Bumble Hole and Delph Locks

Saturday 10th September 2022

Saturday 10th September 2022

View from “Nine Locks Bridge” and high above the eight/nine Delph Locks on the Dudley Number 1 canal, 10th September 2022 (Author’s Collection).

Welcome to a brief if still bright and breezy edition of my UK travels this summer and as these two quintessentially English locations are just three miles apart, I’ve condensed them into a tightly packed if still rambling and bumbling (w)hole. Both of these canal locations have been on my summer wanted list for some time and after some recent mighty efforts on the Shropshire Union, Llangollen and Montgomery canals, I finally settled for something a little nearer home and I’m thoroughly pleased I did so.

Bumble Hole (and local nature reserve)

Renowned for its rich history and the embracing of the present, Saturday 10th September happened to fall within the “Black Country Boating Festival” and alas I arrived just as the first market stalls and huge funfair attractions were being readied for the long day ahead. I arrived and left just as the morning was on the cusp of being very busy along this small, quaint and picturesque stretch of the canal and I hope you enjoy the minimal colour commentary added to each image captured this morning.

Here’s almost the entirety of the www.en.wikipedia.org page for Bumble Hole:

The present day Bumble Hole Branch Canal and Boshboil Branch surround Bumble Hole, a water-filled clay pit, in Bumble Hole and Warren’s Hall Nature Reserve, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England. They formed a looped part of the original Dudley №2 Canal until the opening of the Netherton Tunnel in 1858 when the loop was bypassed by a new cut, in line with the new tunnel. Part of the bypassed canal loop, which surrounds Bumble Hole, is now in-filled giving access to the pool of Bumble Hole. An area next to the Bumble Hole and Dudley canals is the Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve.[1][2]

Between Windmill End Junction and the tunnel portal stands Cobb’s Engine House, built in 1831 to pump water from coal mines into the canal.

The Bumble Hole railway was used to cross the canal near Windmill End Junction, but was dismantled in 1969.

Delph Locks

Quite simply, I rather fell in love with an image similar to that which heads this article and I had to see the locks for myself. It’s just so quintessentially English!

Again from www.en.wikipedia.org

Delph Locks or the Delph Nine are a series of eight (originally nine) narrow canal locks on the Dudley №1 Canal in Brierley Hill, in the West Midlands, England. They were opened in 1779, and reopened in 1967 following restoration of the Dudley Canal and the Stourbridge Canal in a joint venture between the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society and the British Waterways Board.

The bottom lock at Black Delph Bridge is at the termination of the Dudley Canal and forms the boundary with the Stourbridge Canal. The flight has distinctive waterfall overflow weirs,[2] and rises from the 356-foot (109 m) Stourbridge level to the 441-foot (134 m) level of the Dudley №1 canal.[3] The middle seven of the original 1779 locks were rebuilt in 1858 as six new locks, reducing the flight to eight. Some ruins of the old locks are visible to the side of the new.[2]

The Delph Locks and surrounding land form the Delph ‘Nine’ Locks Conservation Area, Brierley Hill, Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.[7] An iron roving bridge manufactured by Horsley Ironworks stands near the top lock,[3] while the original lock-keeper’s house, built in 1779 and modified in the nineteenth century, is a grade II listed structure, as it is one of only a few surviving houses of its type.[8]

18 images follow, 9 from each location, and all were captured by me on a warm if overcast English Saturday morning, on 10th September 2022

“Delph Basin Bridge” and the remaining seven of Delph’s eight canal locks.

I did say I arrived at Bumble Hole rather early! “Cobb’s Engine House”, built around 1831 and a Grade II listed building.

View from Delph Lock Number 2.

An overhead view of “Bumble Hole” and the beautifully ornate black and white cast iron bridges that add so much to an already picturesque location.

I simply couldn’t resist using this wonderful image here again as well as for the headline of this article.

Please say hello to “Bimble” from Stourport-on-Severn, another beautiful stretch of canal and “basin” covered in my travel articles from this summer.

View from on high at Delph Lock Number 3.

With the food stalls, arcades and fairground to your right and out of shot, preparations continue for the festival on the canal itself.

A return view from Lock Number 5 and an indication of both the size of these individual locks as well as the waterfall overflow weirs.

With the tower of “Cobb’s Engine House” in the background, please say hello to one of the many boaters and independent retailers here for the festival.

A forward view from Lock Number 5 at Delph Locks.

Did someone say cheese?

A popular fishing spot! View from Lock Number 7 through to Number 8 or “Delph Bottom Lock”.

Beautiful Bumble Hole (keep the jokes to yourself!).

View from “Delph Bottom Lock” — Part 1.

So quintessentially English/British.

View from “Delph Bottom Lock” — Part 2.

Beautiful Bumble Hole. I shall return some day.

Your humble narrator at Ironbridge Gorge, early August 2022 (Author’s Collection).

Thanks for reading. My “Summer Project” has taken me to the waterways as well as many local historical and religious ruins as I’ve crisscrossed the border between England and Wales, and my three most recently published travel articles are linked below:

Droitwich Spa
“Your mother is alive and well and living in Droitwich”.medium.com

A Sunday stroll around Worcester
A canal. A river. And two almighty architectural beauties.medium.com

Kidderminster to Wolverley
Yet another amble along a canal in the sunshinemedium.com