This years trip to New York, Boston, Bunker Hill & Holland, begins with 34 locks & a walk in the footsteps of pioneers.
After a beautiful drive up from London, Braggabout was craned back
onto the water & we re-loaded her for the summer.
For our first year, this took three carloads. In our third year we have got the
kitting out process down to a car & a half full of stuff, but still two long trips.
With luck next year a larger car or more streamlining.
The combined Tardebigge & Stoke Locks for us add up to a steep rise
(from our Black Prince base) of 35 locks with a pound just long enough to moor in,
between locks 28 & 29, as this has a waterside Gastro Pub (with Doombar Real Beer on tap)
& we wanted to take it easy on our first day out we made this our first nights stop.
With car drops this beautiful evening trip of five locks took us an hour,
not bad for a first day out.
The Tardebigge Flight is the longest flight of locks in the UK,
but next morning it was a piece of cake, all the locks are well
maintained & a pleasure to use, as can be seen from the
exuberance of a our crew on a previous trip.
A very different scenario to our trip on the Huddersfield Narrow and the Rochdale Canal last year.
The high bank on the right supports the large Tardebigge Reservoir.
It was also good to see CaRT doing a lot of repair work which included dredging
and reinstating old lock gate foot grips with traditional blue engineering bricks.
All of which should improve working even more.
Adjacent to the penultimate lock stands this original Pumping Station complex built in 1823,
it was used to pump water up to the canal from its adjacent reservoirs 50 feet below.
The tall building contained a Horsley Iron Co 50 hp beam engine,
which was scraped in 1915.
The complex was converted in 2012 into very desirable residences
which overlook the canal or reservoirs.
On the walk back from the station I took the footpath over the open fields up to lock 45,
this gave me the opportunity to re trace the steps of Robert Aickman & his wife when
in 1948 they made their trip to meet Tom & Angela Rolt aboard their narrow
boat Cressy which was moored above the top lock.
This meeting resulted in the formation of
The Inland Waterways Association, a group of volunteers who were responsible
for saving Britains Nationalised Canal System (& many others) from destruction
by government.
A group to whom we should all be eternally grateful.
The pound between the short tunnel (two way) and the top of the locks with its canal
company workshops and other small scale buildings makes an ideal overnight stop
(going either way).
The footpath gate into the fields by lock 45 is not particularly inviting (I had been
put off taking it before) but the path is clear, well trod & the views are magnificent.
Excluding a 1-hour tea break & the car move to Bromsgrove Station the trip up to
Alvechurch (good 48hr Mooring with rings) only took 6 hours.
The following morning was bright and sunny again and we soon passed through
the 2726 yard West Hill Tunnel (2 way) before coming to Kings Norton Junction
which is marked by the old Junction Toll House.
.
The old tolls are now printed over the doorway which faces the
Stratford Canal which enters from the right via a guillotine gate over its stop lock.
The purpose of this gate was to stop the valuable water of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal
running down the Stratford Canal to the River Avon when no boats were entering it.
After the junction, the canal takes on an urban feel and is joined by the rails of the
Birmingham Suburban Railway at Bournville where a station serves both
“Cadbury World” and the model Village of Bournville.
Locked visitor moorings also give access to the locality.
Take your choice, visit the 1879 factory and a feast of chocolate related indulgence or a visit to the Garden Village of Bournville where the Quakers Richard & George Cadbury built utopian artisans dwellings for their workers.
The Carillion
Both were originally built on a green field site with the aim of providing a wholesome
“village style” way of life for the company employee, it is often compaired with
Port Sunlight both of which are built in the Arts & Crafts style.
See the Liverpool post, better still go and see both in the flesh and compare
yesterdays domestic town planning with todays.
As the urban rail lines criss cross the canal on several ocasions the trains often appear to
be expressing a desire to join one on the canal.
The railway was built in 1876 and seems to have totally dominated the canal, several
very skiew crossings being both extremely long and narrow.
At Selly Oak the Old Dudley No 2 Canal joined from the left. The site of the junction is
now boarded up as work on reinstating the junction is suposed to be going on as part
of a Sainsburys redevelopment plan.
Another comparative site!
Built in 1900 the Joseph Chamberlain Clock Tower, or Old Joe,
somewhat resembls the Campanila in Venice.
It stands at the centre of the grounds of Birminghams University.
It was in fact based on the Palazzo Comunale Di Siena.
As the canal passes Birmingham University the towpath fills with Joggers, walkers cyclists and the occasional fisherman, they all suddenly melt away as the canal meets Holiday wharf, & the Mail Box our destination for the night.
