Ella Travels: Lock Up Cruise Week 8

Monday 24th August - Nelson’s Wharf to Radford Semele

We made a fairly early start this morning as we are going to work a lot of locks today. The Stockton Locks are all wide locks and quite hard work.

Then to our delight we met Brian, a volunteer lock keeper who helped us through some of the locks, it was quite busy as there is a Kate Boats hire place in Warwick and you see a lot of their boats.

In this photo I am leaving the lock and coming towards the camera, preparing to pass the boat coming towards me, we only need one gate open as these are wide locks and we aren’t sharing this lock.

Soon after this we joined up with NbGalene, the owners of this boat are true Europeans, she is from Brussels and he is from Athens, they were very much taken with the Greek flag we are flying. Their boat is moored at Droitwich Spa whilst they overwinter in Athens, and in spring, summer and autumn they cruise the waterways. What an idyllic way of life!

We moored up at Radford Semele and we found a walk along a disused railway, called the Offchurch Greenway, a lovely open view across the fields, spoilt only by light rain towards the end of the walk.

We saw this sign on a bridge, I found it quite amusing, is this an avocado farm? One wonders....

6.5 miles, 20 locks, 5 hours, 54 mins.

Tuesday 25th August - Radford Semele

Today the forecast has been for heavy rain followed by high winds so we decided to sit the weather out and stay for another night.

This time we walked into Radford Semele itself and had a look around the church and it’s grounds. The church was destroyed in 2008 by an arson attack and it took 5 years to restore it and reopen.

Wednesday 26th August - Radford Semele to Hatton Station Bridge

Grape Escape is another Bourne Boat, newer than ours, they were moored up behind us and come from Lancashire.

I was impressed by the quality and colours of this beautiful mural as we came through Leamington Spa, there are quite a few as you come through the town, but this one particularly caught my eye.

Once out of Leamington Spa we stopped at Kate Boats to buy two new anti vandal keys as we have managed to lose both of ours! Then we continued on to the first of the locks in Warwick. Here we met a Black Prince hire boat called Phoebe trying to get into the first of the locks, but they managed to ground themselves on a mudbank on the far side. The boat was being driven by a very young girl who wasn’t tall enough to see over the roof, so it was hardly surprising! We pulled over for water after the locks and discovered this boat was going up to the Saltersford Arm, turning round and coming back down again. When we got to the Saltersford Arm, as I was preparing to turn to the right, I was staggered to see nbPhoebe being driven backwards at terrific speed across my path and in to the bushes just before the arm. They then spent another 15 mins trying to turn the boat to head back towards the Cape of Good Hope locks, still with the young girl at the tiller and various adults shouting instructions. I don’t think I have seen anything so frightening in all the years I have been on the canals!

Dave Is heading towards the lock and as he came under the bridge there was an articulated lorry stationary above him, it did look quite amusing but by the time I got the camera ready the lorry had pulled away!

Looking up the flight of locks the way we are going, the Hatton flight are 21 in total, all wide locks and we did them all on our own, we passed a few boats coming down but we had no-one to share the lock with. It was hard work, we shared working the locks, and I managed to clock up my 11,000 steps (4.5 miles) by the time we had got to the end of the day. We were proud of the 4.5 hours it took us to complete the flight!

The view back down the flight from Hatton Top Lock, and the sun has come out for us! We then continued on for a little way further and moored up at Hatton Station Bridge for the night. No need to go for a walk today, steps and miles accomplished and we were both shattered!

8.5 miles, 23 locks, 8 hours 24 mins.

Thursday 27th August - Hatton Station Bridge to Kingswood Junction

The view from the side of the boat as we get ready to set off on the cruise for the day. A gorgeous sunny morning with no locks until after Kingswood Junction. So Toby and I cast Dave off and walked along the towpath.

The canal goes through Shrewley Tunnel, wide enough for two boats to pass each other, there is no towpath and the horses used to walk over the top and down through their own 37m horse tunnel. Toby and I did this walk and this is the horse tunnel heading down to rejoin the canal. The tunnel is notoriously wet with cascades of water dropping at regular intervals!

We realised quite quickly that we were at the end of a queue of 4 boats waiting to go up the Lapworth Locks and with rain forecast we decided to stop and moor up for the day rather than work the locks in heavy rain - we were rather pleased we did!

Instead we went for a rather wet walk around the junction and as far as the little canal shop where we bought some delicious cake and a lovely rag rug to match the colours of the boat, very pleased with our little purchase.

4 miles, 1 tunnel, 1 hour 42 minutes.

Friday 28th August - Kingswood Junction to Lapworth Lock 5

An early start this morning, with the intention of getting up the Lapworth Locks before the heavy rain sets in again this afternoon. Bringing the boat round to the first lock of the day, the first narrow lock since the ones on the Northampton Arm after leaving the River Nene. Very welcome after the wide locks!

We worked our way up the locks, a line of four boats, and one volunteer, which meant that there were plenty of bodies around to help open and close locks as we made steady progress. I do enjoy this flight of locks as there are so many twists and turns within the short pounds of water.

We moored just below lock 5 as a deluge of rain soaked everything in a short space of time, and waited for the rain to stop. Then we went for a walk in Lapworth village to see the church.

I’m afraid Toby doesn’t like getting wet and was keen to get into his bag and dry off for a while whilst we had lunch.

The church has two unusual features, the first is a passageway through a porch which was originally meant to be a Grand west entrance which was never finished, it has an anti room above the porch which was used to store holy relics. The second feature was the detached tower This was built to the north of the nave in the 14th century. The spire was added later, and it was not for another 400 years that a connecting passage was built to join the tower to the body of the church.

1.5miles, 15 locks, 3 hours 6 minutes.

Saturday 29th August - Lapworth Lock 5 to Kings Norton Junction

A bright start to the day and 4 locks in quite quick succession, so Toby and I worked the locks and walked in between them. These are the last locks before the Tardebigge Flight of 30!

We then continued walking and worked a further two manual lift bridges, they were very heavy and hard work! The final lift bridge is an electric one which was done for us! Very kind!

Going through the last lock of the day, the guillotine lock which is always left open but dates back to the time when canals were individually owned and monitored the water on their canals. Hence this one only being a depth of 1”!

Today we moored up just past the junction and went to explore Kings Norton. Now a suburb of Birmingham, it still retains its village green feel and boasts some excellent ancient buildings. This is the Old Grammar School which poses some unanswered questions.

The early 15th-century timber-framed upper storey is older than the ground floor which was built in brick in the early 17th-century.

This building is The Saracen’s Head, originally the bailiffs house and manorial Court, the oldest part dates back to 1450 and was used as an inn from the 18th Century.

On our way back to the boat along the towpath we passed this Wall of Hope created by school children from King’s Norton in May of this year. A lovely idea, simple wooden plaques with little messages of hope written on them and nailed to a wooden fence. Originally there were 200 plaques but Passers Byers are encouraged to add their own message and there are many more now.

11.25 miles, 4 locks, 1 tunnel, 3 moveable bridges.

Sunday 30th August - kings Norton Junction to Tardebigge Top Lock

A lovely bright start to the day, and we set off early to make our way through the three tunnels before the rush. This is Wast Hill Tunnel, the longest today at 2493m, I had to pass two boats in this one.

This was the last tunnel of the day, Tardebigge Tunnel, only 530m, and I passed one boat, a day boat with twin headlights, this was a little confusing as I only expect to see one headlight!