Day 7 – arrival!

Last day: we were ahead of schedule so had a fairly easy day. There were more straight cuttings and tall bridges.

The bridges on this section still have the cast iron plates to protect the stonework from the ropes on the horse-drawn boats.

The only tunnel on this section, the Cowley tunnel, is only 81 yards long but is cut out of solid rock so no lining is necessary.

After the one lock and a stop for lunch (during which there was a shower of rain – the only one during the day for quite a while - and we were in the cabin) we arrived at Norbury Junction at 2:50. We moored short of the boatyard for tea.

After driving back to Stockton to collect my car, we opened a bottle of fizz to celebrate the end of the journey.

Day 7 was 10.1 miles, 1 lock.

Over the week, we travelled 53.7 miles and passed through 88 locks. The journey by car back to Stockton was 72 miles – going round Birmingham – but took 1 hour 40 minutes...

Click on the maps below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

Wolverley move again – Wednesday, onto the Shropshire Union

Wednesday was the day when we got onto the Shroppie at last. But first the Wolverhampton locks – a flight of 21 in 2 miles or so. Some way down the flight was a fascinating high railway bridge with a wonderful skewed arch for the canal to pass under.

We had left the mooring at 9 am and cleared the last lock at 11:45 – including a ten minute break for tea just after the railway bridge and before lock 17. Just below the bottom lock was Aldersley Junction – not yet into the Shroppie but nearly there.

At noon exactly we turned at Autherley Junction into the Shropshire Union – and a stop lock. The log says “...now they tell us there’s ANOTHER lock”

We were soon on the Shropshire Union – with its long straight sections over embankments and through cuttings, and its wonderful stone bridges, many much taller than on other canals.

... and a modern motorway bridge carrying the M54

We moored at Brewood and celebrated with a cream tea at The Mess.

Day 6: 6.6 miles, 22 locks

Click on the maps below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

 

Panto photos

Click on the picture to see larger versions

Tuesday – Black Country – part 2

Adjacent to the sad lock was a wonderful cast-iron aqueduct where a branch of the Old Main Line crosses the New Line to an enginehouse.

Below on the new main line was a toll island where boats were measured so that the weight of the cargo they were carrying could be read from markings on the sides – like the Plimsoll Line on modern sea-going vessels.

Once we were through the Summit Tunnel – which appears to have been relined with reinforced concrete, very different from another tunnel later in the week – we were out in the countryside again. In most places the canal is very murky – you can’t see the bottom even if it’s only a few feet deep. However here the water was incredibly clear – we could see the bottom, the weeds and, occasionally, the fish!

Day 5: 13.1 miles, 3 locks

Click on the maps below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

Tuesday – Black Country – part 1

Black Country?

We left urban Birmingham with its shopping and architecture and headed west. We had decided to take the old main line rather than Telford’s new line.

Our only three locks, the Smethwick flight, were marked by flowers left by friends of Sara and Fayz, two teenagers who had lost their lives at the top lock on the previous Wednesday. A very sad interlude on our trip.

Click on the map below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

Monday – no locks to Birmingham

Monday was a lock-free day, unless you count the stop lock at Kings Norton Junction. This has guillotine gates but was open all the way though:

Before the junction we had another lift bridge – but this one was on a main road with electrically operated barriers.

Here are the crew and the cars they stopped – who weren’t too friendly!

Kings Norton Junction is the end of the Stratford canal we were now on the Birmingham and Worcester. The tollhouse at the junction is a beautiful building:

Did you notice the finger post? 40 locks to Warwick!

On the way up to the centre of Birmingham we passed the University and resisted stopping at Cadbury World at Bourneville. We eventually moored near Gas Street Basin in the heart of Birmingham near The Mailbox. The girls were talking about Harvey Nicks – whatever that is!

Day 4: 10.3 miles, 0 locks
Click on the maps below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

Sunday – ahead of schedule

Sunday was another big lock day – but not quite as bad as Saturday. And a lock-free day to look forward to tomorrow! After an early start we went through the Shrewley tunnel. The girls walked over the top to the village to buy newspapers. They had to walk through the horse tunnel that took the towpath over the top – there was no towpath through the tunnel. In the horse-drawn days, boats would be legged through!

At 9:20 we turned off the Grand Union canal and onto the Stratford. We had another flight of locks, but these were all single width 7 foot ones, so much lighter than the Grand Union. We completed the flight of 19 locks, leaving the top lock (number 2) at noon exactly. Number 1 is the stop lock at the North end of the Stratford – wait till tomorrow! After Lunch, we came to the first of the lift bridges – more winding with the windlass!

The Canal was beautiful here – although no autumn colours yet. Our log says "15:19 Moored in sunshine just before dickens Heath"

Day 3: 9.4 miles, 19 locks

Click on the maps below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid. The GPS doesn’t align too well, I’m afraid.

