Narrowboat Saltaire near Ettingshall, Wolverhampton
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Narrowboat Saltaire near Ettingshall, Wolverhampton by Roger D Kidd as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Narrowboat Saltaire near Ettingshall, Wolverhampton
Image: © Roger D Kidd Taken: 15 Oct 2010
This is east of Catchems Corner Bridge on the Wolverhampton Level of the Birmingham Main Line Canal, which was fully opened in 1772. James Brindley was the engineer. Thomas Telford upgraded the route some sixty years later. The seventy foot long working boat is a 1936 registered GUCCC (Grand Union Canal Carrying Company) narrowboat, Saltaire No 167, originally paired with butty No 349 Saltley, but not all is quite as it seems. If this were a car, it would be condemned as a "cut-and-shut" job. Only the front end is actually the original Saltaire. The original engine room end was cut off by British Waterways in the 1960s while being used as a maintenance craft, and that now forms part of another (pleasure) vessel. The present stern end and engine room is from 1987.
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Image Location
Latitude
52.567858
Longitude
-2.101077