Days 14 - Stratford-upon-Avon Canal (North Branch)

The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal runs from the leafy Birmingham suburb of Kings Norton to Stratford-upon-Avon was built between 1793 and 1816 and runs for 41 km in total. It consists of two sections. The dividing line is at Kingswood Junction in the village of Lapworth, which gives access to the Grand Union Canal. We will be only navigating along the northern section, the first 21 km which takes us in a more south easterly direction.

Stratford-upon-Avon Canal (North Branch)

The canal winds its way until Hockley Heath following the 138m (above sea level) Birmingham Level, but then descends quite rapidly through the Lapworth flight of 18 locks to reach the Kingswood Junction.

Approaching Lock No. 7 on the Lapworth Flight

During this lock free section we encountered a new navigational novelty - three opening bridges. The first - an electrically operated drawbridge (complete with traffic controls to stop the cars) at Shirley, and then a manually operated lift bridge and another drawbridge (also manual).

Shirley Drawbridge

Farm Lift Bridge No. 26

Farm Draw Bridge No. 28

Steve was delighted to get the opportunity to operate two of these three bridges. We didn't get to wind up No. 28 as the lockie from the passing boat got there ahead of us and insisted on holding it open whilst we also passed under the open span. (The feeling of camaraderie among the visiting and permanent members of the narrowboating community is another of the special aspects of spending time on these fabulous inland waterways.) I offered to reverse back up the canal so we could repeat the process but the other crew members overruled Steve on this occasion.

Lining up to enter a lock in the Lapworth Flight

As the canal meanders towards Lapworth, you could be easily forgiven for thinking that the only reason for the canal's existence is for boating holidays and pleasure boating. But (believe it or not) there were hard commercial reasons for the building of the canal in the first place. The original plan was for the transportation of coal from the River Severn up to Birmingham. By 1890 the value of commodities carried on the canal was less than 25% of that when the canal first opened. By 1950 the canal section at the Lapworth end had badly silted up, and several of the lock gates were leaking and in dire need of repair. There was a move to close the canal altogether, but these proposals were met with loud protests from canal societies and a campaign was mounted to "save the Stratford Canal".

An asset worth saving?

In 1959 the National Trust were successful in leasing the canal, and restoration then commenced in earnest.  Much for the work was done by prison labourers, and volunteers who belonged to the National Trust and other bodies like the Inland Waterways Association Waterways Recovery Group. The formal re-opening ceremony was in 1964, and the canal and River Avon have since proved to be one of the most popular of all the canals among leisure boat owners and users.

Bridges needed to maintain a continuous tow path

Part way along this northern section of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal we paused briefly to "inspect" the Birmingham Society of Model Engineers site at Illshaw Heath.

Double arched tunnel at Illshaw Heath site

Founded in 1936 the society has grown to have one of the largest model engineering club memberships in the United Kingdom. Their facilities and extensive grounds are quite impressive, with a 1112 ft. dual gauge 5/7.25” gauge ground level track and raised 1041 ft dual gauge 5/3.5” gauge track.

Loco running day at Illshaw Heath

Both tracks are controlled by an extensive signalling system. Footbridges and a brick built, double arched tunnel span the two tracks and stations, paved platforms, signal boxes, steaming bays and an engine shed serve the two circuits. Unfortunately the society were not operating on the day we passed by so we had to be satisfied with a "quick look".

Part view of the Birmingham Society of Model Engineers site

Having satisfied Steve's and my interest in the Illshaw Heath facility we were back on the canal heading for the Lapworth Flight. We found a number of fine examples of cast iron split bridges. in this stretch of canal.

Steve standing on (split) bridge no. 36 at Kingswood Junction)

Before explaining the purpose of the split bridge we should consider the role of the tow horse. In the early days of the Canal Age (from about 1740) boat horses were the prime movers of the Industrial Revolution, and they remained at work until the middle of the 20th century. A horse, towing a boat with a rope from the towpath, could pull fifty times as much cargo as it could pull in a cart or wagon on roads. Many of the surviving buildings and structures were designed with horse power in mind.

