Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

BIRMINGHAM & SHARPNESS

August 1987

Part 1 : Birmingham to Tewkesbury

Our first experience with Brummagem Boats had been at Easter 1986 when Peter and I hired one of their Brumtugs to explore the BCN (Read the trip report here. ) By 1987 our regular Summer cruising quartet (Wendy & I with our friends Ian & Peter) were looking for a change from the fleet we'd been with for several summers, in part to explore some new territory, and decided to give Brummagem a try, so hired their boat Beau Brummel for a fortnight, aiming for Sharpness.

We came up by train, did our provisioning at the big supermarket at Fiveways, and at 16:16 set off from Sherborne Street wharf in central Brum, through Old Turn Junction and Gas Street Basin onto the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. The evening's run brought us to Hopwood at 19:27

We started at 07:07 and took a long lazy breakfast stop by Alvechurch station, then continued, to arrive at Tardebigge top lock mid-morning. The towpath down the flight was in excellent condition despite recent bad weather. The windmills were as picturesque as usual, but there were no horses this time, just one donkey. There was a lot of traffic going in our direction, not so much coming up. It took us about 4 hours to reach the Queen's Head, and we went on one more lock before stopping for lunch, once again in a leisurely fashion. The afternoon's run was to Shernal Green, where we arrived at 18:44. The log records that we thought it a pretty mooring and had a semi-barbecue (I wonder what we meant by that?)

We made a good early start at 06:28 (Wendy calls it a civilised starting time). It was chilly to start with. We saw much evidence of herons & kingfishers. The bottom end of this canal was much prettier than we had remembered, perhaps because this time we saw it in sunshine. At Lowesmoor basin, Worcester, we stopped on Viking's visitor moorings for minor shopping: they would be convenient for main shopping. We found a good Sainsbury's (we didn't think it so good when we came back in 1999 – I don't know whether it had changed or our standards had). We went on to Diglis basin for a pub stop and lunch on board then locked down into the Severn.

It was speedy going as we headed downstream on the Severn. The banks were attractive, whether wild, agricultural or garden. There was very abundant Poor Man's Orchids, ranging in colour from almost-white to almost-burgundy. At Tewkesbury junction we turned into the Avon and moored just past the lock entrance before Avon lock at 18:25. We were charged £1.50 overnight mooring fee and had a barbecue.