Completing the Staffs and Worcester

On to Great Haywood

May 2018

As you may have gathered, I am running several days into single blog posts because I really want to catch up and be posting real time. 

Gailey Roundhouse

This post therefore covers three days and territory with which we are very familiar. So familiar that I don't bother with maps but make increasing use of Waterways Routes on line map service on my i-phone. I am coming to love this app (thanks for sorting it out Paul) which lets me carry the entire country's waterways in my pocket and is available at all times together with a GPS marker of our current location. Other boaters talk about distant locations and in a flash I have the app open and we are pinpointing the subject of our discussion. Dare I say I am becoming a bit evangelistic on the subject?

 Botterham and The Bratch

On Friday we made our way up the Staffs and Worcester, passing through the Bratch flight which are always something of an occasion. The afternoon was lovely so we pressed on to the summit pound and arrived at Oxley Marine (Autherley) at just after 5.00pm. Luckily they were still open and supplied both a diesel top up and a quick look see at our engine. Now there is nothing terribly wrong with the engine but it is a little bit more rattly and tappetty than is used to be and I was worried lest something was seriously amiss.

Coal Boat Roach

They gave it a knowing shove, removed the rocker cap and observed that like us, it is getting a bit older and it starting to tire a bit. The pistons are showing signs of wear exhaust gasses are passing the pistons a bit more than they used to. Nothing to worry about but we should expect a very slow decline leading, ultimately, to a new engine. I can't moan because it has already operated for nearly 7,000 hours without missing a beat and for the last five years the little Beta 38 had been pushing both a boat and a butty - and therefore operating a bit warmer than it otherwise would. I will keep changing the oil regularly and treat it gently.

Stemmed up after a botched overtaking manouver!

In the event we moored at the Anchor at Coven, having a lovely meal in the pub and enjoyed what is probably our most used mooring over the years.

Saturday saw us leave after most of the assembled boats, but tailed by one with telltale antifoul indicating a northern origin. He was hanging just off the butty's elum and I called back to overtake on the next straight. He than started to overtake at once, on the wrong side, on a blind bend and unwittingly drove himself at full revs onto a notorious mud bank. Suffice to say it took him a whole hour to catch up with us again.....

 A moment of theatre

As we turned the corner at Calf Heath we came across Kate Staffin and Heather Wastie of the Alarum Theatre Company who were performing at the pub in the evening. I helped Kate with a few stubborn fixes on her boat whilst Heather made use of our ample hot water supply for a morning shower.

Windmills at Gailey

Then it was downhill through Gailey Lock and on to Penkridge where a number of satisfied customers sought us out and replenished their Wild Side stocks. Today was to be a day of lock landing numpties with one boat moored on the bollards below Penkridge lock causing mayhem for both us and the boat coming up. Barely 30 minutes later we were at Park Gate Lock having paid the Chandlery a visit and, as we approached the lock landing a boat jumped off the service bollards at Teddersley Marina and straight across our bows to the lock landing where they wanted to wait for 15 mins till the service bay came free again. They suggested I reverse back 2 boat lengths (with butty) and were more than a bit miffed when I insisted they vacate the lock landing and leave it free for its given purpose. Mooring on lock landings is one of my pet hates - as you can tell.

Then it was on through Acton Trussell and we moored just above Deptmore Lock, near Stafford Boat Club.

Harrier and Lyra at Tixall Wide

Sunday was a more gentle day with very pleasant cruising beside the Penk and then the Sow to Tixall where we met Kerry and Dan aboard Harrier and Lyra who in turn were moored behind Mountbatten and Jellico. It was something of a butty fest.

Mooring at Great Haywood.

We carried on to Haywood Junction which had no mooring spaces available, so instead we turned north and found an excellent 70ft gap just north of the bridge and opposite the farm shop cafe. We will be spending a couple of nights in this spot so more about that another time.

Heading north

Droitwich to Ashwood Junction

May 2018

We have finally set off on our northern journey which will see us arrive in Liverpool at the end of the month.

Max Sinclar's old cottage

The plan was to travel to Autherley Junction and then turn north up the Shroppie, but the breach at Middlewich means a few more locks and miles as we will go via Stoke. The downside is the climb to Harecastle and then down Wheelock Edge so lots of locking to look forward to.

