Boat Blog – Page 21 – Narrowboat Firecrest

The Midlands March, Dudley 2 full of suprises

Many canal societies celebrate their heritage with accessible art work, they take a pride in unique or original mile markers. Dudley 2 canal is no different. The iconic Cobb Engine House can be seen regularly along the canal.

I first noticed them at Blowers Green

But as always, canals are full of unexpected surprises, and by the time I’d realised we were being shown the history of this area I was too late to capture the whole trail. We did however see enough to whet our appetite. Why was there a man flushing the chain, not only was coal dug out of the ground in the Black country, but in the mid 1800’s Doulton took advantage of the ready supply of clay, good land to build a factory and a canal to transport the raw materials, fuel and finished goods.

Of course it wasn’t only toilets that were made in the Black country, and canals weren’t the only transport system. As the coopers sculpture shows, that a man could move a much heavier burden if it were encased in a barrel and rolled rather than carried.

Although much of the heavy industry of the area has gone, leaving a deprived community with high unemployment, some companies are still going, albeit as a more environmentally friendly concern.

Of course where there is industry, there’s a labour force, who will need somewhere to drink. I can only assume that the Fox and Goose bridge got it’s name from a local hostelry, although try as we might, we couldn’t find it.

The fox and the goose welcoming us to the Bumble Hole

And no canal is complete without a community around it. The people who built the Black Country have been celebrated through the sculptures. Eliza Tinsley was a widowed with 5 children, but she took on the management of her husband’s company and went on to employ 4000 people, making nails chains and anchors in her foundry. Although the company is no longer in British ownership, it is still manufacturing and it’s headquarters in nearby Wednesbury.

However Eliza wasn’t responsible for one of Netherton’s greatest claims to fame, as the Hingley Sole Works were commissioned to built the world’s largest anchor for the Titanic. It was so big that it required 20 horses to transport it to Dudley where it was taken by train to Belfast.

I’m not sure we could show that on board Firecrest

Of course not everyone appreciated the heritage of the buildings around the canal as this graffiti artist defaced the tollman’s house

Life wasn’t all hard work and no play because occasionally the circus would come to town, and the elephants were allowed to play in the canal

We would have like to have seen this, (Taken from DPA)

Once we had decided to stay put and explore the area we walked back along the canal looking for more of these intriguing pieces of art, but we were only able to go back as far as Primrose Hill

But we continued to meet some interesting local people. Unusually for such a built up area, even when we were on the streets as opposed to the Towpath, we were often greeted with a friendly “morning”. We were too late to say hello to Robert Wintour the Staffordshire man who also holed up around here, in Rowley Regis. However as he and his brother had been part of the gunpowder plot they didn’t leave the area quite so happily as they were hung drawn and quartered.

That’s not the way to go (Taken from DPA)

Whilst we were walking around the Bumble Hole we came across more evidence of gallows, this time in the form of a crane used by Harris’s boat yard. Sadly being made of wood, it rotted and collapsed a few years ago so we couldn’t see the original gallows crane.

The artist responsible for all these fascinating sculptures is a local man called Luke Perry. There are over 30 along the Dudley 2 canal, starting at Blowers green and ending at Hawne Basin, Halesowen. They celebrate the community and heritage of the Black country. Although we saw most of them, and I took a lot of photos, I have included some photos taken from the Dudley Public Art (DPA) website to help showcase how special they are.

The Midlands March, Nice Ice

We’ve woken up to frost and ice most days this week

And whilst Eric is sensible and stays inside, I can’t resist being outside enjoying the diamond encrusted scenery

I wasn’t the only one out walking, male swans are known as cobs, so quite appropriate that Mr Bumble the resident male, is posing in front of Cobb’s Engine House. (Female swans are known as pens)

We’ve been incredibly lucky, to have had sunshine every day.

although we’ve also had a bit of misty fog, the blue sky was just behind

But what can I say, we probably picked the best week possible to stay here

The scenery speaks for itself

All within 10 minutes of our warm snug boat

The Midlands March, Discovering the Bumble Hole

We hadn’t expected to find quite such a gem of a mooring in the middle of a nature reserve, in the middle of the Black Country. So much so that we both agreed it needed further exploration. First we had to discover what is the Bumble Hole. Nowadays it is a small lake that gives it’s name to a nature reserve but 300 years ago, it was a clay pit.

