The army of volunteers who cleared rubbish from a Black Country canal 40 years ago will be celebrated at an event this weekend.

Their efforts marked the beginning of a new lease of life for the canal which was reopened to through-traffic after years of neglect.

During a weekend in 1970, more than 300 volunteers took part in the Dudley Dig using shovels to shift junk from the Dudley No 1 Canal at Parkhead Locks.

They cleared rubbish, including a mini van, tyres, sheets of metal and rubble, from two lock pounds and one lock chamber at the site.

Volunteers filled hundreds of wheelbarrows of rubbish which were loaded on to dumper trucks before being taken to the tip. The work marked the beginning of the restoration of the canal which was reopened to through-traffic in 1973 after many years of lying derelict.

A display of around 50 old photographs will be on show at an open weekend hosted by Dudley Canal Trust this Saturday and Sunday at Blowers Green Pumphouse, Peartree Lane, Dudley, between 10am and 5pm.

They will be displayed on the 1935 working narrowboat Sagitta which is owned by the trust.

The event is a scaled-down version of the Parkhead Boat Festival which had to be cancelled due to potential supply problems with Chasewater Reservoir.

The reservoir has been drained for repairs to a dam which has caused problems with water supplies to canals in the region.

Dudley Canal Trust vice-chairman, Steve Bingham, 56, who lives at the lock keeper’s cottage at Parkhead, said he hoped people who took part in the Dudley Dig would come along to reminisce.

He said: “It would have been a very messy, smelly job. They were shovelling rubbish from the bottom of the canal into wheelbarrows at the weekend and going into work on the Monday.

“They did it because they were enthusiastic. It’s something that will never be repeated as health and safety would not allow it now.”