Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

LEICESTER AND THE BCN :
SUMMER 1993

Part 3 — Wolverhampton to Birchills

I went home to do some work on Excalibur and go to an IWA Branch Committee meeting. Wendy & Ian shopped; not very good. Sainsbury's had no loose cheese, and Tesco a poor selection. But Sainsbury's were good for free-range meat & poultry. Ian researched in the library to find any launderettes near the cut; we later decided that none of them were accessible enough to our route to be worth stopping for. In the early afternoon, Junior Cat (Orinthia) tried to bring in a hen blackbird. When told to take it away, she dragged it into the shrubbery. She seemed to be sleeping it off later.

Senior Cat actually ate her mouse in the early hours rather than leaving the corpse on the cabin floor as usual. At last and at length, Ian found a Halfords to get some engine oil. There were thunderstorms mid-morning with hail and dramatic noises. I returned early afternoon and we set off, turning into the Old Main Line at Factory Junction.

At Smethwick we turned into the Engine Branch, which we thought an interesting and pleasant cut. There's good depth in the middle, but the channel is narrow. At the end of Branch there wasn't room to wind, so we came out backwards with Wendy steering; not easy. When we got to the turn by the Galton Valley Centre, she tired of struggling against the tiller and handed it over to me.

Back on the Old Main Line, we continued down Smethwick locks and on to central Brum where we moored at 19:00. The Cambrian Wharf moorings were full, so we moored by Brave New Building (the new Indoor Arena). The cats went hunting in Brave New Shrubbery and investigated Brave New Basement. A lot of rubbish was cleared from the blade.

We made a leisurely start at 08:41 and turned into the Oozells Street Loop in order to stop at Sherborne Street wharf for a pump-out and to buy gas. The we rejoined the main line and turned off into the Soho Loop which we found much cleaner and deeper than we remember it from 1978. We stopped to photograph Hockley Port etc. None of this had been visible in 1978. It was very pretty there, and Dido wanted us to stay. We continued to the main line at Winson Green junction, then at Smethwick junction chose the New Main Line, as we were heading for Dudley Port and Netherton Tunnel. Just before the tunnel we dealt with elsan, water & rubbish at Tividale then went through the tunnel to Windmill End. At the Dry Dock pub we made a pub stop for Ian & me, while Junior Cat teased the local dogs.

It was now mid-afternoon and we headed for Park Head junction where we turned left down the Dudley no.1 Canal at moored at 17:32 in the side-pound beside Delph bottom lock. At pub chucking-out time, just as we were getting to sleep, some drunken youths from a coach party cast our mooring ropes off. We stayed awake for a while, but there was no more trouble (although a lot of noise).

At 08:43 we winded and retraced our steps, first of all to Green's Bridge at Merry Hill, where we had a minor shopping stop. Then we went back to Park Head junction. We had hoped to go up to the mouth of Dudley Tunnel, but Park Head locks were padlocked, so we headed straight towards Windmill End and past it to Hawne Basin at the far and of the Dudley no.2 canal (until the rest of it's restored). We winded outside the basin and soon afterwards had to stop to clear the blade.

At Windmill End junction we headed back through Netherton Tunnel to the main line and thence to Pudding Green junction and the Wednesbury Old Canal. At Ryders Green junction we didn't (yet) turn off onto the Walsall Canal as we wanted to see where the new road had severed the Wednesbury Old from the Ridgeacre Branch. We discovered that it was just possible to wind a 48' boat where the canal had been cut off by the new road. I wondered for how many years this will still be possible? In fact a proper winding hole was built there subsequently.

Then we headed back to Ryders Green junction where we stopped for a while because two of the pounds in the Ryders Green flight were dry. I rang Freephone Canals before starting to run some water down. The lock-keeper (Jack Smith) was with us in 20 minutes, very helpful & pleasant. With his help and that of a passing wrgy, we soon had things to rights

At Ryders Green bottom lock we paused for a chat and a drink with Jack and the wrgy. Jack suggested an overnight mooring for us, past Tame Valley junction at Lea Brook bridge. We moored at 18:59 where Jack had suggested, although the edge-depth was not good. We barbecued. I went to the pub; not very special.

Shortly before 05:00, Senior Cat fell in the cut and had to be dried off in a very bad temper. She was a specialist - in all her boating career all her fallings-in were in the BCN. At 08:00 Wendy went to buy a paper and found that one of our mooring ropes had been cast off. We started off at 10:05. There was a lot of rubbish in the Canal. At one bridge there was a working party clearing the bridge-hole (we later discovered they were from BCNS), which turned out to be just as well, as we needed their help to get through.

We went up the Walsall Locks and stopped at Birchills wharf to visit the museum there and have a long chat with the chap in charge. It was interesting to compare it with our London Canal Museum. I vowed to try to keep up contact between the two (which I've never managed to do). Then we went on to Birchills junction and joined the Wyrley & Essington to retrace part of our route of a few days ago in the opposite direction. At Catshill junction we joined the Daw End Branch and moored at 18:05 past Northywood bridge, a pleasant mooring with good depth & a lot of hunting potential for the cats. Again we barbecued.