I have never found any tickets for cargo carrying steamers through Netherton. Since the regular FMC steamer runs were between London, Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham, I think it is unlikely there was a frequent use of Netherton by any of the FMC steamboats. As to the other fleets (early GJCC, Nelson), they used the Grand Junction, Coventry and Oxford in the main, so would be wandering quite a long way off their beaten tracks. The three other steamers which were registered in Birmingham were the Enterprise (Odell Ltd and Patent Shaft Co), Despatch (Odell Ltd and Chance and Hunt), and lastly Cardiff (Registered in Cardiff but gauged in Birmingham). The first two were usually working between Birmingham and London. If the Cardiff was trading between Cardiff and Birmingham, I suppose there was an outside chance it went through Netherton although the W & B was far more likely.
However - if there is anyone out there who knows otherwise - please tell me! Were there steam tugs working through Netherton? Richard [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