However a map from the 1780’s show the Bumble Hole was the name of a house built next to the brook that was purloined to build the contour canal.

Bumble means murmuring water, and Hole refers to the hollow next to the ford crossing the track, (which became Northfield Road). There was a windmill along this branch which gave rise to this conglomeration of canal arms being known as the Windmill End junction.

In front of the windmill is Harris’s Boatyard, which built and serviced the many boats used for transporting goods to and fro during the industrial revolution. But now it is a quiet residential mooring. The land has alongside the Bumble Hole has been reclaimed and turned into a nature reserve.

Besides the canals, all that’s left of the coal mining, quarries and foundries that scarred this landscape are the occasional red brick foundations that can be seen in the ground, ponds and lakes that had been pits, and the Cobb’s Engine house. All taken care of by the Bumble hole conservation group.

The Cobb’s Engine House housed one of James Watts beam engines, used to pump an average of 1.67 million litres (367 500 gallons) of water every single day out of the mines and into the canal. Sadly it’s only the brickwork that remains now, but we were able to walk around and continue up the hill to look back to our mooring , (which we can’t actually see from here)

But we knew we were standing over the Netherton Tunnel. Once we’d started walking up the hill we carried on, out of the nature reserve, across the Dudley golf club

past Turners Hill transmitter site.

Until we’d reached the summit. And with the greens of the golf course and the nature reserve to the west behind us,

we could see over to the west, the modern sprawl of Birmingham, which is where we will be cruising through over the coming month.

Birmingham, approx 6 miles to the East, as the crow flies

Our walk gave us quite some cause to contemplate, how lucky we are to no longer be shrouded in pollution, and to have these pockets of beauty amidst such a densely populated area, yet whilst we shuddered at the thought of what it was like 300 years ago, what would life be like now if we hadn’t had the industrial revolution. And what must we do to nurture our planet and society for the good of all. No time for complacency.

Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning

https://www.dudley.gov.uk/resident/environment/countryside/nature-reserves/bumble-hole-and-warrens-hall-local-nature-res/

The Midlands March, What a difference.

After the icy winds and bleakness, we woke to a glorious blue sky. What a difference a day makes.

It was a bit of an emotional tussle for me, sticking to our decision to avoid any crowded environment, not to be sucked into the retail complex, just for a browse of course, but the thought of our days cruise was more tempting and off we set.

The canal was still passing through some scruffy backwaters,

If we ever need a flagpole, We’ll know where to find one.

Until we came to the junction and lock at Blowers Green

This marks the division from the Dudley 1 and Dudley 2 canals. And the start of some interesting canal art, combining history and pride in the locality .

The pump house at Blowers Green with someone helpfully winding the paddle

If we had continued up the flight we would have had to go through the Dudley 1 tunnel, but it wasn’t clear if we would be able to transit unescorted at this time of year. It is a narrow tunnel with poor ventilation and requires a booked passage. Admittedly we didn’t research the possibilities as there is a clear and easy alternative going via the Netherton tunnel on the Dudley 2 canal. So we turned right.

Goodbye Dudley 1, we’re turning right onto Dudley 2

What a surprise. We were now in the heart of the Black Country and had expected more backwaters and graffiti, however we found ourselves cruising through some peaceful quiet countryside, the Saltwell nature reserve, and past Netherton reservoir.

