stourbridge canal – Narrowboat Firecrest

A few days of firsts

We could happily have stayed a few days soaking in the tranquility at the lower end of the Stourbridge canal. But we were ready to continue our journey north.

just four more locks before the junction

And onto the Stafforshire and Worcestershire canal.

This canal was built in the 1770’s to service the potteries around Stoke on Trent. However trade declined when newer canals provided a more direct route between Liverpool and the South. In order to remain competitive the canal company increased the lock opening hours and reduced the tolls. Now there’s an interesting idea. It’s a very pretty canal that cuts through the red sandstone rock in places, and follows the meandering rivers and Smestow Brook.

Within minutes of turning north, the smell of wild garlic hit us, so I leapt off to gather a bunch to make pesto our first spring foraging treat.

You just need to harvest the leaves, but make sure you identify what’s garlic and what isn’t, everyth8ng looks lush and green right now

Our next first was seeing our first ducklings of the year, 24th April. Out of interest I looked back to last year and my first duckling photo was on 23rd April.

there were another 5 who were a bit camera shy

And another first, this time for James Brindley in 1770, as he managed to combine a lock and road bridge in one crossing.

And whilst we were ticking off firsts, we realised that this was the first time we had done the Bratch Locks in sunshine. It was raining so hard last time we had to bribe the lockies to leave their toll booth to help us

It’s an amazing feat of engineering, originally a staircase lock of three, the water level changes by over 30′. Although technically its now individual locks it still needs to be treated as a staircase and there’s usually a lock keeper on duty to make sure no one sinks. Sadly James Brindley died a few months before it became operational.

The locks are fierce and powerful, we often chat to the families watching at locks and always remind the children never to play close to the edge because of the undercurrents. We had never seen a whirlpool as big as this one at a lock

The vortex was between 8 and 12 inches across.

Finally something we’ve come to enjoy peaceful mooring

Stourbridge Glass Museum

We have a special affinity for all things glass in our family, as our daughter is a lampworker- that is someone who works with glass heated by an oil lamp, (or for the past few centuries a gas torch, but the name stuck.) As opposed to glass blowing which is heated till molton in a furnace. She specialises in glass beads which she makes into knitting accessories. So when we realised we were cruising right through the traditional heart of the English glass industry it would have been a pity not to visit the museum.

Set over 2 floors there was a collection of historic glass dating from Roman times following the transformation of utility functional pieces through to the highly decorated cut glass crystal. And if I’m honest that section didn’t excite me, but upstairs I was overwhelmed by the modern colourful art glass. Which begs the question, museum or gallery?

Very hard to do justice to the glass on a phone camera

Either way, in our dreams, if we weren’t already living it, we would live in some fabulous architect designed house, with huge windows letting the light shine onto our white walls setting off beautifully displayed pieces of art, like the glass we were looking at today. And of course because this is fantasy land, it would never need cleaning, although I’m sure this piece that made us chuckle, wouldn’t mind the flick of a feather duster

The contemporary glass really did cover a huge range of styles and techniques

Although I was particularly impressed by this artist who included her love of knitting into her glass

Emmy had been featured on the BBC Make it At Market show earlier this year and consequently had sold out of these quirky little bowls otherwise I’d have been tempted to buy one. However there is an artist in residence who regularly gives demonstrations. Although he wasn’t demonstrating when we visited, we spent quite a while chatting to Alistair. Glass production is one of those industries that seem to have slipped through the support network dealing with fuel price rises. His gas bill has risen from around £4000 to over £70000 in the past 18 months and he is currently installing solar panels and replacing his gas kiln with an electric one.

Alistair at work (photo from museum website)

It wasn’t a difficult decision to decide to buy some of his glass, the difficult it was choosing just one piece

Next to the museum is the Red Cone museum,

Its undergoing some renovation work right now so we could only look through the open doors, the furnaces are in the centre with coal fires underneath and the cone shaped chimney to draw the flame and gain the searing 1000° temperature needed.

We got our timings wrong so didn’t get a chance to do the full walking tour of all the glass in Stourbridge, but I’m sure we will make the effort to do so next time. But until then I’m sure Heather will give me an impromptu lesson in her studio.

Just an assortment from Flameknits, our very own artist in residence

Locking down

After 28 glorious lock free miles we were about to be brought back down to reality. We waved goodbye to the beautiful Bumblehole.

And set off, only one lock at Blowers Green pump house where the Dudley 2 meets the Dudley 1. (If we had turned right we would have reached the dudley tunnel which is restricted access only)

Blowers Green lock, junction of Dudley 1 and 2

And just as we were safely in the lock, we heard sirens and a police car skidded to a halt, 2 officers leapt out, luckily they didnt consider our windlass a deady weapon, they were chasing a suspect on a motorbike last seen on the towpath, fortunately not by us, and they declined a ride on firecrest when they realised they could walk faster than we cruise. We carried on south for an overnight stop at Merry Hill because despite the beautiful blue sky we were being buffeted around by some force 9 gales.

Tempting though the M&S food hall is, if you have too much of a good thing it stops becoming a treat. And sadly we also experiences some unwanted attention from the locals. We heard a suspicious sound outside the boat and found 6 lads in their 20s sitting on the roof taking photos. There was nothing malicious in their intent, just obliviousness to it being our home. They were very apologetic. And then a school kid, who was with his family decided to kick the boat as he walked past, he got yelled at and ran off before I got the chance to throw a bucket of water over him cause he was anything but apologetic. Where are the police when you need them – chasing proper criminals we hope. We’ll give this mooring a miss in future. But now fully fuelled with adrenaline, we set off. The plan was just to do the Black Delph flight,

can’t see the bottom, but its only 8 locks

8 locks dropping 85′ but we struck gold with 2 volunteers and between us preparing the lock ahead meant we were down in well under an hour.

We thought we’d found a safe place to moor

But the sun was now shining and we were intent on going down not up. The Stourbridge 16 isn’t the most salubrious areas at the top,

But again we struck gold, not with an official volunteer, just an old guy with a windlass who liked to work locks, he didn’t stop to chat, he just walked ahead to prepare the next lock leaving us to work our way down. We did persuade him to accept a pint to show our thanks, because not having that extra step of having to fill the lock ahead, made all the difference between us enjoying the journey and it becoming a hard slog.

The flight drops 145′ and it does get prettier and the industrial heritage more interesting. Stourbridge was known for its glass making and the Red House Cone is a prominent feature. Built around 1790 the 100′ chimney is designed to draw the heat from the furnaces below so the temperature reaches 1000°C. Originally the glass was used for windows but in the 1830s production changed to bottles and tableware. Stuart Crystal was made here until 1930s.

The Red House Cone, one of the last remaining chimneys.

There is visitor mooring outside the cone, but with the last off the locks in site we decided to make the most of our helper and continue to the bottom.

24 locks over 5 miles all in 1 day. I could have done with a fish and chip super, but we made do with a dine in for 2 from M&S instead. 158miles to go and 118 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