Split bridge No. 39

For a variety of reasons, the towpath had to switch from one side of the canal to the other. Turnover or roving bridges allowed the towing horse to cross the canal without the tow line getting caught up in the bridge. Split bridges were used around locks to enable the towing line to pass through the bridge when the towpath did not go under the bridge.

The particularly attractive Kingswood Junction is a favourite for narrowboaters, gongoozlers*, walkers and sightseers and so I shouldn't have been so surprised just how appealing this location looked as we approached Lock 19.

* A gongoozler is a person who enjoys watching activity on the canals of the United Kingdom

Kingswood Junction

As we were leaving the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and joining the Grand Union we took Eleanor through Lock 20 before swinging left into Lapworth Link

Eleanor approaching Lock 20 with crew mates Anne and Steve waiting patiently on the tow path

Self-indulgent pic of the Skipper at the tiller in the pound above Lock 20

Reflections near village of Dickens Heath

Just as depicted in the shot above of the canal next to houses in Dickens Heath, the canals mostly go around the towns and villages. They meander through half-forgotten places. They take you across viaducts and through long tunnels. They force you to travel slowly, too, so that those fields and meadows fleetingly glimpsed from a train or car are brought beautifully, individually, into focus as you slip by at 4mph. Anyone who does not think this is time well spent has (sadly) never discovered that narrowboating is the surest and the fastest way of slowing down.

Much moor still to come.

The Skipper.

Days 11, 12, and 13 - Worcester and Birmingham Canal - Worcester to Druids Heath

The Worcester and Birmingham (W&B) canal links the two cities, built to connect the River Severn in Worcester to the Birmingham Canal System via a quicker route than the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, although opposition from other canals prevented completion of the last few feet of canal in Birmingham for twenty years.

Worcester and Birmingham Canal

The W&B travels through some very pleasant countryside, climbing from the Severn through rolling fields and wooded cuttings and slicing through a hilly ridge south of Birmingham.

Stoke Flight of Locks

On this section of our journey we will encounter four tunnels, (Dunhampstead, Tardebigge, Shortwood and Wast Hill Tunnel). The longest of these is Wast Hill Tunnel at 2.49km passing underneath the Birmingham suburb of Hawkesley (near Kings Norton Junction).

Wast Hill Tunnel heading towards Birmingham

Steam tugs were used from the 1870's to haul strings of narrowboats through these four tunnels.

Wast Hill Tunnel - Southern Portal

The W&B is also our most strenuous canal as far as locks is concerned with 58 locks over a distance of just 40km consisting of the Offerton, Astwood, Stoke and Tardebigge flights.

Eleanor in Lock No. 50 looking west down the flight

The most famous of these is the thirty lock flight (over a 3.6 km stretch) at Tardebigge. The locks fill and empty very quickly so we managed to get through them all in an (energetic) afternoon (including assisting a single hander just ahead of us)!

Tardebigge Flight - between Locks 50 and 51

The top lock has a rise of 3.4m, unusually high for a single lock. It was built to replace an experimental vertical boat lift. The canal company was concerned with the expense of the 58 locks needed to take the canal down to the River Severn.

Tardebigge Top Lock and Lock Keeper's Cottage

The Tardebigge vertical lift was invented by John Woodhouse and built between 1806 and 1808, comprising a counterbalanced 72 ft x 8ft cassion which weighed 64 tons when full of water. It was suspended on 8 sets of rods on chains which were looped over 12 ft diameter cast iron wheels connected to a single axle.

Tardebigge Vertical Lift

Access and exit was via four guillotine gates - very similar to those seen on the Anderton Boat Lift.

Anderton Boat Lift Guillotine Gates

This rather unusual structure was short lived but in truth was something of an engineering success. It could be operated by two men with a passage time of just 2.5 minutes. At its peak it moved an impressive 110 boats in a 12 hour period. Whilst technically successful, the canal owners were sceptical and called in Scottish civil engineer John Rennie for an expert opinion. He concluded that there were too many moving parts and high maintenance costs could be expected. In the event nature intervened and the lift was damaged on a cloudburst in 1815 and it was promptly replaced with the current lock.

