Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE YEARS BETWEEN BOATS

BRUM, STOURPORT & THE STOURBRIDGE.

April 1990

A week's hire during the school Easter holidays. with just Wendy and myself the the boat Ballad from Brummagem Boats out of Sherborne Street Wharf in Birmingham

We travelled up from home, left our luggage at the boatyard and went shopping at Tesco at Fiveways, including getting some disposable barbecues. We started at 15:47 via Old Turn Junction and the BCN main line, then at Smethwick Junction joined the Old Main Line. We stopped by Smethwick Engine House at 17:23.

We set off next morning at 07:54 and stopped for breakfast just past Tividale Aqueduct. There had been some dredging on the Old Main Line. At Factory Junction we passed back onto the main line. There appeared to have been some good dredging and interesting development at the Wolverhampton end of the main line. We stopped for lunch before Wolverhampton top lock before setting off down the flight. Once again we found a number of very low pounds in the 'Hampton flight. Helped by a nice following boat. At Aldersley Junction we passed on to Staffs & Worcs Canal and moored just South of there at 17:10, a pretty mooring with good birdsong and friendly passing dogs.

There was a lovely dawn chorus and we had breakfast before setting off. Wendy said that's the road to ruin. We started cruising at 09:33 in pleasant conditions. It was slow running and we were following people all day, first a pair then a family. We made a lunch stop below Bumblehole lock, watered above Greensforge lock and continued to an overnight mooring at 17:54 at Prestwood Bridge. It was a pretty mooring, with birch trees just getting fresh green leaves, squirrels, robins etc.

There was another beautiful dawn chorus and we set off at 07:56. This was a spectacularly pretty route, with high wooded banks on the left, often with young bluebells & hyacinthine haze, particularly elegant when mixed with greater stitchwort. We saw a lot of rabbits between Stourton Junction and Kidderminster. We stopped at Kidderminster Wharf for what proved to be reasonable shopping, and a not-very-good pub lunch (but it did have some veggie options) in a noisy ambience. The town had improved over the last 35 years, when Wendy first knew it, but not a lot. There was now a small Waitrose with humanely produced pork & bacon but a tiny selection of other meat and veg and no interesting fish. Continuing cruising we saw kingfishers just south of Kidderminster. We tied up for the night above York Street lock, Stourport at 17:02 and spied out the shopping for future reference. A lot of good little shops had been driven out by big super-markets. We had a fish & chip supper.

There was a good dawn chorus even here. At 09:01 we locked down into Stourport upper basin where we watered and winded then set off back. It was a lovely day. We saw swarms of orange-tips. We stopped above Wolverley lock for beer at The Lock : a pleasant pub with good food but not for veggies (except carrot & coriander soup, but the day was too hot for that). But even the non-carpeted bar was quiet and comfortable.

Past Caunsall bridge the boat's engine overheating for no discernible reason so we stopped a while for it to cool down. The Vine at Kinver (which we past outside opening hours both ways) had many kinds of fowl ranging freely, and a goat. At Stourton Junction we passed on to Stourbridge Canal and moored before Wordsley Junction at 18:00. It was a beautiful mooring, almost an embankment (one-sided embankment?) up above the world so high, looking out onto a wooded bank, wide towpath, nice dogs, too far from anywhere to have unsupervised children, good birdsong.

We had breakfast before the start again - we were becoming lazy boaters, and we liked it! It was 09:15 when we set off, with romantic mist in the valley. We only met one boat in the Stourbridge 16, a BW one which didn't seem to have come all the way down. We met a delightful tortoiseshell-&-white cat at Buckpool. At Delph Junction we stopped for a good greedy lunch (again) at The Bell (Holt's). We rang the yard about the engine, which was still overheating. We carried on onto the Dudley Canal and up Delph locks, with young swimmers transformed into "helpers". We had a horrid feeling they should have been in school - certainly they greeted some older truants on the towpath. At Delph top lock we made a rendezvous with 2 engineers from the yard who checked the engine cooling system. Found & cleared some weed in the system, but it didn't seem to have much effect. When we were back in August we discovered they'd had to replace the heat exchanger. At Park Head Junction we turned right onto the Dudley no.2 Canal an to Windmill End where we tied up at 18:11. We had dinner at the Little Dry Dock, which was very crowded with food up to our high expectations. I claimed to have eaten 51.5% of a Desperate Dan Cow Pie.

The birds were almost silenced by heavy rain, so we had a long lie-in and a leisurely breakfast. The grey, vertical, determined rain continued and we were glad there weren't any locks to do that day. We set off at 10:55 via Netherton Tunnel to Tividale where we watered, needing a 7-league hose. The engine was overheating again and needed nursing along. Continuing, at Dudley Port Junction we passed onto the BCN. Main Line and headed for central Birmingham. At Old Turn junction we turned off to Cambrian Wharf where we tied up at 14:50 and spend the afternoon "cleaning ship".

At 08:43 we went back to Old Turn junction, onto the Oozells Street Loop to tie up back at Sherborne St Wharf at 08:53.