Aside from our current knowledge about coal usage, Its hard to imagine just how all pervasive and destructive the mining industry was on the landscape. We assume all this green space are areas of reclaimed land from the intense mining activity that prompted the region to be known as Black Country.

No wonder there were so canals around here, we passed by a disused shortcut that had linked the Dudley 1 and 2

These iron bridges are unique to this area

Our journey continued under the aptly named high bridge.

Where the road had previously passed over a tunnel, a narrow hard tunnel for the boaters and leggers, hence it’s uncovering.

We passed through more wharfs and boat yards, and signs commemorating the local industrial heritage. Until we arrived at the southern portal of the Netherton Tunnel at the Bumblehole, Windmill End. Lots of mooring, walking and peace. We think we shall stay here a while and explore.

The Midlands March, up the Merry Hill

As we feared the canal was frozen over when we woke, but when I gingerly leaned out the side hatch and poked it, it was obvious, we’d be skating on thin ice, which was thawing rapidly

So when we saw the door of opportunity floating towards us we set off. Turning immediately right onto the Stourbridge Extension canal.

Past Delph wharf, which, as the notice says, offered hard standing for boats of all sizes

Under Black Delph bridge, which marks the start (or end) of the Dudley No 1 canal, part of the Birmingham Canal Navigation and the start (or end) of the Delph flight of 8 locks. As luck would have it, as I set the first lock, we struck gold, not one but 3 CRT gems. Two of whom were volockies, who helped us up the flight in under an hour.

That’s what we like to see, helpers at locks

And we were mightily glad we made good speed because as we emerged from lock 8 (or was it lock 1) there were snow flurries in the air

And 5 minutes later, we were cruising past Merry Hill, the huge retail complex, but although there was lots of mooring, it was very exposed.

So we rounded the corner to moor at the Waterfront Basin, by the time we finished tying up it was almost blizzard like.

We hadn’t intended to go further, so we battoned down the hatches and snuggled up to keep warm, we could have ventured over the bridge to enjoy the delights of Wetherspoons and the shops.

I imagine it is a lot more inviting in the sun

But the thought of catching pneumonia appealed even less than catching that other nasty bug doing the rounds. It did look nice at night though.

We travelled 4 miles and did 8 locks

The Midlands March, 16 locks

There wasn’t a lot, but we definitely saw a dusting of snow on the towpath this morning.

And with a flight of 16 locks to work through I was a bit worried about slipping on ice. But the sun was shining as we entered the first lock on the stourbridge flight at 10am

We passed some lovely old buildings, that probably thrived on canal trade

I wanted to stop at the Red House glass works Museum,

but word was starting to filter down that there was a problem ahead….. “The canals been dredged” “the canals empty” “there’s a swan stuck in the mud” ….. I think the walkers thought we were mad to keep going on up the flight, but what else where we to do until we’d seen the problem for ourselves.

Mmm Firecrest won’t be going through that quagmire

And sure enough we got to Swan Bridge winding hole to find it impassible. Did we call CRT or walk up and check the paddles first? We opted to check the paddles hadn’t been left open and then draw some water down to refill the pound. There didn’t seem to be much amiss in the section above, and despite it seeming a large area, the levels had risen sufficiently in just over half an hour to be navigable.

And typically just as we were breathing a huge sigh of relief a well armed CRT man turned up with his rake. I didn’t pick up if he’d been told about the problem by someone else, but he agreed we had done the right thing. And he also identified the cause of the problem. Something was stopping the ground paddle being fully wound down. And he knew that the last boat on the flight before us was the day before, so there had had been plenty of time to drain the pond. He set too with his rake and after quite some effort, he hauled a child’s scooter and some plastic out thus allowing the paddle to close properly.

We all surmised that the scooter looked new, so we think it must have fallen in rather than been discarded thrown in. The current then sucked it into the paddle channel. So not a deliberate act of vandalism, just a consequence of an unfortunate accident. Sadly though, we are now in an urban area, where there are enough morons who think it acceptable to use the canal as a dumping ground or for sport throwing in shopping trolleys and traffic cones. And for some make their “artistic” presence known.

