Here’s the final blast of pictures from the mystery archive found by local historian Clive Roberts back at the beginning of November – these images are remarkable as the show the Grove Colliery on the Cannock Extension Canal at Lime Lane in 1958 and 1959, and I know of few extant images of the time – perhaps the only good representation being in the 1963 cinefilm of Brownhills, donated by Brian Stringer.
I think the Grove closed in 1967, but I could well be wrong there. Corrections invited.
You may remember that before Christmas, I also featured similar archive images of the lost Lichfield Canal.
I will now tell you that they come from: The Canal and River Trust photo archive, which can be found here and contains a stunning and fascinating range of images. It doesn’t seem to be indexed on Google, and the search keys are opaque to say the least – but if you pop over, try names of places – I found Ogley Locks by typing in ‘Lichfield’. These are indexed under ‘Birmingham Canal Navigations at Brownhills’ – go figure.
All of these images can be obtained (for a fee of course) printed in much better quality by contacting the Canal & River Trust here.
These are images I never knew existed, and I’m so pleased Clive found them; it’s sad, however, that the indexing and Google representation fall a bit short.
Now go on – fill your boots.