Overwinter Cruise - Week 16

Sunday 11th February - Whittington Lock

Today we stayed at Whittington Lock and went for a lovely walk along the canal, following the Worcestershire Way, up onto Kinver Edge and back down to the canal.
For Christmas last year I was given a subscription to OS map downloads and can use it to plot a route and follow it on a mobile phone using GPS.  Our route is in blue.







Monday 12th February -Whittington Lock to Stourbridge

Today we began our trip to Stourbridge, here we are cruising through the village of Kinver before stopping above the lock and putting on water.

At Hyde lock the cottage has used scaled down lock gates as their garden gate, very impressive!

We then got to Stourton Junction and turned right and straight into the first of 4 locks up the Stourbridge Canal.

After a couple of miles we came to the Wordsley Junction and again turned right into the Stourbridge Town Arm.  















This is a stretch of lock free canal for about a mile ending at the fine Bonded Warehouse restored as the headquarters of Stourbridge Navigation Trust.  It was originally built in 1790 and enlarged in 1849, the ground floor used to be open to allow unloading from narrowboats which used to trade here.

Much of the arm beyond the rebuilt footbridge is used by permanent moorers.
We moored outside the town overnight and spent the afternoon exploring Stourbridge.







Tuesday 13th February - Stourbridge to Hinksford





We set off from Stourbridge and retraced our journey back along the Town Arm.  

Stourbridge was a major glass making centre for 375 years, but following the end of WW2 the industry gradually declined and Tudor Crystal is one of the few surviving factories specialising in cut crystal.

At the end of the arm we turned left heading back towards Stourton Junction and the Staffs and Worcestshire canal.

The last time we were on this canal we broke down and had to moor here to wait for the River Canal Rescue man to come and mend our boat!  No problems this time though!

A very sad sight - a shell of a narrowboat, possibly a wooden hull, so fairly old, but with no other distinguishing marks.









We continued back onto the Staffs and Worcs Canal and then stopped before Hinksford Bridge opposite a Mobile Home Park.  A very quiet mooring and a very pleasant pub just over the bridge.

Wednesday 14th February - Hinksford

The weather today has taken a turn for the worse so we have decided to stay here for the day. 

It is Valentine's Day and we have treated ourselves to lunch at the pub, very pleasant but we seemed to be sharing the pub with a lot of pensioners so we think we have just had our first OAP lunch!






Thursday 15th February - Hinksford to Bratch Locks 

Woke up to a much better day and decided to move onto The Bratch Locks.

On the way I locked the boat up through Botterham staircase lock, 2 locks together.

 


We found a group of beehives alongside a line of moored boats, I wonder whether they belong to the boats moored here?  













We then got to the Bratch Locks and Dave decided to operate the locks.  He promised me he would read the notes on the board, but he didn't read to the end and went off to make sure the top locks were full of water.

As these are not staircase locks this is not necessary - moral of the tale always read everything before dashing off with half the information!
















The locks are automatically filled with water from the side pounds.









We moored up at the top of the locks in the same place as we did on the way down.

Friday 16th February - Bratch Locks to Brewood

We left the Bratch in brilliant sunshine and set out for a much longer day to Brewood back on the Shropshire Union Canal.













We passed the junction with The Birmingham Canal and the Wolverhampton 21 locks.

The next junction Autherley Junction, we turned on to the Shropshire Union Canal and through the 6 inch stop lock.

Here the canal narrows and is all that  remains of the Pendleford stoplock.

The canal then passes under the M54 and for some unknown reason, someone has moored their boat under the bridge.  It is incredibly noisy, and there is no access to the motorway here, even if you had a vehicle.

A beautiful Highland Cow, Scottish breed of cow, prized for its full flavoured meat.

And in a garden a solo alpaca munching on the lawn!

We then entered the cutting going towards Gnosall and we were enthralled by the guard of honour presented by these trees, most atmospheric!

We moored up in Gnosall where we met up with Lizzie and her friend, Roz, and had lunch together at The Navigation. We had a lovely time.










Afterwards we continued on our journey to Norbury Junction and moored up again for the night.

This brings us to the end of our 16th week and sees us back onto our home canal.

Map Key   
Week 1 - Brown   Week 2 -  Purple   Week 3 - Dark Blue   Week 4 - Light Blue
Week 5 - Green    Week 6 - Olive Green   Week 7 - Yellow  Week 8 - Orange  
Week 9 - Pink      Week 10 - Dark Pink     Week 11 - Dark Brown  Week 12 - Light Purple                              Week 13 - Indigo  Week 14 - Blue/Green   Week 15 - Dark Green  Week 16 - Muddy Green

Overwinter Cruise Week 15

Sunday 4th February - Hyde Lock, Kinver

Today was a beautiful day so we took ourselves out for a long walk through Kinver, on towards Enville and up through The Million and finally back along the canal to the boat.

