Rocky lock, on the Staffs & Worcs canal, is on a section of the canal between Greensforge and the crossing of the river Stour where there are several stretches with the east bank of the canal being artificial sandstone cliffs formed by quarrying out of the native rock to make the cut. One spot this happens is the well-named Rocky Lock, seen here from both canal levels.
The building by the river Smestow is on the site where there were iron workings from the seventeenth century. There are claims that Mr Green’s forge used the iron produced by Dud Dudley.
Iron working continued here into the nineteenth century, using the stream as a source of water power. The opening of the Staffs & Worcs canal will have helped transport (this picture was taken from the canal towpath at Greensford).
The works was rebuilt as a corn mill in the late nineteenth century. It carried on working until the mid-1920s, and was converted into apartments in the 1980s.
The former glass warehouse at Wordsley, opposite the Red House Glass Cone, which is hidden behind the warehouse in these pictures.
The warehouse is currently derelict, but is scheduled to be redeveloped, expanding the museum.
This crow was prospecting the ground near the lake at Perton in search of something to eat.
Many birds are now paired up for the spring, including these ducks on the canal near Wombourne.
Views looking up into one of the largest and noisiest rookeries locally, near Seisdon.
