Bumble Hole Branch Canal
Encyclopedia
The present day Bumble Hole Branch Canal and Boshboil Branch surround Bumble Hole, a water-filled clay pit
Clay pit
A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement.The brickyard or brickworks is often located alongside the clay pit to reduce the transport costs of the raw material. These days pottery producers are often not...
, in Bumble Hole and Warren's Hall Nature Reserve, Rowley Regis
Rowley Regis
Rowley Regis is a town in the Sandwell metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county and a part of the Black Country in the United Kingdom. Being part of the Black Country, locals speak with the traditional dialect, though in a form regarded by many as the quickest and the hardest to...
, West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. They formed a looped part of the original Dudley No. 2 Canal
Dudley Canal
The Dudley Canal is a canal passing though Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh connected network of navigable inland waterways, and in particular forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route....
until the opening of the Netherton Tunnel in 1858 when the loop was bypassed by a new cut, in line with the new tunnel.
Part of the bypassed canal loop, which surrounds Bumble Hole, is now in-filled giving access to the pool of Bumble Hole.
Between Windmill End Junction and the tunnel portal stands Cobb's Engine House
Cobb's Engine House
Cobb's Engine House in Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England, is a scheduled ancient monument and a Grade II listed building built around 1831. It housed a stationary steam pump used to pump water firstly from Windmill End Colliery and later other mines in the area...
, built in 1831 to pump water from coal mines into the canal.
The Bumble Hole railway used to cross the canal near Windmill End Junction, but was dismantled in 1969.
Features
