Anglesey Basin

Nb. Leaf had left well before we were about which was not unexpected. Our first job was to move back a boats length and fill with water, needless to say as soon as we did this one of the club members wanted to top  up as well, but he seemed happy to wait and chat about his boat. This was the last time we were at Longwood in 2009. Once full of water we were off, we had been warned the weed through the bridge was much worse, and although it looked worse it was no problem at all. The weed continued all the way to Catshill Junction before things improved greatly. On the way to the junction we approached a bridge and above the bridge I could see the silhouette of a fisherman, unfortunately I waited until we had come under the bridge to take the photo, it looked much better from the other side without the trees behind it.
At Catshill Junction it was hard right along the Wyrley & Essington canal, a canal with much less weed. Before long we were at Ogley Junction, where one day hopefully the Litchfield canal will re-join the BCN. From here we were on the Anglesey Branch that just leads down to Anglesey Basin.  Along here is the only location I know of f the old coal shoots that were used to load the locally mined coal into the narrowboats, part of the Black Country’s rich history and they are being left to rot, maybe they are not 250 years old and only 70 or 80, but soon they will be gone. Sandwell Council removed and other last ones I knew of.

We pushed on to the very end of the basin, for some reason there is now a barrier across what was a very good mooring at the very end, so we winded and headed back about half a mile to moor beside some old brick workings.

Today’s Journey 8.5 miles, no locks in 4.25 hours.  Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/