Sunday 5 April 2015 Walsall

Yesterday evening we wandered down to The Fountain to watch some of the folk performing, one who we knew and decided that we would move on this morning. It turned out a lot of people had the same idea as when we got up the two boats ahead had all ready gone. It wasn’t long before Scorpio and Leo a working pair owned by CRT came by. We set off at our normal 10 AM start following the old Main Line to Factory Junction where we turned hard right to go down the three Factory Locks on the New Main Line a very straight canal compared with the others. As I rounded the junction there sat Scorpio at the top of the locks waiting to go down, they were already bow hauling the butty Leo down so I walked down to lend a hand only to find they had a load of people already helping. The pounds between the three locks were quite low but if Scorpio was OK then we would have no problem.

One of the locks has a cantilevered foot bridge across its tail, it you look to the right hand end you can see this end is clear of the ground to allow a tow rope to pass when the boats were pulled by horses.

In its heyday there were lots of junctions on this canal where loops went off and even canals crossing, lots of them have been filled in now, the first joined the Walsall Canal to the Old main line and crossed the New main Line on the level at Watery Lane Junction. One side is still in water and being used as a boat yard but the other side has long gone. This use to go up through 3 locks to bring it to the same level as the old Main Line, now the land just falls away.

We had a slow run, not only because we were following the pair but also passing through a fishing match of 25 anglers, I wonder it the boats behind were met as cheerfully as we were.

At Pudding Green Junction we turned sharp left up the Wednesbury Old Canal, we passed the other end of it yesterday at Deepfield Junction, unfortunately the middle section like a lot of other loops has been lost as can bee seen on this map produced by Waterway Routes  Luckily for us the pair ahead carried straight on or I would have changed my plans for the day.

After a short time you come to Ryders green Junction also know I believe as Chemical Junction on the Chemical canal after the chemical works on this arm. Here we go straight ahead down the Riders Green flight of 8 locks on the Walsall canal.  Half way down the flight we hit our first problem as Diana was unable to open the top gate of lock 4, when I got there I had a poke about and recovered this metal ladder that was in front of the gate, maybe the gate had been happily riding over it for years and today it decided just to hit it.

At the next lock it was a Transit wheel and tyre floating behind the gate. As we went down some locks were full and some empty but non seamed to leak excessively, strange. When we reached lock 7 I could see people at lock 8, maybe a boat coming up, but then they vanished. Looking through the binoculars I could see the bottom gate open and what I was the top paddle up. When we arrived it turned out the bottom gate and bottom paddle was up, whether they would have succeeded in raising the top paddle if we hadn’t arrived is anyone's guess. Just below the bottom lock there are what looks like a lot of old loading arms on the right hand side, it is hard to see as the scrub in covering everything. so a very poor photo I’m afraid. From here the canal was in a much more depressing state with dereliction along the banks. There are parts where there are modern housing estates but they are all shut off from the canal by high steel railings even though they were built with sweeping staircases running down. Every development we saw was like this, some with double railings top and bottom of the stairs.All the old buildings if not abandoned and burnt are covered in anti climb devices, razor and barbed wire.

Another old arm goes off at Ocker Hill which is now a long term mooring, last time we were this way we got invited to moor there overnight rather than staying out on the towpath. On the opposite side the Tame Valley Canal joins and we will be going that way tomorrow.

Soon there are more disused arms, the first just before the new Metro Bridge use to run through to join the Wednesbury Loop, now completely grown over after a few yards. A little further on there is yet another junction at Moorcroft bridge again connecting to the Wednesbury loop. About 5 minutes latter we passed a huge cemetery on the towpath side with row and rows of stones.

Someone has been clearing the towpath along here, they have gone a good job removing the turf that had taken hold on the path, what I don’t know is why they didn’t clear it away instead of just throwing it on the grass, it should do something for the efficiency of the grass cutting.

At the next junction we turned right down the Walsall Town Arm, at the end is a basin with pontoons, but at the entrance there is a floating boom and behind that about 10 foot of solid floating rubbish. The basin its  is partly surrounded by high rise buildings. Luckily for us CRT have installed a floating pontoon on the offside back at the junction for 24 hour mooring, this is only accessible by water so no chance of visiting town or town visiting us. We reversed back and are now sitting opposite the new flats that have been built on the towpath side.

Today’s Journey

11 miles, 11 locks 5 canals and hundreds of junctions in 5¾ hours

Saturday 4 April 2015 Tipton

It was quite noisy last night until a little passed midnight and then things quietened down dramatically. The piece of land we were moor against is only accessible by water or a long ladder, so no one wandering passed the boat at all. having said that we didn’t hear anyone on the towpath opposite ether.  The first thing we did this morning was to go into the ex- Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company's basin was almost opposite to fill with water and dispose of any rubbish we had onboard.

