If you look, all the clues are there.

Just a quick heads up to a great series on YouTube by a man very familiar to local canal fans: Andy Tidy, proprietor of the Jam Butty, a boat selling preserves that will be recognised by anyone attending a local canal event.

You can subscribe here – there are already a lot of great episodes, including one on the lost Slough Arm in Brownhills (see foot of post).

Thanks to all who alerted me to this – it’s a fab thing. Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler and Dave Hodgkinson snagged me first, and I thank them. This one is particularly interesting locally as Andy dresses the question of subsidence around the Black Cock Bridge.

I think Andy’s clearly read my articles on the matter, but he does spot something we didn’t – the bricked up jacking holes in the bridge wall, and also the kink in the water pipe. Brilliant observation. I salute him for that. Superb.

You can read my articles on the Black Cock at this link and the second at this one here. Top marks also for not repeating the unfeasible myth about the houses sinking.

While there has clearly been a lot of subsidence there, it’s not nearly as severe and the legend overstates how it works somewhat. I like that the film sidesteps that and looks at the physical evidence.

My congratulations to Andy for a lovely, beautifully produced and informative film. I commend you to subscribe.