Nettie Edwards- Lead Kindly Light
The Galton Valley Lighthouse Letterbox Trail

Can it be that the people of Smethwick, the most inland town in Britain, have been responsible for protecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on the seaways
of the world? The famous Smethwick based company, Chance Brothers, designed and manufactured complex optical lighthouse equipment and exported it around the world for about a century. Many of these lights are still protecting ships at sea today. So put on your walking shoes, get down to the towpath and follow a trail that will take you back through two hundred years of history and around the world in under two hours! Don’t forget to pick up your map, clue sheet and a stamp collection card because this is a ‘Letterbox Trail’.There are twenty little lighthouses along the trail route. Each one represents a lighthouse in one of twenty different locations across the world.When you reach each lighthouse, use the clue sheet to locate a ‘letterbox’
nearby. This trail is just the beginning of a much longer journey. Over the last eight weeks, I have been collecting stories and photographs of families who worked at Chance’s; people who traveled by sea to come to live in Smethwick; those who have served in the Navy or worked at sea and on lighthouses and light vessels; and people who sail the ocean waves for their holidays.