It was pretty stormy last night, or maybe it just seemed worse because we were at the top of an embankment. This morning Macc went to sleep after breakfast and his walk, so we made a move at around 8.30 — coincidentally at about the same time as the Midland Metro workers were beginning to drill more footings in the new rail bed. Adrian walked along to the top lock of the Delph flight, while I brought the boat. We were in the lock at 8.50.
There are eight locks in the flight, but the bridge over the top lock is called Nine Locks Bridge, and the pub at the bottom is called the Tenth Lock. That’s because there used to be nine of them, with only the top and the bottom locks left of the originals. When you come out of the top lock, there’s a bridge over an arm, and that’s where the middle seven used to be — curving in an arc down to the bottom lock. They were replaced by six new ones which go in a straight line down the hill.
These locks have dramatic weirs to bring the excess water round the lock, and there seemed to be a lot of water about today as they were all running well.
Some of the locks were full while others were empty, and some even had the bottom gates open — usually because they swing open on their own. It took us an hour and ten minutes to do the eight locks, which we thought was pretty good going. There’s then about forty minutes of twisting canal to Ley’s Junction, which is where the Dudley Canal meets the Stourbridge. In previous times, we’d have then tackled the sixteen Stourbridge locks, but with Macc to think of (and plenty of time) we were breaking our journey. So instead of turning left towards the locks, we turned right up the Fens Arm.
A concerned local on the towpath checked we knew it was a dead end, which we did. It’s only a short distance to Brockmoor Junction, where the remains of the Stourbridge Extension Canal goes off to the left.
We’d be going under the bridge, but wanted to reverse in to make it easier to get back out again, so we spun around in the junction and went backwards under the bridge. There’s are moorings on the offside which used to be secure although the gate is now missing.
We were hoping this would be a place Macc could have a run about, but it’s full of brambles and stinging nettles which wouldn’t be very good for his paws, so we’re being a bit selective about where he goes. We were all moored up by 11am, so we’d made good progress.
This afternoon I took a walk up the Fens Arm, which is a feeder from reservoirs further along. It’s a pleasant walk along the towpath (if that’s what the path along a non-navigable section of water is called).
The first pool, Grove, has a big channel to feed water into the canal. When you go to the top of it, there are metal stepping stones across so you can walk right round the pool.
There are four interconnected pools, Grove, Middle, Cottage, and Fens, all at different levels, and the whole area is a nature reserve — although there was an incredible amount of litter around and there was a big group of people on off-road bikes, which I’m not sure is allowed. The pools themselves are pretty though.
I got back just in time because one of several very sharp showers came through moments after I arrived. Otherwise it’s been surprisingly sunny. As we had plenty of solar and the batteries were pretty much full, we put the immersion heater on for a tank of hot water, really just to test the system. In the summer, we hope to make all our hot water this way.
We have a chicken to roast later as it’s Sunday, and then more locks tomorrow.
4 miles, 8 locks. (100 miles, 83 locks)