I have always been a big fan of the website “Captain Ahab’s watery tales”. It is probably the best canal blog around, packed with local history information about lost arms of the BCN canal network and beyond. I have used some of the information as a guide to my own research into the areas affected by Albright and Wilson’s operations when the waste from their factory was transported by barge to rattlechain lagoon.
“Captain Ahab” , AKA Andy Tidy has also produced several videos on youtube which show through illustration and reconstruction what is left of some of the lost waterways today.
The purpose of this post is to showcase a very relevant video post about the chemical arm and “The Oldbury Loop” -which strongly mentions the transport of the phosphorus toxic waste and the journey it took along the canal.
Andy visits both the entrance to the Houghton Arm, and stops along the way at key points, and his final destination is everyone’s favourite toxic waste dump. 😛
It is at least refreshing to know that I am not the only person who has come to the logical conclusion that building new houses next to a site such as this is very questionable. Andy is far more articulate than myself in summarising the situation, so if you do not wish to plough through the mish mash jigsaw puzzle of content I have put on this website to uncover the past misdemeanours , you could do no better than watching this video to demonstrate what I am trying to say, in just many fewer words, 😆