The building to the left of the basin is a warehouse that was at one time owned by The Midland and Coast Canal Carriers ltd. and then became the property of Fellows, Morton & Clayton Ltd. when they took over the company. later British waterways board owned it and in recent years has been a night club now called The Boatyard. One of the interesting things about the building is that boats can actually go inside it to load and unload using a crane from the floors above. Once full of water we reversed out and continued south along the BCN Main line through Wolverhampton tunnel which has a multi story car park on top of it.

There is some “interesting” canal side sculpture along the canal as you head towards Tipton, this is 3 interconnecting rings, I am not sure what it represents.

You pass a couple of junctions on this canal before you get to Tipton, the first is the Wyrley and Essington which goes all the way to Anglesey Basin, the other is the old Wednesbury Loop that now only goes as far as the CRT workshops at Bradley. Or destination was straight ahead. Soon we came to Cosley Tunnel which is a bit longer than the others we have done this week at 360 yards.  British Waterways use to have regulations about un powered craft using their tunnels, in most cases it was not allowed at all, CRT have relaxed a lot of these allowing canoes to use a lot more tunnels. This is the old British waterways notice.

As we entered the tunnel I could hear shouting at the far end, but when we got there there was no sign of anybody. As we left the tunnel we found out where they where as stones rained down on us from above. I am glad our roof is in need of repainting as we have at least one chip 25mm across not far in front of where I was standing. As you can see they came down from quite a height.  CRT have gone a lot of work this winter stabilising the bank on the tunnel approach which has probably given them a good supply of rocks to throw. 

From here it is only a short way to Factory Junction where we turned right to Tipton. There were already a lot of boats here when we arrived so we sailed through and winded at the junction of the Dudley No1 canal and then made our way back through them all again to moor on the end. Since we have been here, due to a boat fitted with rather large speakers blasting out what they think is music mooring at the south end by the park, 3 have the boats have moved up by us, I expect there may be more.

Today’s Journey 6¼ miles, lots of junctions 1 canal in 2¼ hrs.

Friday 3 April 2015 Wolverhampton

Just as we had finished mooring yesterday it started drizzling which was still going on when we went to bed. This morning it was still drizzling, that sort of weather that really wets things trough, we set off at 10 am and the weather started to brighten and by the time we stopped at bridge 2 for shopping there was a bit of sun up in the sky.

We got held up a bit at Autherley Junction as a boat coming up got stuck, it was a full length Black Prince style boat with the rubber faced rear fender, that was hard against the top gate and they couldn’t swing the gate passed the rubber bow fender, luckily the boat behind came up and told them that the rear fender is hinged and you can lift it it. It had all the looks of a hire boat with an inexperienced crew or youngsters but no indication if it actually was a hire boat so could have been a school or Guides etc. Once clear of both the lock and the boat waiting to come into it we turned right on the Staffs and Worc canal and headed down to Aldersley Junction where it was sharp left and up the Wolverhampton 21. All the locks were against us but the weather was just about right, not to hot, little wind and no rain. The paddle gear on the first lock is at 90% to the lock so you mustn’t step back as you wind the paddle, it is also below the top gate.

One of the locks, I failed to get its number has an unusual brick piece build on the end of the lower wall. From the time on the photo it must be about number 15 or 16.  At lock 13 we saw a boat coming down so waited until they arrive. We were greeted with two bits of information, firstly they had got all this way without a key to open the security bolts and had been using a pair of sniped nose pliers, I was able to give them an old one I had found and secondly there was a boat going ahead so we only had about 4 locks with us and then the drizzle started again. It didn’t drizzle for long, it soon turned into real rain. It was also here that we met a CaRT man who informed us that the pound above lock 3 would probably be low as the gates leaked and he wasn’t wrong. It took a bit of effort getting out of 3 and also into 2 but the pound its self gave no problem. The pound above 2 was also low, but not so bad, arriving at the top lock we found that the bottom gate is held together with a webbing strap and of course just as we left it the rain eased off. It didn’t stop until we moored on the visitor moorings opposite the old warehouse and basin.

For those that are interested the 21 took us exactly 3 hours, had we not met the boat coming down it would have been a bit shorter.

Today’s Journey 5.6 miles, 2 junctions 22 locks 3 canal in 4¾ hours

Thursday 2 April 2015 Park farm Brewood.

Much more like spring today, the wind has died away, no rain and the sun has been shining, nothing like the forecast thank goodness. We were away just after 10 AM, my body is still on the old time at each end of the day, the middle seems OK. It wasn’t long before we were passing Norbury Wharf I have to give them a plug as without there free WiFi there would have been no blog last night. They also control the arm opposite which is the beginning of the Shrewsbury and Newport Canal which now terminates with a dry dock. They also sell FLAM free diesel for 59.9p lt self declaration. Just beyond the Wharf is the Canal and Rivers Trust Norbury maintenance yard with its historic buildings.

