Almost there…

Today we completed the last but one leg of the Stratford Upon Avon to Birmingham canal. We had to detour at the other side of this bridge (Brandwood Bridge) as the tunnel was 322 metres long and had no towpath.

My little sister was always accident prone and constantly had scabby knees as a child, so she made me very nervous reaching over to look down the length of the tunnel. She did say that it was just possible to see the other end though.

We debated for ages about who the plaque represented, assuming is was a great engineer of the 18th/19th century, eg Telford, Galton, etc, but we never even considered the truth of the matter - William Shakespeare!!

EDIT - how to leg a narrowboat through a canal tunnel

https://www.foxesafloat.com/single-post/2020/02/07/legging-it-how-to-leg-a-narrowboat-through-a-canal-tunnel

[Agnes]

Nice shot

[carol white]

A lovely capture

[Annie-Sue]

Had to? Or chose to?? ;-)

[Rob Z]

That's a great shot. I'm afraid i don't really understand what has happened here. This just looks like a short bridge - where does the 322m length occur?

[Lesley]

@robz Ah I didn’t explain that very well. The length is of the canal running under the bridge. The tunnel length that the canal runs through is due to it having to run underground beneath two main roads above.

[Susan Wakely]

A great adventure.

[Chrissie]

Great shot!

[Rob Z]

@tinley23 Gosh - so you can be on a boat, underground, for 322m?! That's amazing. That's for the info. :)

[Lesley]

@robz Yes absolutely. They are called narrowboats or longboats and were used to transport materials eg coal, wood around the country for many many years back in the day. Now they are mainly motorised and used for holiday cruising, and quite a lot of them are houseboats where people live in them permanently. It’s a big thing over here.

[Pat Knowles]

Love this story! That tunnel would be a tad too long for me too! How did you get your canal boat through the other side?

[Lesley]

@happypat We weren’t on a boat, Pat, just walking on the path at the side. In order to move the boats through such tunnels the handlers had to ‘leg it’, ie lying on their backs on top of the boat and sort of walking along the roof/sides of tunnel thereby moving the boat at the same time. I’ll see if I can find more info…

[Rob Z]

@tinley23 That sounds like it would be a great adventure!

[Margaret Brown]

Lovely capture

[Pat Knowles]

@tinley23 I think I have seen them do that….i had visions of you doing the same! Not my thing at all. Glad you were walking. Thanks for explaining.

[Larry Steager]

Very nice shot.

[Phil Howcroft]

cracking shot Lesley , might look good in black and white

[Carole Sandford]

Lovely old bridge & not sure that I would have recognised Shakespeare either.

[Renee Salamon]

Lovely old bridge

[Babs]

I held my breath looking at this photo. Hope she didn't fall in.
Thanks for the link. I have seen that done before on documentaries. Looks like hard work.

[Kathy A]

I'm happy to see she is hanging on while she is leaning over like that.

Thanks for the link, very interesting

[Diana]

What a wonderful capture and narrative! thanks for the interesting link.

[Brian]

What a story and image

[Lesley]

@phil_howcroft Thanks Phil. I’ll go and give it a try.

[Wylie]

Sounds like a challenge

[Cliff McFarlane]

What a wonderful adventure, with possibly added danger. Well captured

[Heather]

Love this shot and all your explanatory comments, Lesley! The video is really cool, too! Fascinating! Fav

[Karen]

A super interesting bridge and tunnel! Really interesting info in your comment replies and narrative - thank you for the link.

[Pat]

Haha I had a very tight grip on that rail!
I love your editing in this.

[haskar]

A wonderful story telling capture. I would also look inside the tunnel. There are handrails to hold on to. I would be more afraid that something would suddenly emerge from the tunnel.