30th June 2007
Four Counties Ring - Clockwise
Whateley's wanderings
109 Miles
94 Locks
6 Days
Martin and Adam celebrated Adam's end of school with a boat trip round the Four Counties Ring. It should have been a nice trip but the summer of 2007 happened to them in the form of torrential rain - it was the week Sheffield flooded and nearly trapped the Captain in his car.
The pair were delayed on the Middlewich Branch when a landslide including a tree blocked their path. Notwithstanding this delay, they still managed the ring in six days. This pair are fast!
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Mr Truth's lads week away
16th to 23rd June 2007
Black Country Ring clockwise, plus extras
Staffs & Worcs, Trent and Mersey, Coventry, Birmingham & Fazely and the BCN
132 Miles
113 Locks
7 Days
Black Country Ring clockwise, plus extras
Staffs & Worcs, Trent and Mersey, Coventry, Birmingham & Fazely and the BCN
132 Miles
113 Locks
7 Days
Mr Truth is a core and founding member of the "boat boys" and has a great enthusiasm for organising weeks or weekends away. Sometimes its fishing, sometimes boating and sometimes even riding bikes from one end of the country to the other.
Mr Truth organised this trip with a relay of crew members, whit himself being the only constant factor. He had good weather till he attempted to make a one day return journey from Kidderminster under a constant torrential downpour. After 12 hours of rain even his enthusiasm for boating started to fade. He, and two very energetic crew members attempted a record descent of the Titford flight, managing 23 mins top to bottom (the two of us managed 29 mins a month or so earlier). Is this a record?
Diversions included a trip to Tardebigge Top Lock and Kidderminster, having passed out of the BCN via The Delph.
On his return I heard the first murmurings of discontent about the smell in the loo. More about that in later posts.
Monday, 11 June 2007
Grub Street and back
9th to 11th June 2007
Calf Heath to Grub Street
Shropshire Union
Calf Heath to Grub Street
Shropshire Union
Day one - to Fox and Anchor at Coven
2 Miles
0 Locks
My mother, Matilda, was over for the weekend so a boat trip was in order. The problem was Jeff - he has a youth group trip planned to Waterworld in Stoke, so our departure was much delayed.
In the event Matilda, Tilly and I drove over the Calf Heath after lunch and I set about painting on one side of the cream coach lines. It was a sweltering day so whilst I sweated in the sun, Matilda and Tilly wandered off to find some shade.
In late afternoon I returned to Sutton to pick up Jeff and returned to Wand'ring Bark with just enough time to trundle down to the Fox and Anchor and a drink in the cool of the evening.
Day 2 - Coven to Grub Street and back to Gnosall
26 Miles
2 Locks
We made the very familiar run to Gnosall on a glorious summer day, mooring at the Navigation Inn at Gnosall, where we met up with Belle and shared a pub meal in the garden to the rear. With Tilly and Jeff whisked off back to school, and lots of light left in the sky, Matilda took little encouragement to cast off and take a trip through Norbury into Grub Street cutting. Time was short so we winded in the hole mid way down the final stretch of cutting and returned to Gnosall for the night.
Day 3 - Gnosall to Calf Heath
18 Miles
2 Locks
A routine return trip to Calf Heath, filling up with diesel at Wheaton Aston as we passed by.
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
BCN North - Tipton to Autherley
Tipton to Autherley Junction 
Day 3
The last day and a late start at 8.30 (I have a crew that cant sleep). The trip via the Coseley tunnel passes through a post industrial wasteland made good by covering of mature trees. It is getting hard to remember what this area looked like in the 1960’s when I started travelling through it. But the trip had one last surprise in store for the arm baggers: The Wednesbury Oak Loop.
This is a two mile arm which is maintained to provide access to the BW works at Bradley and couldn’t be missed. It won’t win any beauty prizes but you should get an award if you manage to reach the winding hole at the end. The main historical interest is the abandoned works half way along. There aren’t many of these sites left and this one looks like it isn’t long for this world. Don’t go this way unless you are happy to get up close and personal with your weedhatch. This stretch gets progressively more silted, bag infested and weedy as you go. Even in May, weed covered the entire width of the canal and forced prop cleaning trips every 400 yards. Our arrival at the Bradley works resulted in a mass welcome from the staff, who emerged from their workshops to witness the rare arrival of two weed spattered but happy boaters.
