Wolverley Lock Monday 28 December 2015

First thing this morning we went for a walk around Stourport, down to the river which is in flood so the locks from the basin down to it are closed. The foot bridge where the young lad was killed 4 years ago still has a scaffolding hand rail and is inspected and signed of as being in good condition every couple of weeks, imagine what that has cost over 4 years, they could have made 2 proper ones by now for that cost. The design is rubbish with big scaffold clamps just at ankle height on the inside of the walkway. 
Before we left we filled the water tank as we were moored close enough for the hose to reach. The longest period of sleep I had last night was just under 2 hours as I didn’t hear the clock strike 12 and I am not sure about 1 am. but I heard all the rest.

We set off at just after 11 am. Moored above the lock there is a rather strange boat moored. It is pointed at both ends and I suspect its powered by 4 thrusters all pointing in different directions

By now the sun was out and it was feeling quite pleasant. Mitton bridge crosses the canal on quite a slope, I bet that’s fun when its a bit icy with the cold air blowing underneath it.

There is an old basin right beside the railway viaduct at  Mitton, this is looking into it as we passed along the canal and to pull the boats from the basin they had a pulley wheel mounted on the towpath opposite the entrance, so the horse could walk along the towpath to pull the boat out.  The canal runs under the railway arch and the basin is off to the right, the pulley is just near the bottom of the steps. 

We stopped for a few minutes at Pratt’s Wharf, here there was a branch of the canal that went under the towpath bridge and down one lock to the River Stour to service the iron works at Wilden. No you cant get through there today but you can still see the remains of the lock walls.

Just before Caldwell lock we had to negotiate a fallen tree again, we had to get round it on the way down as well.

The bottom gates were wide open on Caldwell lock so its as well they have anti vandal locks on the paddles. As Diana closed the gate behind me a Mink dropped into the water from behind the gate, he must have been sitting on some broken bricks up there and plopped down as soon as the gate swung. We carried on up through Kidderminster passing a boat moored on the offside that had had a stone through the window. Kidderminster also has anti vandal locks but only on the top gates which strike me as being a bit useless as anyone could open the top gate and then draw the bottom paddles.

We continued on up through Wolverley Court Lock before mooring for the night just above the lock.

You may remember on our way down I mentioned that two out of the three bridge supports had snapped off, well looking closer today, the third one isn’t doing anything as you can see daylight between it and the bridge deck.

Today’s Journey 

5½ Miles 5 locks in 3 hours.

Stourport Basin Sunday 27 December 2015

Another wet night and this morning there wasn’t a breath of wind, the mist and drizzle hung in the hills, We set off at 10-30am after I flashed the alternator up to charge the batteries. The canal is set hard against the rock face in lots of places and in some they had to cut right through the rock. It was just after here we saw the only other boat of the day coming towards us, I hire boat. I got a bit to close to the tow path and stopped dead on some rock as he slid passed us. I have noticed at a few of the locks these long steel poles, painted white with what looks like a windlass stub on one end, for the life of me I can’t think what they are for.

At Wolverley Court lock the tail bridge is, like lots down here or the cantilever design. This one was designed with three supports running from the wall the the centre so I can only assume that they felt 3 were required. Over the years on one side 2 of the 3 have been snapped off, so there is now only one doing the work supporting the bridge deck. Was this over engineering by the builders or just good luck.

When some of the offside trees were cut down some one decided to carve these stumps into Kingfishers. The beaks are a different colour so I wonder if they have been snapped off and replaced or just stained.

We passed the butty Phoebe moored up and the art work on her block caught my eye with a scene from the Potteries. A brief stop was made in Kidderminster to visit Maplin’s so hopefully tomorrow the alternator will self excite when I start the engine. I had to take the classic shot as we approached Kidderminster lock, looking back. At the moment they are building a new bypass for Kidderminster to the south of the town, The main carcass of the bridge is in, crossing both the canal and the river Stour. 

There are visitor moorings just above the lock dropping down into the basin, I did consider winding above the lock, it looks pretty wide there but in the end decided to drop into the basin to wind before locking up again to moor. What we didn’t know was that there are a couple of 24 hour moorings in the basin by the services, one had a boat on it already but we squeezed in just in front or them, it will be handy for topping up with water in the morning. Needless to say as we started to turn round in the basin it started to rain, so again we have wet trousers. The basin is packed with long term moorings, if they ever go up the Staffs & Worcs Canal together it will be mayhem. Some of them wont fit on the canal and can only go down the river Severn via the wide locks, there is a set of narrow locks for us tin slugs to use if we want to go that way.

