Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

LEICESTER AND THE BCN :
SUMMER 1993

Part 2 — Rushall to Wolverhampton

Despite filthy weather we started at 07:54. Below lock 3 we had to shaft a drifting mud-lighter out of the way, and managed to leave our long shaft behind at the lock, which we didn't realise until it was too late (& still too wet) to go back for it. I bet someone would nick it before we're back this way in a few days! (They did.) At Longwood junction we dealt with elsan, water & rubbish and the rain petered out. We continued through the Daw End Branch and at Catshill junction joined the Wyrley & Essington Canal, stopping at Anchor bridge, Brownhills for a short but tedious shopping expedition. There was no launderette nearer than Aldridge (which we'd already gone past).

Then we went on to Ogley junction and the Anglesey Branch. There was no toadflax on the banks this year , but no blanket-weed in Anglesey Basin either! We retraced out path to the Wyrley and Essington and continued to join the Cannock Extension Canal at Pelsall junction. We explored this to its terminus at Norton Canes then came back for an overnight mooring at 15:56 at a good, deep mooring at Pelsall Common, where we yet again had a barbecue.

Starting at 08:21 we passed Birchills junction and noted that this section of the Wyrley is much freer of rubbish than it used to be. . We didn't get the traditional armchair on the blade at Goscote. At Sneyd BW yard we watered & used the loo point. To do the latter we had to get the key (not BW key!) from the office and then open the door marked Payphone (which there is as well). At Wednesfield junction we topped to get a length of cable-sheathing off the blade & to photograph the last sad remains of Bentley locks. Much less of them was visible than a few years previously because of the new road works.

At Horseley Fields junction we turned east on the BCN Main Line, and at Deepfields junction we joined the Bradley Arm (formerly the Wednesbury Oak Loop and before that part of the main line) We found it narrow and winding, but the depth was OK. Some of the houses here actually face the cut. There was a lot of red stuff in the cut, which on examination seems to be some form of plant-life. A cynic would say it's tea-leaves from the BW yard. At Bradley BW yard there wasn't a lot of room to wind, as BW have a gate across the entrance to their basin. Eventually we managed it.

Back on the main line, we headed for Wolverhampton top lock and a pump-out at Jordan & Till's boatyard. They didn't sell our kind of gas. Then we winded & moored at 16:55 on the off side a bit back towards Broad Street bridge, where Dido caught a mouse.