Hatton to Kingswood:

Kingswood to Dickens Heath:

Saturday – a big day

The schedule for Saturday was to get to Warwick. However, we did some more detailed calculations on Friday evening and realised that this would leave the next two days too hard to achieve. So we decided to start the Hatton Flight on Saturday. This meant forgoing the Warwick restaurants – but we remembered The Waterman, near the top of the Hatton flight! So we set of early for a day of locks.

Through Leamington, we shared the cut with a Sprint Canoe. I’d never seen one of these before but apparently it’s in the Olympics. It looks very hard work and uncomfortable. This canoeist was obviously in training.

After 8 locks, we turned North and started the Hatton flight. Although not the longest flight on the English canals (Tardebigge has that honour – 30 locks in 2¼ miles) the 21 locks at Hatton are quite a challenge. Known as the ‘Stairway to Heaven’  they are not quite in a straight line so you can’t see all of them at once. Looking back, there’s a wonderful view of the tower of St Mary’s, Warwick, but we didn’t look back too often!

We were lucky with the locks as virtually all were set for us – they were nearly empty so we didn’t have to spend time emptying them before opening the bottom gates. The flight of 21 locks we completed in just over 3 hours including a 20 minute break for tea.

Day 2: 9.6 miles, 29 locks

Click on the map below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

Day 1 - Friday

We were all on board by about 1pm on Friday and ready to leave. The schedule required us to get within a day’s cruise from Warwick – but there are quite a few locks on this section. We set off at 13:20 but just moved out of the marina for a late lunch. After a short break the journey proper began.

The day’s route included the Bascote Staircase – two connected locks where the bottom gate of the top lock is also the top gate of the bottom one.

We eventually moored just before the Welsh Road lock at 16:30.

Day 1: 4 miles, 14 locks

Click on the map below  to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid:

The big move - the plan

 The route is quite important but getting cars in the right place is also key! We had as crew Veronica from near Rugby and Ian from Ramsbottom. So the obvious plan was for Ian to leave his car at Norbury and for me to pick him up. We persuaded Veronica to host us on Thursday night so I drove up to pickup Ian and we then returned to Veronica. Brenda had a rehearsal on Thursday so she was to join us on Friday when the move proper started.

As far as the canal route is concerned, there are not too many options. The various books and web sites showed the journey to be achievable in the time available – we could start sometime on Friday afternoon and wanted to get to Norbury on Thursday in time to drive back for my car. However most days were fairly full and we’d have to find suitable mooring locations en route. My original plan had us stopping at Warwick on Saturday (good restaurants) and Gas Street, Birmingham, on Monday (even better restaurants!) However, this meant that Sunday and Monday were very long days and the risk of not getting to Gas Street on Monday. Finding secure moorings in the outskirts of Birmingham is difficult: many locks in some urban areas have security locks to stop the vandals and you can imagine how tempting a narrow boat may be. There are two routes from Warwick to Birmingham: the Grand Union and the North Stratford canal. The latter is shorter and has fewer locks but fewer moorings if we failed to do the full distance. The Grand Union route includes going up the Farmers Bridge locks in Birmingham which are wonderful but the total route has more locks 51 instead of 41 in the Stratford route.

I did some research and found a secure mooring at a suitable place on the Grand Union route. However these moorings are so secure there is no access except by boat: so much for a meal out in Birmingham if we had to stop here. So we had two options for this part of the route.

Across Birmingham from Gas Street to Tipton and Wolverhampton there are two alternatives: the Old and New main lines. Each is about the same distance and each has 3 locks. There is an alternative of doing part Old and part New and 9 locks. So we left the decision on this until we got to Gas Street.

Other parts were fairly straightforward and we were confident we’d find good moorings. We also planned to eat on board other nights.

So the big adventure was about to start. We were hoping for some Autumn colours on the cut...

Wolverley - the big move

We’re just back from an exciting week when we moved the narrowboat Wolverley from its old base at Stockton, near Rugby, to the new base at Norbury Junction, near Stafford. We share ownership in the boat – there are about 12 owners each of whom get 3 weeks a year onboard. We had booked the week starting 29th October so when it was decided to move to a new base, we volunteered to undertake the task. The route is a challenging week’s run – particularly at this time of year when the sun sets early. The logistics are quite challenging, too – getting cars and people in the right place at the right time!

I kept my GPS running for the whole trip so we have a detailed record of the journey – except, of course, inside the tunnels when there’s no signal from the satellites. There was limited or no internet or 3G phone access for much of the journey so recording in real time wasn’t practical but I’ll try to go through the details with some images of the canals over the next few days.

Here’s a map showing the GPS track of the entire journey – which we did complete slightly ahead of schedule.