Reed fringed Barge Canal

For now we started off bright and early, slipping out of Netherwich Basin before the other boaters were awake. The Droitwich Barge Canal was a delight, with deep water and the locks all set in our favour. Not that there were any other boats around, so we locked down alone. 

We breasted the boats up in the bottom lock ready for the passage upstream. This isn't the fastest way to travel but it is by far the safest and one where both boats are under control at all times. The downside is the speed. The Severn is comfortably in the green but it still has a strong flow on it, which slowed our progress to 2.5mph on most reaches but just below the locks where the river is at its shallowest progress slowed to an agonising 1.5mph!

Holte Bridge and Lock - River Severn

Holt and Bevere Locks passed in slow succession but all this time we had the river pretty much to ourselves. Locking up was a tad interesting because in both locks the keepers wanted us on the operators side. Unfortunately, this is the butty side which, with its minute 2m of straight plate, means we tend to swing round like a top. So, Instead of locking up with ropes attached we elected to bob about in the chamber and have the paddles raised very slowly.

We came into Stourport Basin in mid afternoon and after a pause on the service mooring we left the main basin and found a secluded spot on the visitor moorings.

Caldwell Lock

Thursday saw us slide upstream along a deserted Staffs and Worcester Canal, miles and locks passing us by is a steady sequence. Kidderminster offers good shopping opportunities including a visit to Sainsburys. One of the nice things about travelling with the butty is the reaction it elicits from passers by. As we rose up Wolverley Lock a German boating party were having a few beers in the sunshine and asked about the butty. Before we left the lock we had sold 6 jars which paid or a couple of pints of bitter and left a profit on top.

As the weather was lovely we pressed on and ended up mooring in the secluded environs of Ashwood Junction.

St Richards Festival, Droitwich 2018

St Richards Festival, Droitwich

May 2018

Phew, the 2018 Droitwich festival was a hot one!

As the festival approached the weather forecast got better and better, and when the weekend finally arrived we were treated to three days of wall to wall sunshine. Each day was hotter than the last and at the risk of stating the obvious, the success of canal festivals is very weather dependent.

Droitwich, or St Richards Festival to give its its proper name, is far more than a canal festival. It represents a significant event in the town's calendar and as such is able to attract massive numbers of visitors. The crowds flocked in and rather than sheltering from rain they sat around in the shade, eating drinking and generally making merry. Our customers turned out in force and we enjoyed our best ever Droitwich from a sales perspective, running out of some lines which is a bit of a shock for the first event of the year!

Given the unrelenting demand I never got to see any of the event beyond Vines Park, but that was ok. All day long people sat around outside the beer tent, listening to the bands till late in the evening. With a regular shuttle of beer deliveries arriving there was a steady supply of Bumblehole, our favourite beer and its sharp refreshing taste kept us going through the heat of the afternoons.

I lost count of the number of friends who came to the event and say hello. If you came and I barely saw you I do apologise!

Droitwich isn't really a big boaters event, and there was not a lot in the shape of historic boat interest this year. That said, Hadar was in the basin and Scorpio arrived bearing a cargo of salt which was used in the construction of a sculpture commemorating the salt making history of the town.

With the festival over we moved the boats to the basin and went home for a night, attending to various chores, completing several loads of washing and making a jam delivery to The Fairlawns hotel before returning to the boats and our nomadic summer existence. All in all a cracking start to the season and in one event made up for the fact that we have fewer trading days booked this year as we to a tour of the north.

Droitwich lock in

Droitwich lock in

May 2018

It was only supposed to be a short trip, so not much chance of anything eventful happening.

With a lousy forecast for Wednesday morning and a fine afternoon we stayed put till noon and, with the rain clouds giving way to blue skies we wet off for Hanbury Junction. Then we turned west and saw the most enormous black cloud over Droitwich and heading our way. Oh er - better grab our waterproofs.

An unexpected mooring on the lock landing

The new water level boards at the top lock were showing green for the Severn and amber for the Salwarp. Boats were coming up so all was fine to proceed. The heavens opened as we descended and we squelched our way through the staircase pair only to find a CRT employee at the last lock before the M5 tunnel. We were told that the water levels of the Salwarp has risen sharply and were now into the red - which meant that the river section was impassable and had to be closed.

