Acton Trussell to Merry Hill

Saturday 5^th September

Although the morning dawned bright and sunny, it definitely feels like autumn. We set off at 8.30 following another boat. We made slow, but steady, progress up Shutt Hill, Park Gate, Longford and Penkridge Locks before stopping at Penkridge for water, shopping and lunch in that order. We enjoyed our stroll round Penkridge which has a variety of shops and some interesting looking buildings.

Filance, Otherton, Rodbaston and Boggs Locks followed much the same pattern as the morning ones – not exactly a queue, but always following close behind another boat and more often than not, waiting for one to come down.

It looks as if it has been a good year for moorhens – we have seen several groups of young ones.

                                                 Teenage Moorhens

We moored after Boggs Lock at a surprisingly peaceful spot despite the M6 and the A5 being close by. We walked along to Gailey Lock and were told by the VLK there that the Canal Shop is closed as the mother and daughter who run it are still shielding because of Covid-19.

We have had several hours of welcome warm sunshine today.

Miles: 6.5             Locks: 8                Total Miles: 106.75           Total Locks: 61

Sunday 6^th September

Another bright, sunny morning – we’ll see if it warms up as it did yesterday.

As two boats went past while we were still moored up, we thought we’d leave and join the queue. However, it turned out to be a cruiser and a narrowboat small enough to share locks with the cruiser. The narrowboat was Ark Wright which we had seen at more than one lock yesterday.

Most of the lock landing above Brick Kiln Lock cannot be used as it has sunk! On to Gailey Lock, following Ark Wright and the cruiser again. The top gate of this lock had been damaged recently and a temporary repair put in place which is supposed to last until a full repair is carried out in February. The VLK we spoke to yesterday doesn’t think it will last that long!

    

                                                   Sunken Lock Landing

                                                Chain forming temporary repair

Ark Wright and the cruiser stopped to use the facilities and we carried on towards Autherley Junction where we stopped for lunch. Ark Wright passed us while we were having lunch, so when we arrived at Compton Lock (the first for 12 miles), we found ourselves following him through yet another lock!

Ark Wright moored at Compton while we carried on and went down Wightwick Mill and Wightwight Locks, before mooring at Castlecroft. This is familiar territory for us as we lived just up the road for 7 years when Steve was vicar here – we left 22 years ago! We had a short walk past our old house and surrounding streets before returning to Chyandour and joining our church’s Zoom service.

The morning stayed cool, but the afternoon was warm and sunny until about 3.30 when we had a couple of hours rain.

Miles: 11.50        Locks: 5                Total Miles: 118.25           Total Locks: 66

Monday 7^th September

We woke to mist over the canal and the morning continued cloudy and cool, but the afternoon was another sunny one.

                                            Misty Morning at Castlecroft

The Ark Wright team must have been up early as they went past our mooring at 7.30.

We left just before 8.00 which was early for us on this trip, but we had arranged to meet friends in Wombourne so needed to be there in good time.

It was not a good day for getting through locks quickly; all were set against us and there were no other boats around so we were working them alone. 

                                                        Bratch Locks

The exceptions were the Bratch Locks where, as usual, we had the help of a friendly lock-keeper, and then at Botterham Staircase Locks where the crew of the boat two in front of us (not Ark  Wright) had opened paddles in the wrong order with the result that their boat was sitting on the bottom of the top lock and couldn’t move. We (that is, us two, two from the boat in front of us and two from a boat waiting to come up the lock) opened and closed paddles for about 40 minutes and worked the stuck boat, the one coming up, the one in front of us and us through the two locks. We went down two more locks, Marsh and Swindon, and then decided to call it a day.

Before the chaos at Botterham, we had moored at Wombourne and walked round to our friends’ house for coffee. We have known them for over 20 years and after using their boat, Chyandour, for holidays for many of those years, we bought her off them about 5 years ago.

From our mooring in Swindon, we were able to join a Zoom PCC meeting from our church back home.

Miles: 5.50          Locks: 11              Total Miles: 123.75           Total Locks: 77

Tuesday 8^th September

We left our mooring and descended the next two locks, Hinksford and Greensforge, then moored and walked round to Ashwood Nurseries where we had coffee before wandering around the plant displays and buying on or two things. By this time, the weather was sunny and very warm – much warmer than any other day of this trip.

Back onto the boat and two more locks (Rocky and Gothersley) on the Staffs and Worcs before we turn off onto the Stourbridge Canal. Up the four locks of the Stourton Flight before stopping for lunch.

                                                    Stourton Locks

The choice was then whether to continue on the main canal or to turn off and go into Stourbridge itself. This is what we decided to do, so we went right to the end, winded and then moored for the night. 

                                                Water Lilies on Stourbridge Arm

We walked into Stourbridge and picked up a takeaway from Cellars, an Indian restaurant – it was very good!

Miles: 8.50          Locks: 8                Total Miles: 144.75           Total Locks: 85

Wednesday 9^th September

We had a busy day in front of us, so we left Stourbridge just before 8.00. Unfortunately, we met another boat at a bridge on a bend, and the ensuing toing and froing delayed us slightly. One result of this was that we arrived at the foot of Stourbridge Locks as a boat was already in the first lock. 

                                   Buildings old and new on the Stourbridge Flight

Following a boat meant that we had to turn every single lock so going up the 16 locks took 3¼ hours rather than the 2½ we’d expected. 

We had a very welcome cup of coffee and then carried on to the bottom of the Delph flight. There we discovered we would be following two other boats, each of them single handed. There are eight locks in this flight, but by the end we felt we had done more like 24 as we had worked up and down helping the two men on their own. And to add to it, as we worked the second man through the last lock, another single hander turned up needing to go down the lock. We told her to stay on her boat and we worked her through – our last good turn of the day! 

                                                 Overflow on the Delph Flight

                                                      Delph Locks

A few minutes later we moored up for the night on the embankment overlooking the Merry Hill shopping centre.

We had not intended this trip to be a tour of Steve's previous parishes, but from Merry Hill, you can see St Anfrew's Netherton where we lived before retirement.

                                          St Andrew's just visible on hillside

We had one brief shower of rain mid-morning but otherwise the weather was fine and there was a lot of warm sunshine in the afternoon and evening.

Miles: 4.75          Locks: 24              Total Miles: 149.50           Total Locks: 109