Day 3The last day and a late start at 8.30 (I have a crew that cant sleep). The trip via the Coseley tunnel passes through a post industrial wasteland made good by covering of mature trees. It is getting hard to remember what this area looked like in the 1960’s when I started travelling through it. But the trip had one last surprise in store for the arm baggers: The Wednesbury Oak Loop.
This is a two mile arm which is maintained to provide access to the BW works at Bradley and couldn’t be missed. It won’t win any beauty prizes but you should get an award if you manage to reach the winding hole at the end. The main historical interest is the abandoned works half way along. There aren’t many of these sites left and this one looks like it isn’t long for this world. Don’t go this way unless you are happy to get up close and personal with your weedhatch. This stretch gets progressively more silted, bag infested and weedy as you go. Even in May, weed covered the entire width of the canal and forced prop cleaning trips every 400 yards. Our arrival at the Bradley works resulted in a mass welcome from the staff, who emerged from their workshops to witness the rare arrival of two weed spattered but happy boaters.
After all the excitement of the remaindered canals the final run back to Wolverhampton was very straightforward and uneventful. Our ambition to beat our previous time through the Wolverhampton 21 was foiled by the number of other boats going our way. Well actually there were two but that seemed like a lot after the previous days of isolation.
The final tally:
3 days
76 locks
70 miles
14 arms
2 mattresses
10 trips down the weedhatch
2 instances of minor “inbound”
42 hours of glorious sunshine
3 happy boaters
The final tally:
3 days
76 locks
70 miles
14 arms
2 mattresses
10 trips down the weedhatch
2 instances of minor “inbound”
42 hours of glorious sunshine
3 happy boaters
Monday, 21 May 2007
BCN North - Brownhills to Tipton
Brownhills to the Black Country Museum Day 2
Another big day so up with the larks and through an interesting mix of industry and suburbia on the Daw (pronounced Doe) End Branch Canal, through Walsall Wood to Aldridge. The canal around Walsall Wood has subsided over the years due to mining and been progressively raised on embankments resulting in a water depth of about 10 feet!
Longwood branch offered another short stub for the collection, but the following water free pound was our first big obstacle. The 40 minutes it took to fill the pound to a navigable depth gave an opportunity to cook up another blowout breakfast.
The Daw End seamlessly morphs into the Rushall Canal passing through parks, wild woodland and golf courses, tumbling down 11 little used locks. We came across another empty pound and amazingly an Australian BW lengthsman who provided an assisted passage all the way to the M6 and Rushall Junction. He told us that less than two boats pass this way in a typical week seemed genuinely saddened that we were not going down the Perry Barr flight, which are his favourite. Instead we turned right onto the Tame Valley Canal, a windswept and wild “cut and fill” waterway which was built as a bypass for the overcrowded Birmingham Mainline.
There was no pressure of traffic during our passage, just another mattress round the prop but that’s par for the course in these backwaters.
A lovely surprise awaits as you turn onto the Walsall Canal and arrive at Ryders Green locks. A dead straight flight 8 of well spaces and well maintained locks making a triumphal entry up to the Main Line. But I am jumping ahead. As dedicated arm baggers we couldn’t miss Swan Arm, obscure by even BCN standards – and shallow too. It’s barely navigable with reeds reducing the channel to 7 feet in places and so shallow we made less that 1 mph. If you do venture here expect shouts of warning from local factory workers assuming you have lost your way. But don’t stop, there’s an all day pub opposite the final winding hole and whilst it lacks character, its beer is cold and refreshing.
It was as we joined the Main Line at Spon Lane that we finally met another moving boat – our first in two days travelling. Our sudden appearance from the Wednesbury Old Canal took them by surprise and, when apologising for being on the wrong side of the canal, they explained that they hadn’t seen any other boats for the last 24 hours.
At this point you could make a mad dash down the new main line, reaching the Black Country Museum moorings in an hour or so. But that would result in a missed opportunity to “bag” the Titford Canal, which rises a further 38 feet from Brindley’s winding Old main Line to the highest point on the BCN. This is usually the preserve if the enthusiastic die-hards and the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society have their headquarters in the beautifully restored Pumphouse, adjacent to the top lock. By all means go to the end of the canal but no matter how enticing the pools look, don’t be tempted to go into them. Whilst they once played host to an IWA National Festival, silt from the M6 has reduced them to shallow lagoons which regularly trap unwary boaters.
One of the snags of the BCN is a lack of safe moorings. If you find yourself in this area the stub of the Union Arm remains in water and secure moorings can be found alongside the pumphouse, and another arm to add to the list.
