22nd to 28th September – Droitwich to Highter’s Heath (Birmingham)
The last week at home had gone by in a flash and Monday morning started early. We’d packed all the stuff in the car on Sunday so we had a quick getaway. It’s always a wrench saying goodbye but we’ll see them in person again in November, but we were also eager to see Old Nick and check out the work that had been done.
We arrived back at Droitwich after a beautiful drive through the countryside on a lovely Autumn morning. Old Nick was still on the hardstanding, looking very smart indeed. Our friends Sarah and John on “Jenny Wren” – another Ortomarine boat – invited us on board for coffee and a catch up. We’d last seen them in July at Electrika. Lovely to see them.
Nick – the Droitwich Spa owner – popped by to say he was just going to put Old Nick back in the water and Paul nipped out to take pics. Nick had reported that all was in good shape and that the sacrificial anodes would do us for a little while longer. Great news!
We were soon back on board. She looked like new! We have had the “walls” replaced, from the gunnels to ceiling, with tongue and groove and the lower half painted a lovely blue. They’ve also replaced the deck-boards and locker tops, serviced the heating system and fixed an expansion gap in the floor. We are so pleased with how it all looks and they must have worked very hard to get it all done. We are very grateful indeed! Good old Ortomarine do it again!
Our belongings arrived back at the Marina on Monday evening, a little later than we had hoped, as we had a dinner engagement with my Worcester cousins, which I had to cancel. But it couldn’t be helped. To be honest I thought they’d never get all the work done in a week so it was a minor miracle anyway!
We quickly put away as much as we could manage, before joining in with a BBQ, to which we were invited by Catherine – owner of Cafwin Cruises, a fleet of beautifully fitted out electric hire boats. It was such a joy not to have to cook after all our labours and we were very grateful. Delicious sausages from Knightwick Butchers, just outside Worcester, by the way. Recommended, We were both shattered and really grateful to get into bed that night, I can tell you!
Paul was off early Tuesday morning, to drive the car back to Brinklow, while I packed away the remaining stuff and topped up the water tank. He returned by train, and as soon as he arrived back at the Marina, we said goodbye and thank you and were off.
There were volunteers on the 3 locks that lead up to Hanbury Junction, where the Droitwich Junction canal meets the Worcester and Birmingham canal, so we fairly whistled through and turned left towards Birmingham. It was a lovely sunny day and we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, seeing all the sights on this very familiar stretch of canal. And the Worcestershire countryside was looking beautiful in the sunshine. We were actually retracing our steps from the very first cruise – the shakedown cruise – on Old Nick in December 2020. The 20th, as I recall?
We had six more locks – the Astwood flight – to do before we pulled over for the night. The Worcester & Birmingham Canal has my favourite lock gear on the whole canal system. A very clever design. These six Astwood locks raise the canal by approximately 42 feet (15.4 meters) over a distance of three-quarters of a mile (1.2km).
Paul was back to work on Wednesday, so we stayed put while he caught up on the three-day backlog and I caught up,on this blog! I also made the first stew of the season – a hearty beef stew from scratch (onions, celery, carrots, swede, potatoes and cannellini beans) – with dumplings. Paul’s favourite. Me – not so much.
An early start on Thursday – although early means a bit later than it did in midsummer. Dawn is not until 07:00 ish currently so I guess you could argue that we had a bit of a lie-in? Anyway – we had another flight of 6 locks to do before we got to the next flight of 30 locks! Yes – 30 – one after another over just 2 1/4 miles (3.6km). It’s hard to explain how daunting that is – especially going uphill, as we will be. Coming down feels more like going with gravity, somehow? But it’s a lovely flight – honest! And once you get into the swing of it, it’s not too bad. Just long! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Thursday morning’s task was the 6 locks at Stoke Prior that take you up a further 42 feet (15.4 m) as far as I can make out. There’s really very little online about them. I guess they pale into insignificance when compared with the next flight? They bring you to the Queen’s Head, where we have often eaten and like. It was a beautiful morning and we met only one boat at the penultimate lock, who had a BT called Vince on board.
We were tied up and Paul was sat at his desk, ready to do a day’s work a shade after 08:30. Not bad, but tomorrow will be a different story! It’ll probably take as long as 5 hours to punch our way up through the Tardebigge flight – the longest lock flight in the entire world, beating the famous Caen Hill flight by one lock. The locks are also nicer to do than the Caen Hill lot, as they are narrow. Another dawn start – which we love. It’s just the best time of day.
The flight was restricted from October last year and closed from March to late August this year. There was a big problem with a crumbling wall on top lock. It was noticed when boats started to struggle to get through the lock, as the wall of the lock chamber was bulging.
It is a listed structure, which always adds a layer of complication as it requires Listed Building Consent to be in place before the work can commence. As you might imagine, this also adds another layer of expense and repairs were estimated to cost a cool half million pounds – and this is just one structure!. You can clearly see how money is a big issue for the C&RT. And you can bet it went over the estimated cost. Here’s the promo they made for it:
They (CRT) set up a Crowdfunder to help raise extra money for the repair. Sadly, to date, it had only raised just over £11,600. We donated, but it’s interesting to note that if every boater had even donated just one pound, it would have raised three times that sum. Every little helps.Here’s the promo they made for it:
By Thursday tea-time all the locks that we could see were in our favour and we aimed to be first away in the morning, so decided on an early night in preparation. And then the band started playing! Loudly! I suggested that we move up to the lock moorings to get away from the noise and so we did! By the light of our tunnel light Larks! Swiftly executed and very soon we had tied up, cleaned our teeth and fallen into bed.
