collection of Black Country Canals in old photographs is an attempt to portray the vital role that waterways played in the development and daily life of the Black Country. Without the canals there would scarcely have been a Black Country. The ill-defined area that forms the Black Country lacked any navigable rivers, but sat upon untold mineral wealth in the form of an incredibly thick 10 yard seam of coal, plus clay, iron ore and other minerals, and stone that outcropped at or near to the surface. The canals unlocked this potential and made much that followed, from around 1770 onwards, possible.
In the pages of this book the reader is taken on a series of voyages along 7 canal routes. These have been arranged in chronological order based upon the opening date of the earliest section of canal included. An exception to this is where the journey begins, with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Although this did not open until after the sections of the Birmingham Canal, a junction with the ‘Staffs and Worcs’ was the aim of the first Birmingham Canal Act, so it seems reasonable for the book to start there. Each journey begins with a historical introduction to the canal that it covers, and additional historical information is given in the expanded captions accompanying each photograph.
Author: Paul Collins
Binding: Softback
Published: 2001 (This is the first edition)
Pages: 128
Size: 248 x 172 mm
ISBN: 0750920319
Publisher’s Price (in 2001): £10.99