Our final run of the day was along the tree lined Old Main Line into Tipton and the secure Black Country Museum moorings. This is, without question, my favourite place to stop on the BCN. If you have time to spare take a trip round the living museum – it’s fascinating and provides a great insight into life in the Black Country when the canals were in their heyday. There is the added bonus of a trip through the Dudley Tunnel. Height restrictions mean that this probably wont be in your own boat (which would have to be towed by a tug in any case) but the Dudley Canal Trust run guided tours into the tunnel and caves, which well worth a look.
A full range of BW facilities are available here, including toilet, shower and even a DIY pumpout.
For food you have the option of a range of take-aways nearby, but my vote goes to Mad O’Rourkes Pie Factory. It’s a 10 minute walk into Tipton but is well worth the effort. My tip – try the Cow Pie!
Another big day so up with the larks and through an interesting mix of industry and suburbia on the Daw (pronounced Doe) End Branch Canal, through Walsall Wood to Aldridge. The canal around Walsall Wood has subsided over the years due to mining and been progressively raised on embankments resulting in a water depth of about 10 feet!
Longwood branch offered another short stub for the collection, but the following water free pound was our first big obstacle. The 40 minutes it took to fill the pound to a navigable depth gave an opportunity to cook up another blowout breakfast.
The Daw End seamlessly morphs into the Rushall Canal passing through parks, wild woodland and golf courses, tumbling down 11 little used locks. We came across another empty pound and amazingly an Australian BW lengthsman who provided an assisted passage all the way to the M6 and Rushall Junction. He told us that less than two boats pass this way in a typical week seemed genuinely saddened that we were not going down the Perry Barr flight, which are his favourite. Instead we turned right onto the Tame Valley Canal, a windswept and wild “cut and fill” waterway which was built as a bypass for the overcrowded Birmingham Mainline.
There was no pressure of traffic during our passage, just another mattress round the prop but that’s par for the course in these backwaters.
A lovely surprise awaits as you turn onto the Walsall Canal and arrive at Ryders Green locks. A dead straight flight 8 of well spaces and well maintained locks making a triumphal entry up to the Main Line. But I am jumping ahead. As dedicated arm baggers we couldn’t miss Swan Arm, obscure by even BCN standards – and shallow too. It’s barely navigable with reeds reducing the channel to 7 feet in places and so shallow we made less that 1 mph. If you do venture here expect shouts of warning from local factory workers assuming you have lost your way. But don’t stop, there’s an all day pub opposite the final winding hole and whilst it lacks character, its beer is cold and refreshing.
It was as we joined the Main Line at Spon Lane that we finally met another moving boat – our first in two days travelling. Our sudden appearance from the Wednesbury Old Canal took them by surprise and, when apologising for being on the wrong side of the canal, they explained that they hadn’t seen any other boats for the last 24 hours.
At this point you could make a mad dash down the new main line, reaching the Black Country Museum moorings in an hour or so. But that would result in a missed opportunity to “bag” the Titford Canal, which rises a further 38 feet from Brindley’s winding Old main Line to the highest point on the BCN. This is usually the preserve if the enthusiastic die-hards and the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society have their headquarters in the beautifully restored Pumphouse, adjacent to the top lock. By all means go to the end of the canal but no matter how enticing the pools look, don’t be tempted to go into them. Whilst they once played host to an IWA National Festival, silt from the M6 has reduced them to shallow lagoons which regularly trap unwary boaters.
One of the snags of the BCN is a lack of safe moorings. If you find yourself in this area the stub of the Union Arm remains in water and secure moorings can be found alongside the pumphouse, and another arm to add to the list.
Our final run of the day was along the tree lined Old Main Line into Tipton and the secure Black Country Museum moorings. This is, without question, my favourite place to stop on the BCN. If you have time to spare take a trip round the living museum – it’s fascinating and provides a great insight into life in the Black Country when the canals were in their heyday. There is the added bonus of a trip through the Dudley Tunnel. Height restrictions mean that this probably wont be in your own boat (which would have to be towed by a tug in any case) but the Dudley Canal Trust run guided tours into the tunnel and caves, which well worth a look.
A full range of BW facilities are available here, including toilet, shower and even a DIY pumpout.
For food you have the option of a range of take-aways nearby, but my vote goes to Mad O’Rourkes Pie Factory. It’s a 10 minute walk into Tipton but is well worth the effort. My tip – try the Cow Pie!
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