This is not exactly an area that would be thought of as somewhere that would be high on the priority list for a holiday.  However, most years, we find ourselves on the canals of the West Midlands.  It is very different to see it  by canal and Birmingham is a modern, vibrant city with much to attract the visitor.

We start in the centre of Birmingham, at Farmers Bridge.  This is the junction of the Birmingham and Fazeley canal with the "BCN" (Birmingham Canal Navigations).  One of the many loops also leaves here, making in effect a crossroads junction.  And as the old ATV TV studio is just down the road, probably most appropriately... There's an island hereabouts as well.  In local dialect, what I would call a "roundabout" is called an "island" in these parts and so many people try to treat it as a roundabout.  Much amusement for the idle bystander.  Further along takes us to Gas Street Basin.  The whole area has been transformed over the past decade.  Whether for good or bad, well, you'll have your own opinion on that, I'm sure.  The boat coming towards us is, I think, "Mountbatten", one of the very last boats to be built for canal carrying and now owned by Ivor Batchelor from Braunston - a well known coal and diesel supplier.

Passing the island and heading towards the Birmingham & Fazeley canal we see a tug from the former Leonard Leigh fleet.  These small boats were employed to pull strings of coal boats along the levels of the canals throughout the Birmingham area and Black Country.

Now we head a little further north to Dudley and the Black Country Museum.

The bridge at the heart of the village inside the museum originally came from Broad Street in Wolverhampton.  Now it crosses a little used arm of the canal.

Here are a couple of former Thomas Clayton "gas boats".  So called because they were built to carry by-products from gasworks to chemical factories to produce products such as coal-tar. This trade came to an end with the introduction of North Sea Gas.

Moving back into Birmingham , we see a rather less salubrious view of the second city.