The black gold… put to good effect

Reader, contributor and historic transport wise-owl Tony Martin has been in touch with an intersting photo of a canal coal wharf in Wolverhampton, thought to be early 60s. I can’t actually place this at all mentally, although I must have cycled past it loads of times. Can anyone help? Is this Wulfruna Coal on the Walsall Road, perhaps?

Hello Bob

Another find in my collection.

Taken sometime in the early 1960s, probably by my father, this is a view from the approach to the, then, High Level station, an area since erased by the Wolverhampton Ring Road.

The boat is the Comet, which still exists. Notice the sate of the ground and total lack of shelter from the pouring rain. Who would work in these conditions today?

A little off-topic, but the coal probably came from the Chase or Angelsey Wharf, perhaps?

Tony Martin

Tony is quite right, Comet is still about and in fine fettle, as this image on Flickr shows:

This raises a good point; we’ve talked extensively about Anglesey Wharf, and explored it at great length, but there were coal wharves all along the local canals. What do we know about them, and where our coal went? I know a lot of it went to Walsall Power Station along the canal, but what images and history do we have for transfer points at pits and other places?

I’d be interested to explore that – we’ve not really touched on it much.

Tony also supplied a few weeks ago some great pictures from the Chasewater Railway Gala Weekend. Much of our coal would have ended up powering such locomotives – where did the railways store this coal and accept deliveries from?

Thanks to Tony, as ever for yet another great contribution. Anything to add? Comment here or BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.