Today’s Journey  7½ miles, 7 locks in 4 hours.

Cookley Saturday 26 December 2014

Last night we had our Christmas dinner onboard by candle light.

This morning a boat went by before we were up so it looked as if we were in for a busy day, it also meant the locks were against us.

At the first lock we came to, Hinksford Lock the land owner adjacent to the lock has been doing a lot of ground works building a bank about a meter high all the way along his boundary with the canal.

The morning was very overcast and dull with occasional drizzle, but as the day progressed things got much better and by mid day the sun was shining.

I am sure at Rocky Lock you use to be able to see into the caves on the off side but the entrance is now full of soil, whether this is the action of man or a Badger I don’t know, but as you leave the lock you can see how it cuts back against the rock on the offside.

We stopped to fill with water at Greensford Bridge lock, we had met a boat earlier but he must have only done one lock because now they are again against us, so each one has to be filled before we can use it.

There is an interestingly named place just before Stourton Junction, its Devil’s Den and on the offside there is a boathouse cut into the rock, several years ago British Waterways decided to fit locked doors on the entrance so you can no longer see in. There was a bit of controversy at the time as to whether they had the right to do it, but the locked doors are still there.

We had bit of a problem at Stewponey Lock and I grounded on something trying to leave the lock, we just creped forward with lots of revs on, I must remember to take a run at it on our return.

Dunsley Tunnel at just 25 yards long is quite interesting. At one end there is a bricked section but it soon changes to solid hewn rock. This photo is taken looking back at the bricked entrance, the other end is just rock. We planned to moor after another couple of locks at Kinver visitor moorings and we did stop and tie up, but then we checked the map for tomorrows journey and working on the same sort of length of day we would end up at Kidderminster, not one of the best areas to moor in, so after a bit of late lunch we set off again doing just one more lock and going through Cookley Tunnel, this one is slightly longer at 65 yards and has a road and a row of houses on top of it. I wonder over the years how much stuff has been dumped into the canal from the back of those houses. We have moored on the 5 day visitor moorings between the south of the tunnel and Debdale Lock.

Today’s Journey  

9¼ miles, 2 tunnels, 1 Junction, 8 Locks in 5 hours.

Test

Running Open Live Writer

Swindon Christmas Day 25 December 2015

Well the tree is up and the lights all on around the lounge, we don’t have any outside.

 Last night was a cracker with an almost full moon, I think its full tonight.

What a shame it was to get up this morning while it was raining. Thankfully it had stopped before we left even it it did turn out to be only briefly.

Looking at the rain on the Bullseye

We were delayed in getting away as there was no charge from the domestic alternator, it turned out the “ignition” warning light had blown, I suspect it was only a 12 volt one on a 24 volt circuit. I didn't have a spare and the only thing I could think or to wire in its place was a relay coil to supply the voltage to energise the alternator, as soon as it fired up I disconnected it again, but I will have to repeat it in the morning.

We finally got away just after 11 am. and at the first lock we came to we encountered the faces, once there were three but the centre one has decade and lost an eye.

The lock was full and looking back while we were locking down the reason was quite plain to see. With a single top gate and a pair of bottoms I would expect the bottoms to leak most.

The scaffolding handrail is still on the foot bridge below Awbridge Lock. This was erected after a lad fell off a bridge in Stourport and was drowned in 2011, I thought they may have fitted something more permanent by now.

This lock must have one of the most ornate bridge angle brackets still in use, a lot of the others on the tow path side have got broken back in the days of horse drawn boats but you can see the rope groves worn in this one.

We soon arrived at The Bratch, this is a series of three locks each one separated by a short chamber about 10 foot long. There is a paddle leading from this chamber to a larger pound to hold water to fill the lock below. The paddles are colour coded red and blue so you shouldn't get it wrong.

All the chambers were full and it didn't take us long to get down, we did stop and clear up after the night time revellers who left cans, bottles and half eaten take-a-way by the middle lock, they also left two full cans, but then it was only Fosters.

