Black Country History at Home

Life on the cut in the Black Country - The canals were once the motorways of their day! You could even get a canal taxi from Tipton to Brum in a speedy two hours. But one invention would lead to the end of this 'canalmania'... Based on Pathe newsreels

Video Channel

There are an array of fascinating archive videos featuring Britain’s inland waterways available on the internet and they offer an important dimension to our understanding of the inland waterway story. To help you access these videos we have assembled a searchable database of archive films with links to the originals. The database is searchable by waterway and by decade. Clicking on the image in the listing below will bring the associated video to the top for viewing.

Where there is no image available clicking on the link will take you to the website where the original is hosted for viewing there.

We welcome suggestions and recommendations of archive films not included here – please email them to editorial@wwonline.co.uk.

Search by waterway and decade