It was just light when we set off on Friday morning. And what a beautiful morning. Misty and moisty – quite a heavy dew and very Autumnal. We had the first 5 locks done by 07:40 and thoroughly enjoyed our passage up the flight. Once you have started, short of reversing, you can’t really back out. so it’s quite a commitment.
There is an infestation of the dreaded Floating Pennywort on the flight now, and we had to stop to clear our prop after a while. Such a nuisance of a plant.
We plodded on, ever upwards and noted that the reservoir was looking pretty low. We saw evidence of lots of damson/bullaces/plums as we progressed along the flight. All too high to reach, sadly. We also noted the offside vegetation clearance that had been done between the penultimate lock and the top lock. Probably much needed and looking very smart. Presumably done to match the newly repaired Top Lock – number 58, thank you for asking!
We finished just before midday, pretty much 5 hours, as predicted. Luckily all but two of the locks were in our favour (leakage) and we did not see one single other boat on the move. Breakfast – well brunch I guess – followed swiftly – we’d worked up quite an appetite. Poached egg on toast followed by fresh fruit. Delicious. And I suppose you could say we have really come up in the world? But that’s it for today. A snooze, a shower, a grocery delivery and we’re done!
Well the shower got deferred until Saturday morning on account of extreme lethargy! So we set off about 10 am, through Tardebigge Tunnel – just a shortie and very dry. It was not a particularly pleasant day – indeed we were attacked by a fine drizzle as we exited the tunnel, but it didn’t come to much, fortunately.
We are shocked at the amount of Floating Pennywort there is on this canal. In the years that we were cruising this area I don’t recall seeing any, but it is now everywhere. Great thick mats of it. A couple of boats told us we were pushing a bow wave of weed. It was Pennywort. I don’t know how these waterways will ever recover from it – and its a costly process to clear it . And not foolproof. Even a little scrap left in allows it to regrow. And it can grow as much as 20cm in one day. Damn those fish-fanciers for importing it in the first place!!
The C&RT are trialling the use of a weevils to counter it, as I may have mentioned before. All I can say is them weevils gon’ have to be pretty hungry!
We passed through Shortwood tunnel – short by name and by nature. We spotted a boat coming through and held off going in ourselves, even though it’s two way. The boat (a day boat) emerged and thanked us for not entering – a very nervous newbie at the helm! Paul spidey-senses must have told him!
Bittell Reservoir was beautiful, as ever (even though it was grey) and we navigated safely through what we call “Ted’s Wood” after he got very severely spooked by something – we know not what – one time. He was fine today, but we’ll never forget it. It’s described here in full.
It was starting to get cold, so I popped indoors and knocked up a batch of Cherry Scones while Paul steered. We decided to pull over for lunch at about 13:30 and then, somehow, we just never set off again. We were just shy of the next tunnel – the usually very drippy Wast Hill Tunnel – some 2,493m (2726 yds) long. It would keep until tomorrow.
It was a weekend of tunnels really – Tardebigge and Shortwood on Saturday, and Wast Hills and Brandwood. A total of just under 2.5 miles underground. We had a collision in Wast Hill(s) tunnel – not good for our new blacking and not one word of apology. Stony silence form the entire crew – a hire boat that failed to keep to the right. .It was the 3rd boat we had passed, so third time unlucky. By the way – nobody seems to be able to make up their minds about whether the hill is singular or plural. Even CRT call it Hills on map layer and Hill on another. But that’s place names for you. Wast Hill or West Hill? Fontley or Funtley?
You enter Wast Hill in the countryside and exit into a much more urban landscape. We turned onto the the North Stratford canal at King’s Norton Junction. Nice to see the Junction House restored to its former glory and seemingly inhabited. It was all plastic and scaffolding last time we were through these parts. I wish I’d thought to take a photo. Tsk.
After the junction, you almost immediately arrive at the curiosity that is the ex-guillotine lock. – always of interest to see. It was a stop lock, last used in 1959, it seems. In olden times, each canal jealously guarded its water and stop locks were used to stop water passing between two different canal companies. Once canals were nationalised in the late 1940s, it was less of an issue , but it’s nice to see the structure still standing. Although they fight a constant battle with graffiti – bang out of order on an ancient structure, in my book, and very definitely NOT art. Just pure, mindless vandalism.
We arrived at today’s destination (Lyon’s Boatyard) around lunchtime in warm sunshine. We will spend a night on hook-up here, as the power of the sun is diminishing as we head towards the end of the year, so it’ll be good to restore the SOC – and I have a roast chicken in my sights!
Next week we will be heading towards Shirley, Hockley Heath and eventually down the 26 locks of the Lapworth Flight. We’ll be heading downhill for a while now and won’t start locking up again until we get past Leamington Spa, which won’t be for a couple of weeks. The weather looks pretty reasonable – good news, as I shall be doing some solo cruising.
PS – we had some lovely news this week. A product that Paul designed for Digital Yacht – known as “Bilge IQ” won the “Best New Product” category at the recent NMEA Conference, held in West Palm Beach FLA. Yay Paul!
Bilge IQ monitors and controls a vessel’s bilge pump, sending out usage data and fault alerts, for peace of mind when an owner is absent from their boat.
| Period | Miles | Locks |
| 22nd to 28th Sep | 18 | 45 |
| Cumulative 2025 | 437 | 298 |