A locked canal and the Smestow in flood

Our options were to stop before the M5 tunnel (advised) or to continue through to the lock landing above the last narrow lock. A mooring beneath the M5 is very noisy so we decided to have a crack at the tunnel. We approached the gauging board and were about an inch too high, but these things are always a bit pessimistic. We therefore edged into the tunnel with a warning that it dips a "bit" in the middle. With just an inch of clearance above our cratch plate we were keen to understand what a "bit" entails. No clarification was forthcoming and I was told it was my call.  We went in very slowly and can report that the min clearance when the level board showed 1.8m was about one centimeter. Just enough if no one flushes a lock of water.

Flood waters at Vines Park Lock

And so we made it to the lock landing above the river section and instead of a trickling stream these was a seething torrent, sliding smoothly over what is usually a small waterfall. A cursory examination of the lower landing stage showed that the water had recently covered it, but oddly even with the barge canal locked, the river in spate and the gauge in the red, the depth reading at the top stayed firmly in the green.

Contradictory levels at the start of the Narrow Canal

An odd observation about dog ownership. As we sat on the lock landing a passing dog walker asked if we had a plastic bag. We supplied a bright orange Sainsbury bag which was duly used to pick up the poo deposited by his Staffie. Good on him we thought.

Locked in!

Later we walked into town and there at a towpath entrance was the said Sainsburys bag, complete with poo - discarded and abandoned. On our way back the bag was gone, presumably picked up by a civic minded resident. Sadly not, because on our passage down the next day there was the knotted bag hurled into the midst of a big bramble patch. Why, if you bother to pick up your dog poo, do you then leave it wrapped in polythene for all to enjoy!

After a night on the lock landing the water dropped into the amber and the padlock was removed letting us enter Vines Park and take up our position for trading over the weekend.

Worcester wanderers

Worcester wanderers

May 2018

One of the lovely things about our watery lifestyle is that we are rarely in a hurry to go anywhere. 

Blockhouse Lock Cottage in Worcester

When we arrived in Droitwich we knew we had five days spare and decided to pay Worcester a visit. Droitwich is great, but it does lack an Elsan facility. Not the most glamorous aspect of boating, but the need to find one every two or three days and is pretty much essential. What Droitwich lacks Worcester provides in Diglis Basin, well maintained and cared for on behalf of a large and vibrant live aboard community.

Then there is the Little Laundrette in Lowesmoor Street, whose modern and efficient washers and driers made short work of our laundry requirements. We do have a small twin tub in the butty which is very effective and cost efficient (washing and drying two loads at the laundrette cost £13) but the challenge is getting everything dry. In warm weather we rig up lines in the hold of the butty, but when its cold and wet this is not very practical. Hopefully the warm weather is on the horizon and DIY washing can resume.

Functional, if not beautiful ground paddle in Worcester

Worcester is a good place to stop, with the canal handy for all the shops and a bit of sightseeing. The towpath was quite busy and having left our sign boards out we made some sales, either to boaters or residents in the adjacent flats.

One particularly satisfying discovery was the St Richards Hospice store in St Swithin's Street. This is a charity shop but one which is a cut above the usual format of musty clothes, bric a brac and a few old DVD's. This store is modern and well laid out but its real hidden gem in in the first floor. Go up the winding staircase and you find yourself in a second hand bookshop, all professionally laid out and ordered. Add to that there is a high quality and reasonably priced cafe and you have a winning combination. We ended up buying lunch, six DVD's and a book or two - which should keep us entertained for a while.

A great spandrill in the railway bridge in Worcester

Tuesday dawned dry and relatively warm so we set off up the 14 locks to the Hanbury pound. We found ourselves tripping over the heels of a couple from Canada who were finding their feet on their first flight of locks, but hey - we were not in a hurry. We noted that the barn sandwiched between the top lock and the M5 is being developed into a huge dwelling (or maybe two). It will be impressive but the location is more deafening than loud - not a location I could come to terms with.

Today's mooring is just half a mile short of Hanbury Junction.