Much of the walk followed the Staffordshire Way, and parts were incredibly muddy, churned up by off roading cyclists.

We met some pretty little ponies who seemed very friendly and not in the least bit bothered by Toby.

The Million is a plantation of pine trees that probably dates back to just after the second world war.  The name may have stuck as local people referred to it as "there are millions of trees growing up there".

We joined the canal and walked back passing the Devil's Den on the left.











Monday 5th February - Hyde Lock to Wolverley

Monday was a bright and cold morning and we set off through Hyde Lock down into Kinver.

The view across the lock was lovely.

We passed through our second tunnel, Cookley Tunnel, 65 yds long this time.  The tunnel goes under the road with the houses above it..  Looks quite strange!









We arrived at Wolverley and moored up above Wolverley Lock.  We treated ourselves to lunch in the Lock Cafe and then went to explore Wolverley and the surrounding woodland. One of the unusual features of the village are the rooms cut into the sandstone cliffs behind some of the houses.

Tuesday 6th February - Wolverley to Stourport

Another fine bright morning, so we set off on the final leg to our destination of Stourport on Severn.  As we passed through Kidderminster we stopped at the large Sainsbury's at the Retail Park and stocked up on essentials.

St Mary and All Saints Church looks down over Kidderminster Lock after which the canal dives under the inner ring road.

A new road spanning the canal and the River Stour.

When we came this way in 2016 it was still being built.







We arrrived in Stourport and went straight down into the basin where we were able to moor at the visitor moorings.  

That evening, around about 6pm, there was a lot of commotion at the lock and we learnt the next day that a man had been rescued after having fallen into the lock.  Locks can be very dangerous places especially in the dark.

Wednesday 7th February - Stourport Basin

After a very cold night we woke to brilliant blue skies and sunshine.
















The gulls were having fun skating on the frozen basin!

We walked along the River Severn as far as Lincomb Lock.  When we did our Helmsman Course we came down onto the river and had our first experience of river cruising.  Lincomb Lock was our first river lock and I remember going through it 4 times in total!










Stourport has 2 sets of locks going down onto the river, a wide lock and 

a narrow lock, obviously depending on the size of your boat.













In the afternoon I went to have my haircut, another first for me as I usually wait until I get back to Market Drayton and go to my own hairdresser.  However, this time my hair had grown so long, it was driving me mad and I just wanted it cut as short as possible!
I was very pleased with the result!!








Thursday 8th February - Stourport to Wolverley Court Lock.


Today we begin our journey back up the canal, we filled up with water, winded the boat in the basin, filled up with diesel and made our way back up the first lock.  We bought lunch at the cafe beside the lock and set off for Wolverley.

Pratt's Wharf Bridge is all that remains of a disused arm that used to feed through to Wilden Ironworks until 1949, now an industrial estate.  There was also a junction with the River Stour via Pratt's Wharf Side Lock.

I am always fascinated by graffiti and this example was on Falling Sands Bridge, I wonder how they managed to do it?

As we left Kidderminster and headed for Wolverley Court Lock we saw a pair of kingfishers carved from tree stumps, lovely work!








Friday 9th February - Wolverley Court Lock to Whittington Lock

Today we waited for the rain to pass before we set off for Whittington Lock, just out of Kinver.
It was a pleasant cruise, sunshine and a chilly wind until we got to Debdale Lock.  Here a squally shower of rain, sleet and snow and high winds caused us to pull over on the lock landing mushrooms, to sit it out.  20 minutes from the first drop of rain and we were under blue skies again!  Amazing!
We moored up below the lock and had a quiet afternoon on the boat.  In the evening we walked toThe Manor House for our supper.
It was built in 1310 by Sir William de Whittington, a knight of arms and owner of land around Kinver.  His grandson was the famous Dick Whittington who went to London in search of pavements paved with gold and became the Mayor of London three times over.
It is also supposed to be haunted, and one of the famous ghosts is Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for 9 days in 1553, and is said to come back regularly to haunt the building.

Saturday 10th February - Whittington Lock

A walk into Kinver to go shopping and an afternoon on the boat watching Six Nations Rugby!

Map Key   Week 1 - Brown   Week 2 -  Purple   Week 3 - Dark Blue   Week 4 - Light Blue
                   Week 5 - Green    Week 6 - Olive Green   Week 7 - Yellow  Week 8 - Orange  
                   Week 9 - Pink      Week 10 - Dark Pink     Week 11 - Dark Brown  Week 12 - Light Purple                                 Week 13 - Indigo  Week 14 - Blue/Green   Week 15 - Dark Green