Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

AROUND THE BCN

October Half-Term 1988

In our years between boats, as well as our summer cruises with our regular crew of four, we sometimes did extra trips earlier or later in the year with a smaller crew. This was one such, when Wendy & I hired Brummagem Boats' Bard for a week's cruise on the BCN. I had long been addicted to the BCN, and Wendy was just developing an enthusiasm for it.

I've not included any photos here, as for some reason I hardly took any on that trip.

We were due for a Saturday afternoon start, so travelled to Birmingham in the morning, left our luggage at the boatyard at Sherborne Street Wharf on the Oozells Street Loop and went of to do our provisioning in Tesco at Fiveways. We set off at 16:35, much relieved to be on our way at last. At Smethwick junction we chose the New Main Line, mooring at 18:02 by Galton Bridge in a sort of linear park with good birdsong..

The morning's start was a slow one at 07:41 and we stopped for breakfast near Tipton station. There was a stoppage somewhere which meant we thought we couldn't stick to our original plan, but a second look at the listing showed that we could, so we winded and went back to Pudding Green junction and thence to Ryder's Green junction and the Walsall Canal. At Tame Valley junction we turned onto the Tame Valley Canal as far as Rushall junction. We cruised the whole of the Rushall Canal to Longwood junction (where we met some helpful people at the Longwood Boat Club), then passed onto the Daw End Branch of the Wyrley & Essington to moor at 16:55 at the Manor Arms, Daw End, but we didn't try the pub.

It was misty as we started at 07:33, but fine & sunny later. At Catshill junction we turned west on the Wyrley & Essington Canal to Brownhills wharf where we shopped in the supermarket. The mooring here still needed dredging, as it had last time we'd been there. Between there and Horseley Fields we had to stop three times to clear the blade – a foam cushion, and inner tube and some perfectly good clothes. We enjoyed the sight of a number of piebald horses, which we'd noticed on an earlier visit. On the main line we headed for Wolverhampton and moored at 16:52 before the top lock and had an early night as I had to go home the next day for a meeting.

I went back to London for the day, while Wendy shopped. She was impressed with a new-looking shopping centre with a big Sainsbury's. There were a lot of wagtails at the mooring. I came back in the evening.

It was a breezy, grey day, but with good visibility. We started at 07:59 by winding, then went to Factory Junction and joined the Old Main Line, to turn off at Tipton junction for a visit to the Black Country Museum, a long-standing favourite of ours, where we noted that they had added some more cottages. We watched a demonstration of chain-making by hand.

Setting off from there after lunch we went back to Factory Junction, down the locks onto the New Main Line and turned off at Dudley Port junction to pass through Netherton Tunnel Branch (stopping for water at Tividale). Netherton tunnel is as boring as a whole evening of Paul Daniels. We went to Windmill End where we moored in the Boshboil Arm at 16:16. Our log doesn't record a pub visit, and it wasn't until the following year we discovered that excellent pub, the Dry Dock. I wonder if it wasn't there in 1988 or if we simply didn't notice it.

After a start at 09:31 we headed to Park Head junction in the hope of going up to the entrance to Dudley tunnel, but the locks were padlocked so we tied up and walked up to have a look around. The we went down Blowers Green lock and moored before Delph top lock. We walked down the locks - very attractive - and had an excellent lunch at the Bell. On returning to the boat, we found that something solid we had bumped over when passing the demolition work on the old Round Oak steelworks (which was one day going to become the Merry Hill shopping complex) had lifted the rudder off its pintle and we had to call the boatyard to relocate it for us. After a delay while that happened, we made our way back to Park Head and Windmill end, mooring once again in the Boshboil Arm at 16:51.

At 07:36 we set off along the dead-end of the Dudley No.2 canal that used to (and one day may again) lead to Selly Oak and the Worcs & Birmingham. We found it a mucky and fairly boring piece of campaign cruising. We winded in the entrance to Hawne Basin and tied up for breakfast near there. After breakfast we made our way back to Windmill End and through Netherton Tunnel, stopping again for water at Tividale. We rejoined the New Main Line for a straight run back to base, which we reached at 16:32, packed up and went home.