At our overnight stop at Tardebigge we walked through the adjacent field to the nearby St Bartholomew’s church.

St Bartholomew’s Church, Tardebigge

 The ‘commanding position’ where St Bartholomew’s church now stands may have been a sacred site for a thousand years or more. The evidence for this is no more than circumstantial, but still intriguing. The ancient yew trees (often associated with religious sites) that stand either side of the entrance to the church grounds, are believed to be over a thousand years old. And it’s been suggested that the unusual name ‘Tardebigge’ has origins in the Saxon for ‘big tower’ or ‘tower on a hill’.

English Yew (Taxus baccata) in St Bartholomew’s grounds

What may be more reliable is an eighteenth century account of the history of St Bartholomew’s. It describes the church, as it was then, as having been built around an original structure possibly dating from just after the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Diglis Basin - commencement of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal

From 1841 railway competition took away much of the business from the W&B and in 1868 losses were so severe that a receiver was appointed. The canal was saved by being bought in 1874 by the Sharpness New Docks Company (which by then owned the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal).

London & Birmingham Railway Locomotive No. 32 heading a mixed train circa 1937

Under enterprising management new traffic was sought, and the canal survived until nationalisation in 1948.

Artists impression of narrowboat trade at Cadbury's Bourneville Wharf

The last commercial traffic was coal from Cannock to Worcester and chocolate crumb from Worcester to the Cadbury factory at Bourneville in Birmingham, ceasing in 1960 and 1961 respectively.

Transferring raw materials from narrowboat to train waggons at Bourneville

These English canals are a time-warp with very little changed since they were constructed over two-hundred years ago. I, for one, will never loose sight of the fantastic engineering achievement made principally by the early civil engineers such as Brindley and Telford and the skills in bridge, tunnel and lock building by the early 'Navvies'..... occasionally in the middle of a long dark tunnel for example you realise that the thousands and thousands of bricks lining the wall were placed by human hand risking their lives working in dangerous darkness. Following the ghosts of thousands of working boats through the centuries you are just a nano-second in the timescale of canal history that I hope will exist for ever.

Finally today's lock statistics for the Worcester and Birmingham canal to Kings Norton Junction:

Bilford Flight (2) - Climb 4.3m
Tibberton Flight (6) - Climb 12.8m
Astwood Flight (5) - Climb 12.8m
Stoke Prior Flight (6) - Climb 13.0m
Tadebigge Flight (30) - Climb 66.1m

That's it for today. Moor to come real soon.

The Skipper.

Days 8, 9 and 10 - Staffordshire & Worcestershire - Wolverhampton to Worcester

Beyond the junction with the Old Main Line Canal the Staffs and Worcs meanders in a south west direction following the River Stour valley as it heads for the River Severn at Stourport.

Staffs and Worcs Canal from the Old Main Line Canal Jn. to Stourport on Severn

Once at Stourport the canal transforms into the wide River Severn which we followed for another 20 km to Diglis Junction at Worcester.

River Severn from Stourport on Severn to Worcester

Day 9 turned out to be an eventful day starting with some minor engine issues that developed late the previous afternoon. We were asked to limp to the nearest marina and refill the gearbox with oil. In the process of maneuvering backwards out of the marina, yours truly (the Skipper) slipped and fell into the canal. There was immediate concern from the crew that I was going to be crushed between two narrowboats, Angus (at the helm) skillfully keep the two vessels apart while I "walked" out to the nearest bank where a ladder was kindly provided. Although the bed of the canal was extremely soft the rumours are true, you can easily stand up. Sadly, dear reader, there are no photos of this excitement, but I hasten to add, was not out of any respect for the Skipper's dignity.

Ashwood Marina, Stourbridge

Our friends Anne and Steve were meeting up with us on this day as well and the detour to the marina completely messed up our plans (making up time when travelling at under 4mph is not really an option). The normally very efficient Midlands Trains normalised the problem by creating a signal box fire alarm which threw every schedule out the window. The rendezvous finally occurred further back up the cut (ie. going in the reverse direction) at the Navigation Inn (Greensforge).

