By John Pearle (Area 3+)
There are some lovely areas of Birmingham (believe it or not) that have very evocative names, but don’t necessarily prove to be the sources of beautiful photographs. However a little searching about does produce some viewpoints that are very interesting and do make nice pictures. One of these is underneath all the jumble of motorways, roaring with lorries and cars that is Spaghetti Junction.
Names like Gravelly Hill, Salford Park, Cuckoo Road, and Long Acre, all give you the impression of being out in the country - but you are not. You are almost in the centre of Birmingham, in the chaos of canals, rivers, footpaths and rising and elevated motorways that make up Spaghetti Junction.
Right at the bottom are the River Tame and the River Rea, crossing over them are canals, the Birmingham and Warwick junctions canal, and the Birmingham and Fazeley canal - not to mention the Birmingham Canals Navigation.. All these canals have tow-paths, and tow paths make very nice footpaths, and they are all linked together by bridges. Horses used to pull the barges along these canals, and on each corner and bridge-end you can still see castiron protective slabs, to prevent the ropes attached to the horses from cutting into the brickwork BUT you should see what the ropes have done to that very hard castiron. Grooves in it an inch deep where the horse has pulled a loaded barge round a corner. Probably many barges over the years.
.