For anything to do with the Lapal Canal
(a.k.a. The Dudley No.2 Canal),
you really must begin with:
https://www.lapalcanal.co.uk/

4th August 2020. Indeed, it is almost impious of me, whose only amateur specialisms are the evolution and early history of sound recording, the origins & early evolution of jazz music; and oh yes – electricity in the nineteenth century – to even mention the Lapal Canal.

However, I have walked along various sections of it so many times in recent years, and gained so much peace and inspiration from it at any time of the year, that I dare to append these trivial jottings, &c. ‘This slim volume’, & all that sort of thing… 8^)

We begin from The Leasowes, towards the Lapal Tunnel. (Don’t worry, there are animated maps later!)

We use ‘PlantNet Online’ to identify things we see along the way.
This is apparently Anthriscus sylvestris – Cow Parsley.

I guessed ‘Dead Nettle’ for this, Labium album, a.k.a. Bee Nettle.

This marvellous crop of ‘bullrushes’ is in the restored bed of the canal. Exactly what sort they are,
I dunno. Broadleaf catttail, Typha latifolia? Who knows, but they are lovely to see.

At this point, the canal is on a very high embankment. We’re looking down into the remnant
of the grounds of The Leasowes, a large house. Its owner, in the early 1700s,
was one of the pioneers of transforming their landscape, and the famous
‘Capability’ Brown had an early contract here to do just that.

Possibly Artimisia vulgaris – Common Wormwood?

A forest of Teasels. But which sort? Barber’s Brush, perhaps. If so, Dipsacus fellonum.

This one fooled me at first; PlantNet was adamant that it was ‘Bittersweet’ – a nightshade,
Solanum dulcamara, but those have yellow centres. Eventually it dawned on me that
I had photographed them from the wrong side! 8^)

The Common Burdock, Arctium minus.

We’re coming towards the end of the restored portion of the canal.

Bloodwort!? Why? If so, Achillea millefolium.

Heaven knows what these fungi are. They were in a classic place for fungi:
inside a rotted tree stump. In any case, fungi are not plants, as I discovered
quite recently to my surprise. But that was nothing compared with my
astonishment to learn today that there are around FIFTEEN THOUSAND
species of fungi to be found in the Britsh Isles…
What do they all DO, for Heaven’s sake?

By now, the bed of the canal is level with the tow path.

This is an easy one – I already knew Snowberry, Symphoricarpus alba.

This was a bit tricky but I think it’s Evergreen Alkanet, alias Pentaglottis sempervirens.

I already knew this as the Field Bindweed, but have never seen the colours so strong.
Convolvulus arvensis. A serious pest in the U.S., apparently.

No idea what this is. Perhaps some fungoid growth on a distinctive pale green thorny stem?

As we near the Quinton Expressway, the canal bed is now higher than the towpath…

Trees that had grown, were chopped down years ago as part of the activity to
preserve the path of the canal. Now, coppices have sprung up, as here.

Eventually, we enter a sophisticated modern environment. The canal path
seems just to squeeze through this unwelcome harrassment!

We’ve finally arrived at the Halesown by-pass, which is where then, a country
lane, it crossed the canal, doubtless by means of a traditional hump-backed bridge.
But that was long, long ago. And like the bridge on Mucklow Hill, this one was razed
without thought, making the re-instatement of the canal far more difficult. Happily,
it seems that planning regulations now forbid building across canals…

Forlorn, the Black Horse is shuttered & blinded. This was of course a canalside pub,
offering refreshment both to canal boatmen and to passing traffic on the Brum
to Kidderminster road, busy even 200 years ago, though nothing like today. 

Here, we look down to the lower Car Park, which was apparently
the level at which the canal came through.

The canal passed beyond the Black Horse, & somewhere in the fields to the east of the pub,
seen dimly though the bushes, the Dudley No.2 Canal, dug in the 1790s, entered the dreaded
Lapal Tunnel. Let’s take a look at the course of the canal by video…