A few walkers out now the rain had stopped, I think that Bumblehole Lock stands a good chance as being listed as a SSSI with the amount of growth on the walls.

Our next challenge was the two lock staircase where the top lock emptied directly into the one below, get this wrong and you flood the towpath. Again it was all set up ready for us.
We just did a couple locks before pulling over at the end of Swindon visitor moorings. There are three other boats here, two are occupied but the one behind us looks empty.
Tonight we will have our Christmas Dinner which is in the oven as I type this, we have opened our presents and rung all the people we planned to who we could get through to.

So I would just like to wish you all a happy Christmas.

Today’s Journey

 4¼ miles, 11 locks in 3 hours

Not Sure Thursday 24 December 2015

What a night last night, we went to bed with bright moon light but it soon changed to heavily gusting wind and we woke to very heavy rain, this resulted in getting up being somewhat slower than normal. We had just on ¼” of rain over night, I am sure some places were worse off than us.

We were ready to set off at 11am, I had the full waterproofs on and went out to brave it. Lo and behold it stopped raining, the sky turned blue and the sun came out. I really should get dressed up like this more often as it seems to work.

Just before the M54 motorway there are some long term moorings and this motorised butty caught my eye, you can see the speed control on the tiller,

I have no idea where the gear change is, I rather like the duck standing on the anti cavitation plate. The portholes are diamond shaped, not round and the stove chimney looks like a log,

at the bow there is a penguin on lookout above the jaws.

The moorings also had a rather fine portable heater, ideal for a late summers evening when having drinks on the moorings.

The first boat we were to meet today was in the long narrow section which is only to be expected I suppose. We manage to time it so we both arrived at a passing spot at the same time so no one had to stop or back up.

Just after passing Autherley and Aldersley Junctions we met the second boat of the day, it was also here that I saw a pair of Dabchicks, or Little Grebes. Surprisingly they didn’t dive until after I had passed them, maybe the ducks gave them confidence.

We did 2 locks and decided to stop for the day just before Dimmingsdale Bridge, but got caught in a quick but heavy shower just as we tied up.
The reason for stopping here is that in about 5 miles there is The Bratch, a flight of locks that normally has a lockkeeper on duty. Tomorrow being Christmas I wouldn’t expect to find him working and I was not sure it the locks would be open for passage without him, so 5 miles and a couple of locks would give us a bit of travelling to charge the batteries if it was closed. I have since found out that he is not working but the locks will be open, so we can ether stop above the locks for Christmas afternoon, of drop through them and go a little further. We need to do 4 hours to recharge the batteries each day.

Today’s Journey 10 miles, 2 locks and  2 junctions in just under 3½ hours

Coven Wednesday 23 December 2015

Well after mooring up yesterday in the poring rain with wet cloths, this morning we wake to bright sun shine, Its actually a bit colder at 6°C as opposed to 14° but with very little wind it felt much better and I didn’t put a coat on until after lunch time.

We only saw three boats today, the one moored behind us left at 9 am and then two others came the other way before we left at 10 am. This resulted in some locks being with us and some against us. The approach to Penkridge has an interesting bridge, very similar to Gailey.

We filled with water and deposited rubbish at Penkridge, on leaving we passed the boat we had been following so from here all locks would be with us.

We were to pass two more lots of CRT winter Mooring sites and not a single boat on them, I don’t know why they don’t put them in the same pound as water taps and sani stations.

Above Gailey Lock the canal is full of JD boats, there is still room for a single boat to get through so not a problem. By now it was clouding up a bit and turning cooler so a coat was called for, well it is almost the end of December.

Shortly after Gailey is the SI Group Chemical works at Four Ashes where the company have erected lots of “No Mooring” signs, as well as these large ones there are small ones attached to the fence. I wouldn’t want to stop here but I do wonder their legality as there is not a single CRT No Mooring sign anywhere.

Not far after this there is a Milepost on the towpath, these are normally to the back of the tow path so as not to get in the way of the tow line to the horse, but this one has been moved to a prominent position set in concrete at a spill weir.

We did another mile through Laches Bridge No.73 where we moored for the night. We had just gone inside after tying up and guess what, it started to rain, so we ended up having a dry sunny days travel today.


Today’s Journey

7¾ Miles, 8 locks in 4 hours.