          We stopped at Turners of Wheaton Aston as they are one of the cheapest suppliers of diesel on the system and took on 180 lts. and then went a few hundred yards further up the canal to fill with water.

Wheaton Aston Lock was the only lock today and that was with us, add the sun and its a good days boating.

I seems that the RAF have followed us from the Llangollen Canal and are still buzzing us, you can see the RAF markings on this one, even though they look like Police Helicopters. The grass cutting gang were hard at it, I wonder how far they walk in a day, one chap on a ride on doing the bulk and two chaps with strimmers.I watched what he did when he got to a moored boat. He stopped strimming just before the boat and then turned round, working backwards passed the boat so the cuttings flew away from the boat. Here he reverted to forward strimming so the grass shoots over the water, he did stop while we passed, so no complaints there. One of the reasons you cant moor just anywhere on this canal is due to its construction, the edge is concrete and just below the water is a ledge, this ledge supports the equivalent of paving slabs laid at a very shallow angle. In many places where the canal has been dredged to the edge you still have the ledge to bash up against all night. If we encounter this we float two wheelbarrow wheels between the boat and the edge which holds us off. This canal is a marvel of engineering of its day, at times you are on a long embankment maybe 20 to 30 feet high for hundreds of yards at other times cuttings through solid rock and if the rock was too bad they cut tunnels through it like this 80 yard one at Cowley. On our way to Brewood we were lucky enough to get a couple of photos of a Kingfisher as it flitted ahead of us and then waiting until we were almost up to him before moving on to a new perch for a few minutes. Another interesting sight was this miniature Narrowboat, there is another on the system called Sarnie and I think it was her owner who built this one, its just 6.7 Mt long and 1.6 Mt wide drawing only 0.4 Mt of water.

We passed straight through Brewood this time to moor on the SUCS 48 hr moorings at Park Farm between Park Bridge and Huntington Bridge.

Today’s journey12½ Miles, 1 Lock, 1 Tunnel and 1 Junction in 5½ hrs.

Wednesday 1 April 2015 Norbury Junction

The sayings go “ March, in like a lion and out like a lamb” well that was wrong and “April showers” that one is defiantly right including hail again.

last night the wind was gusting up to 40 MPH but moderated quite a bit today. We left at 1045 hrs just as a working boat was coming out of the bottom lock, the first of many. The farm shop at the top of the flight has reopened and we bought some lamb chops there. April showers came and went, the wind picked up and died down and even a spot of sun and hail to see us on our way.

It wasn’t long after this that we met Spay towing Betelgeuse. This was not the end of the lovely old boats but the only pair we saw, there was also Sharpness a gem of a boat in my opinion and one I failed to remember the name of, but it has a bird plate on the side.  I have since been told it was Dove. We also passed Governor at bridge 52 a Alfred Matty & Sons Ltd tug who had broken his gear linkage.

We passed through Market Drayton where there are lots of vacant long term moorings which look to be a reasonable price.

A little further along the cut is Talbot Wharf once the home of a thriving hire base.

It was here we saw a CaRT man walking the towpath ahead of us windlass in his belt wearing a life jacket, he walked all the way to Tyrley Locks where he helped us up the flight, I think this is the first lock we have turned on our way back as we had caught up with a hire boat, even then it was only two locks before they were coming down again. Just below the locks on the tow path side there is a solid wall of rock with a small hole in it. Into this hole someone has inserted a small butterfly shaped mirror and if you look very carefully you can see a selfie of me in that mirror as I photographed it. One of the boats we met in the flight, it had just turned 1210 hrs and he said he planned to be at Nantwich that night, so I guess he got there about 10pm with the amount of traffic ahead of him making him turn every lock.
The old wharf at the top of the locks looks quite nice considering its been turned into a dwelling, the other side of the lock has been cleaned up now the contractors have finished down the cutting. They have installed rock gabions to hold the land back and lade a heavy stone towpath over the mud. I wouldn’t like to say when they will be back because this is what we saw in the section between where they have been working and the lock.

There are so offside moorings just beyond here, it looks almost a hippy encampment in the nicest way, one of the boats moored here is the old hotel boat Taurus which use to be towed by the motor Snipe, Both Taurus and Snip have been replaced by reincarnations. Parked just behind her in a rough shelter is what I think is an old Standard or Riley? I have just been informed from Canada that this is a 1949 Daimler DB18. We decided to make for Norbury Junction although the moorings by the Anchor were almost empty, just the same boats as when we came down. Needless to say as soon as I passed the moorings it started to rain again and we tied up at 1715 hrs.

Today’s Journey

14¾ Miles 10 locks 6½ hours.