on a last chance trip to see the tunnels, and some 300 people arrived for the trip. A second boat was hastily borrowed, and 150 people were crammed into each of the two boats for the trip. Afterwards, Fletcher warned that the group urgently needed to become official, which resulted in the formation of the Dudley Canal Tunnel Preservation Society on 1 January 1964. The Society soon had several hundred members, and British Waterways had to acknowledge them. They were also talking to Dudley Council about the concept of an industrial museum for the Black Country. The Council called a public meeting, where the museum concept was greeted enthusiatically, and they started planning for the project. The Society then became the Dudley Canal Trust, and expanded its vision to include the Park Head locks, the basins at the north end of the tunnel which are now part of the museum, and the environs of the Dudley Canal in general. Official attitudes to the waterways changed as the 1960s progressed, and in 1968 the government announced the membership of the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Committee, which included members from the Inland Waterways Association. Between June and December its members visited seven canals to discuss their future with local organisations, of which Dudley Tunnel was one. The Society renamed itself to the Dudley Canal Trust in 1970, and began restoration work, borrowing equipment from British Waterways, Dudley Council and local contractors. Further impetus came in 1971 with the publication of Birmingham Canal Navigations, a report produced by the BCN Working Party. This was presented to British Waterways, and suggested that of the network of of the BCN which had been effectively abandoned by being classified as "Remainder Waterways" in 1968 had a viable future. These were divided into four groups, with priority 1 and 2 canals requiring no major expenditure to return them to navigation. Dudley Canal Branch was a priority 3 canal, but restoration plans were produced, with the work partly financed by the local authorities in which it was located. Development The project was aided by the organisation of a "big dig" in collaboration with the Waterway Recovery Group. The event took place in 1970, and 300 volunteers arrived at Park Head, to undertake restoration work. Their work was widely publicised. In early 1972, following successful agreements to restore the Ashton Canal, the Peak Forest Canal and the Caldon Canal,