Thankfully those people are in the minority and plenty more enjoy the benefits of the canal. It’s not always rubbish that gets pulled out as we saw this enormous Pike being landed

We made it through the top lock 4 hours after we set off. And with CRTs permission we moored on the bollards.

With a clear sky and a crescent moon it’s quite beautiful

Less than 2 miles and 16+ locks

The Midlands March, a new year and a new adventure.

And so with the new year’s resolution not to neglect our blog still ringing in my ear, we are setting off on a new adventure. We have a plan, a rough route and an excitement for what lies ahead. Yes we know there might be one or two spanners thrown into our works but here goes.
We plan to cruise across the Midlands, through Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. It’s 110 miles to Oxford where we plan join the mighty river Thames for the warmer months.

The map on the right is our planned route, the Google map on the left just gives a rough geographic idea

But in typical boaters fashion our plans had to change from day 1. We had arranged to meet friends in Kinver, but on chatting to another boater we realised our chosen route through the Dudley tunnel was restricted access. And because we had seen a potential restriction on our alternative route we cancelled that reunion in order to get to beyond the stoppage. We also knew the weather was about to turn and proper winter was about to return.
Thankfully the blue skies were promising. And we turned easily onto the Stourbridge canal, the start of this adventure.

The Stourbridge canal was completed in 1779, it has a few branches but over its 6 miles it effectively joins the Dudley canal with the Staffs and Worcester canal, and was used for transporting coal, ironstone and lime. It cost around £38, 000 to build and was a profitable venture for its investors, so much so that the company was able to support the mines and other local industries. The railways and road networks gradually took the trade and the canals commercial traffic petered our in the 1930s.
I knew that it wouldn’t be long before we would be cruising in an urban landscape so we moored up just before Wordsley junction for our last look at the countryside.

Between middle bridge and Wordsley junction

Today’s journey about 2 miles and 4 locks

Farewell 2021, part five. Tis the season to be Jolly

December decisions. We do love living on a boat, but sometimes it’s management is hard work. We wanted to travel south, but events were conspiring around us so we set off north on the Staffs and Worcester. December became an exercise in time management, getting us from A to B on the right day. Thankfully non of our days were long cruises and although we were conscious of various deadlines we still found a lot to enjoy, even misty mornings have a certain beauty.

Our first stay was in Penkridge with a convenient train station so I took the opportunity to visit Mum in the Lakes. Whist Eric got on with some work…..

And when I got back we set off in the snow to reach Stafford,

Thankfully the snow didn’t last too long, and the canal didn’t freeze, although it was bitterly cold. The sun shone and we got our rainbow as we slipped and skidded our way up to the vaccination centre for our boosters

Our next stop was to reach Great Haywood Marina on the Trent and Mersey. Because that was the only marina we could find that had a week’s temporary mooring for Firecrest whilst we both returned home.

But en route we had a windy night on the Tixall wides.

It was lovely to be home for “First Christmas”, knowing if we had left it another week or two, there was a possibility we wouldn’t have been allowed to get together, and this was the first time Tim and Heather had been together since January 2020.

The pizza is a jigsaw, not tea for all of us

Once we were back on board Firecrest, we set about retracing our steps back onto the Staffs and Worcester, a brief stop in Stafford for the very convenient Aldi, and a peaceful plot in Penkridge, where we got our flu vaccine. Ironically our quiet mooring in Penkridge runs parallel to the M6, it would be noisy in summer with windows open but we had battoned down the hatches so not disturbed.