Navigation Inn

Which brings me to a point of clarification - my friend and colleague Drew has raised the concept of relative direction as an interesting source of potential confusion in my ramblings. When I refer to going up (or down) this could reasonably be interpreted as either

• navigating in a generally northern (up) or southern (down) direction which most Australians would probably agree is a very arbitrary concept (us being from down-under), or alternatively, and quite perceptively, 
• climbing from sea level, or valley up hill to the top of a hill or plateau or down from a plateau towards the coastal or plain.  

Clearly I should resist the use of up and down altogether to avoid further confusion however if I do stray, the meaning will be the cartographers convention.

Approaching Dunsley Tunnel

Angus at the tiller exiting Dunsley Tunnel

 Several sections of the canal in this part of the Staffs and Worcs were built through or along the edge of sandstone cliffs or cuttings creating interesting and contrasting views of the adjacent countryside.

Late afternoon mist rolling off the adjacent farm

Standing on the back of boat at 4mph for hours gives you plenty of time to reflect on the incredibly beautiful tranquil world of canals and rivers that the citizens of the EU are blessed with and that we citizens from the colonies (and others) are privileged to have the opportunity to experience. I never tired of the constantly unfolding parameters of water that revealed such beauty, especially the green field agricultural vistas that you would need a heart of stone to ignore and be unmoved by.

A thousand shades of green

A magical photo opportunity

Of course an expedition of this magnitude requires careful planning (did someone mention Burke and Wills?). Critical to the success of this discovery voyage have been our crew who double as first class lock operators. 

Helen and Anne operating a lock gate

Amongst the history of narrow canals in the West Midlands is the surprise and contrasting presence of a fairground next to the Clock Basin at Stourport Junction.

Stourport Junction Clock Basin

The cathedral city of Worcester lies roughly halfway between Birmingham and Gloucester on the banks of the River Severn. The most prominent feature (both visually and historically is the 12th century Anglican cathedral. Built between 1084 and 1504, Worcester Cathedral represents every style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic.

Worcester Cathedral from the Severn River

The Cathedral contains the tomb of King John in its chancel. Before his death in Newark in 1216, John had requested to be buried at Worcester.

Dragonboat races along the River Severn as we approached Diglis Junction

Worcester is the site of the final battle of the Civil War, where Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles I's Cavaliers in 1651. We stumbled across the site of Sidbury Gate (part of the city wall) which was stormed by parliamentarian troops who's objective was to the overthrow both the Crown and Parliament's authority. The site is marked by a striking work of public art depicting English civil war figures in armour.

  

Crew inspecting the English civil war figures near the Commandery on Sidbury Bridge, Worcester

Finally, Worcester is famous (amongst other things) for being

• home (for much of his life) of the composer Sir Edward Elgar, and
• the location of the Lea & Perrins factory where traditional Worcestershire Sauce is made.

Edward Elgar, c. 1900

Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the microphone in 1925 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works.

Crossing the Staffs and Worcs just south of Kidderminster, the 16-mile Severn Valley Heritage Railway line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster. Train services are hauled predominantly by steam locomotives. It is one of the most popular heritage railways in the country however the day we were scheduled to pass by they were operating a private event so no chance of a planned (guaranteed) sighting. As we approached the bridge we spotted a photographer on the tow path. "How long before the train leaves Kidderminster?" I asked. "Any minute" was the reply. You can get lucky sometimes.

No. 7812 Erlestoke Manor (GWR 78 "Manor" Class 4-6-0) crossing Falling Sands viaduct

Withdrawn from British Railways service in November 1965, 7812 Erlestoke Manor was sent to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales. Presently one of three preserved GWR 78 Manor Class locomotives based at the Severn Valley Heritage Railway, the other two being 7802 Bradley Manor and GWR 7819 Hinton Manor.

That's it for now.

Moor to follow on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal in the next post . . . .

The Skipper