Tag: Worcester and Birmingham canal

Reflections on the skyline, Birminham

Perhaps Easter Weekend wasn’t the best time to travel through Birminham- it was busy, but its when we arrived so off we set. The trip from King’s Norton Junction starts off depressing, with seemingly miles of graffiti,

Mindless graffiti, although the reflections ahead of us do at least look colourful

But it isn’t all bad as we made our progress north,  “look at all those roof tops” Eric said

Bournville village

So I dutifully turned my head to the right to look, only to realise he was cruising as fast as he could (metaphorically  cause 3mph isn’t fast) past what was on our left, a chocolate factory,  and at Easter, but I suspect the Easter bunny was as busy as Santa’s elves so we didn’t stop.

Just imagine the smell, if you lived here

We’d arranged to pick up our friend James at Selly Oak, because he used to work at the University, in an office overlooking the canal. It was his dream to look up rather than look down. Of course we were too busy chatting to record the fantasy with a photo. But he enjoyed the experience. And Eric and I were still enjoying our lock free stretch, although this meant more tunnels

Seeing the light through Edgbaston tunnel

Edgbaston tunnel isn’t too long and as there is such a high footfall the towpath is always lit, which creates a rather weird impression that the the canal has run dry.

Where’s all the water gone

Many years ago Eric also used to work in Birminham, in the BT tower which we could see in the distance, although as an 18 year old I doubt he commanded a penthouse office with a view of the waterways.

looking up at the skyline -whilst we were being snapped by a gongoozler

We rounded the corner past one of my favourite buildings The Cube

The Cube (rooms from £130 a night)

And straight through Birminghams icon canal quarter

End of the Worcester and Birmingham canal and start of the Birmingham Old line canal

Where old and new seem to complement each other artistically,

Gas street Basin

Where we negotiated the giant plug, and tempting though it is to pull it out, who knows where we might end up if sucked down the vortex

Old Turn Junction

And moored up just beyond St Vincent St Bridge.  We prefer a quieter mooring, and we got full sun here.

Where the daffodils outshine the graffiti

And it was a good time to stop for a bacon buttie

Next time we’ll make sure there are some locks to work us through

The Midlands March, is that chocolate that I smell,

We were now heading due south on the Worcester and Birmingham canal, Much to our surprise the Edgbaston section around The Vale seemed pleasantly rural for such an urban area. It transpires that Lord Calthorpe decreed that whilst the canal could be built on his land, it was not to have any wharfs. So whilst he might have missed out on some lucrative 18th century investment opportunities, we benefit from a leaf soup in February.

What happened to winter spring and summer, this looks like leaf soup


However the beautiful beech trees and trim young university students out for their daily jog, were soon replaced by even more graffiti and detritus, so we focused our attention on some interesting boats along this section. This pedal powered raft might get you from A to B but it’s not very water tight

You wouldnt catch me on that one

And this one caught our eye, a Pod boat designed and marketed to provide extra space for boaters missing their garden shed. Definitely a tempting thought.

The Pod boat

But most useful was seeing the fuel boat, NB Roach cruising towards us, we flagged Richard down and transferred a few litres of diesel, refuelling mid canal.

NB Roach supplying us with diesel


I’ll say this every time we buy our diesel from a fuel boat, it brings such a sense of satisfaction that we have the opportunity to support these hard working traders and equally they support us. Use it or loose it. With the sweet smell of diesel permeating the air we cruised on to the other very distinct fragrance that pervades the atmosphere around Bournville, the Cadbury factory. Frustratingly the visitor mooring was all taken, by what looked to be winter mooring, so we didn’t stop. But unlike Lord Calthorpe who didn’t want any trade on his land, the Cadbury factory grew and thrived here because of the canal access bringing the raw ingredients and finished goods to and from the site. Nowadays there is a canal side train station, sporting a familiar purple livery.

Bournville train station

Bemoaning the fact that Eric wouldn’t let me loose in Cadbury world, (though I admit we have been before). Mr Tesco had the foresight to build a superstore canal side in Selly Oak, he didn’t have the foresight to provide mooring rings on the brick edge so Eric hovered whilst I nipped in to stock up. With fuel tank and fridge full we continued on to the next nice mooring, which turned out to be at Kings Norton Junction. It had taken us nearly 4 hours to move 4miles with all the distractions, but we ended our day at the start (or end) of the North Stratford canal.

Think we’ll got this way, down the Stratford canal