We got to be good Samaritan’s the week before Christmas when we were flagged down by another boater, they had sprung a hull leak and their overworked bilge pump had drained the batteries. They were in serious risk of sinking cause they were already paddling in water. Thankfully Eric had a spare pump and enough battery power, to stop it getting any worse whilst they waited for professional help to arrive. The boat was new to them and even though they’d had it out of the water for a survey, the problem hadn’t shown up. They hadn’t heard the boaters acronym “Bring On Another Thousand”
Our maintenance was relatively painless this time, as Eric did the generator service and oil change.

I consider it to be a fair exchange of labour, cause I happily cooked a big roast duck for our Christmas dinner, from Russell’s, the first class butchers… not the canal

We continued cruising south to see out the year, and had and amazing day with our friends Helen and James on new years eve.

What a finale, we’re back on track, heading south and looking forward to an exciting adventure in 2022

Farewell 2021, part four, the final furlong.

We kept our colour well into November.

The time had come to study the planned winter closures list and, whilst also keeping an eye on any unwelcome restrictions that might hamper our cruising plans, decide where we wanted to be for Christmas. At the end of October we were all still optimistically planning our parties and big family gatherings. We knew we had to be off the Llangollen by 8th November but it was noticeable how much quieter the canal was becoming with fewer and fewer hire boats so we took our time wandering around some of the gorgeous villages.

Nantwich is only a short cruise off the Llangollen. And the Shropshire Union towers over the town on an embankment, via an aqueduct, making it a popular mooring spot.

We could only get onto the 48 hour, and I regret not spending longer here because its a fascinating town with a lot of history. Although a lot of the black and white “tudor” buildings are relative victorian youngsters, after many originals were destroyed by fire.

We continued down the Shroppie at pace, stopping at some lovely places on our way, Audlem Mill, on the wharf is now a museum and craft shop,

I could have spent all day in Audlem mill

We gave thanks for some lovely rainbows, after some torrential rains

We ploughed through some pretty hairy overflows on the locks

Overflows like this seemed to be the norm along this stretch

We wondered at the amount of boats that must have used this canal over the years, looking at the depth of wear on the metal bridge protectors

We marvelled at the feats of engineering, building bridges like this which contained the telegraph pole

But although there were some lovely moorings

We found this part of our journey frustrating, had the canal been built for speed, with long straight cuttings? I guess so, although we were mightily glad we weren’t cruising at the height of summer having to negotiate narrow stretches with on coming boats.

We had also fallen victim to some poor planning, albeit partly our own fault, needing to pick up fuel meant we hadn’t stopped to enjoy the nice places for longer. We were in the midst of the fuel supply crisis, and had declined paying £1:10 per litre, in favour of getting to Wheaton Aston who were still only asking 79p, saving ourselves over £100. And although autumnal leaves are beautiful in the sunshine, they are anything but once they are in the canal. Leaf soup made progress hard going.

But we made it to the end of the Shroppie

Farewell 2021, part three, the Autumnal Amble

From green leaves to gold.

Having nudged well into September whilst we were in Chester, and having done the zoo, and Ellesmere port, it was time to get the passports out and cross the borders. Well I should say border but it’s in competition with some of the canals for its wiggliness, and we crossed it several times, half the time we didn’t know if we were drinking in a Welsh or English pub.

So it was back down the Shroppie and onto the Llangollen. We ambled along, stopping to explore the little market towns of Whitchurch and Ellesmere, but relishing the lovely rural views.

England on the left, Wales on the right, or was it the other way around

But of course we were heading, along with every hire boat in the country, to aqueduct territory, with Chirk

And the Pontycysllte

What an experience.

Of course having got to Llangollen, we also continued on foot to the Horseshoe falls where the mighty River Dee is channelled into the start of the canal, so water can be moved to quench the thirst of the people in the Midlands

I guess with the scenery being so spectacular, it’s understandable why it’s such a popular canal, but we happily made a detour onto the Monty for a bit more personal space,

Although it didn’t stop us taking advantage of the picnic tables to meet up with boating friends and enjoy a BBQ together.

This has certainly been a cruise well enjoy looking back on

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