Canal Day 7: From Stourport back to Worcester

Not what you expect to find outside a Café but this is no ordinary Café.



The Goodnight Sweetheart Café - an amazing collection of wartime and post war memorabilia can be found in here plus some old fashioned sweets!



The Yacht Club at Stourport



Stourport Basins; in the distance is the upper of the two staircase locks from the River Severn, in the middle is the Lower Basin and in the foreground the lower of the two locks that lead to the Clock Basin - simple isn't it?



The Lenchford Hotel from the river (near to Shrawley)



Approaching the lock north of Worcester on the Severn - the river level was high and the current strong.



Worcester Cathedral under a very grey sky but still impressive.





It's a hard life - back in Worcester, exhausted.

Canal Day 6: Kinver to Kidderminster

Caunsell Bridge successfully negotiated.



The impressive stretch of canal by the Austcliffe Rock.



Just after Austcliffe Rock there are several Holiday Homes with a Railway Signal - this is a stretch of the canal I have often walked but not seen from the Canal before.


Approaching the 65 yard long tunnel at Cookley



Lunch at The Lock, Woverley after a busy morning. For the first time we had to queue at some locks.



In the lock at The Lock, Wolverly



Woverley Court Lock.



The split iron Bridge at Wolverly Court Lock.



St Mary & All Saints in Kidderminster ; with a tower dating back to the 15th centtury, this is the largest Parish Church in Worcestershire. My old school, King Charles I Grammer School was founded in the Church in. Founders Day Services are still held every year.




Kidderminster in Bloom: the roundabout in front of the Post Office with Baxter Church in the background.



And now for two less than attrative photographs. First, the ugliest building in Kidderminster - the tower block over the Post Office.



Someone trying to extract a plastic bag from the boat's propeller.



Last lock of the day at Falling Sands between Kidderminster and Stourport

Canal Day 5: From the Bratch back to Kinver

First task this morning was to turn the boat round so we could start back to Stourport - I left it to someone more capable than me!



Not long after we had started we stopped to allow one of the more approachable fishermen to land his catch 'a chub - full of bones, not for eating'



Cruising just south of Wombourne



Signpost at Stourton Junction where the the Stourbridge Canal joins the Staffs and Worcs. We stopped and walked up the Stourbridge Canal past the four locks that start the canal rising towards the Black Country.



Canalside gardens in the village of Stewpony.



The view down the Stourbridge Canal to Stourton Junction - the signpost can be seen in the distance.



The restored octagonal toll office at Stewpony Lock. From here the long abandoned Kinver Light railway used to run from Kinver to Stourbridge.



We stopped for the night at Kinver and ate at The Vine, very friendly locals, good food and.....



....the best beer of the week http://www.envilleales.com/

Canal Day 4: Kinver to The Bratch

First lock of the day at Kinver



Matthew opens the paddle at Hyde lock.



The Lock Keepers cottage at Hyde lock has miniture lock gates for a garden gate.



The short (25 yards) Dunsley tunnel east of Kinver



An amazing garden, which had several wicker animals by the canal



The entrance to Ashwood Marina, now private, but once used by the National Coal Board to link to the railway.



The entrance to the lower lock at Botterham - a two step staircase



Matthew carefully guiding the boat from the lower lock to the upper lock



The middle lock at the Bratch - with someone elses boat from the same hire company as ours. We stopped before we got here at a winding hole (a place where you can turn the boat round).

The Bratch is a famous set of three locks which are not a staircase where the bottom lock gate of one lock is the top gate of the second lock. They are three adjacent locks with what appears to be an impossibly small pound between each lock. However water is fed to the pound via a culvert from side ponds. There is a lock keeper on duty (who could talk for England but was very friendly and knowlegable)- he is in the blue top, bottom right.



The octagonal toll office at the Bratch which is one of the symbols of the Staffs and Worcs Canal.The Bratch Locks raise the canal by over 30feet.



Moored up for the night.



A short walk away was The Royal Oak at Wombourne, dating back to the 1800's. again meal OK but not memorable. I lost virtually every game of cards we played that night!

Canal Day 3: Kidderminster to The Whittington

The day started by us having to pull another narrow boat out of a lock after it had got stuck!



This viaduct carries the Severn Valley Railway over the canal just outside Kidderminster. Anoyingly we heard a train whistle not long after we had been under it - a missed photo opertunity.



Lunchtime mooring at Weavers Wharf in kidderminster (by Tesco)



I went for a brief wander and found what I remember as the old Kidderminster swimming baths (where I learnt to swim) - now converted into apartments.



Just down the road from there is Caldwell Tower, (14th century), Kidderminster’s oldest secular building.



The Chimney and converted boiler house by the former Slingfield Mill.



St Mary's Church, Kidderminster - more about this on the return journey when we were able to visit it.



Out in the countryside now - Woverley Court lock on the Stour floodplain.



The sandstone Austcliffe Rock causes the Canal to make a large horseshoe bend.



Approaching the lock at Austcliffe.



The Whittington Horse Bridge close to where we moored for the night.



We had a pleasent but not remarkable evening meal at the Whittington Inn, near Kinver, Staffordshire (yes we are no longer in Worcestershire).

The Whittington is a Grade I listed building dating back to the 14th century. It was once the home of Sir William de Whittington, grandfather of legendary Lord Mayor of London Dick Whittington. It is also said that King Charles II took refuge in the building following the Battle of Worcester. Queen Anne also spent a night there in 1711, and the solid oak front door holds one of only two her Royal seals in the country. The house became the Whittington Inn in 1788 when Lord Stamford transferred the licence – and the pub sign – from a smaller building a few hundred yards away.