Leaving Birmingham on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal

It was a false start as we headed off from our mooring. I went through the usual preparations for our departure from our mooring but when I started the engine there was no charge going into the batteries! After some basic fault finding I gave River Canal Rescue (RCR) (like the AA in Britain or the RACV in Australia) a ring for a bit of expert help. They were there in an hour and we were off around 11am but half way down Gas Street and the same issue again! Although, this time the problem had a burning plastic smell!

We returned to our mooring and gave RCR another ring and again they were out within a few hours but this time they replaced the offending alternator which had virtually no pin left to attach the exciter wire (for those technically minded). Then there was the burning smell which was easily located as I no longer had any instruments reading at all. The wiring was sorted out and all but the oil pressure were recovered, it seems I have a project to do a little later. It was now after 4pm so no cruising today!

The next day we did get away from our mooring, that's Serafina heading down Gas Street.

Gas Street beside the basin

Looking back towards the basin

Under one of the major entertainment streets of Birmingham

Nearly at the turn onto the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, just a right turn under the bridge in the distance and the work for the day begins!

Within one hundred metres of turning onto the new canal we arrived at our first lock of many for the day. After dropping down a couple of locks you are engulfed in multi storey buildings, that pretty much the story (excuse the pun) for the whole Farmer's Bridge Lock Flight, thirteen locks in all.

Still on the Farmer's Bridge Locks, this lock was under a bridge. You can see the other arch, possibly for an additional lock to speed things up. There is evidence of dual locks right along the route out of Birmingham although one of our readers (see comments) tells me that in fact they are just side pounds to maintain the water supply down the flight in the absence of any by-washes.

Same lock but from further back.

Still traveling under the buildings, all designed to accommodate the canal.

Starting to get out into the open as we make our way out of Birmingham.

Same lock again looking back.

Still continuing down Farmer's Locks.

Finished! The Farmer's Bridge Locks done we were able to get going but not for long.

It was only a short cruise before we made a turn at Aston Junction which, I don't mind saying, caught me by surprise as I nearly cruised pass the turn. It was tucked away very closely behind another bridge and I had to back up to make the turn. Lock 1 of the Aston Flight is right there at the start so I had to reverse back to the lock landing to get off and set the lock. Then it was back across to Serafina because I forgot my Lockmate Key to release the vandal proof lock.

The Aston Flight contains ten locks, several of which you had to slosh through the water as they overfilled.

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So that was another ten locks to knock over. The last lock was the only one that we needed to take extra care with, as we were passing a boat exiting the lock he warned us that there were a couple sitting under the bridge shooting up. We completed the lock without any drama though, You never know what they're using and sometimes can be unpredictable but we left them to do their thing.

We continued on and turned right at spaghetti junction (overhead freeways everywhere), making sure we didn't head off towards Star City (hard right) although Rachael was keen to double her money! It was still the outer suburbs of Birmingham and they took awhile to shake. We passed through the last three locks for the day at Minworth, the water at Minworth had an attack of blue/green algae but not for very far. Our day finished on a comfortable mooring at Curdworth.

Another fantastic cruising day as we head off from our mooring at Curdworth. Straight off it was the 57 yard Curdworth Tunnel. The cruising plan for today was to get to Fazeley Junction and see how we felt.

We almost enjoyed doing the eleven Curdworth Locks as we continued down the hill from Birmingham. These locks drop us a further seventy-four feet (approx). We passed the Dog and Doublet Pub just after Lock 8, lots of people out for lunch, very tempting. Not far to go now as we knocked over the rest of the Flight, this pic was the last lock for the day.

Not a flattering photo of me but the Old Lock Keepers cottage at the bottom of Curdworth Locks was looking great!

A popular bridge for photographers, the Drayton Foot and Swivel Bridge.

Less than half an hour from this bridge and we were at the junction turning left onto the Coventry Canal. It was only reasonably early so we continued on, we finished our day on the Visitor Moorings at Whittington. A late finish for the day, for us anyway! A little after four and we had no problems getting onto the visitor moorings, with school hols over there's a lot fewer boats on the cut.

Birmingham

A great day for cruising again, as we set off from Alverchurch. The canal was in good condition, not much rubbish at all (you do expect it as you draw closer to a city) and we were on the summit so no locks for the day. We were looking forward to getting into Birmingham. We passed through Bournville with moorings right next to the station and on the offside too. No vacancies on the offside though!

These moorings are only a short walk from Cadbury World, if you are interested in a visit. Although, I found walking around Bournville more interesting than Cadbury World, where I was hoping to see chocolate being made.

We did pass some nice quiet moorings, just near the university and not far from our final mooring on Gas Street. We arrived in the early afternoon from our mooring in Alverchurch and we had the pick of the moorings but by 5pm they were full. This area has quite a few cafes, restaurants and bars but it quietened down quickly after 10pm.

Our mooring at night.

Not a great pic of the renamed Black Sabbath Bridge, named after the band.

Just down from our mooring was Gas Street Basin with a public walkway through the centre. Not sure security would be terribly good?

The iconic roundabout, the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal to the left and on the right the Worcester and Birmingham Canal (Gas Street).

We spent plenty of time wandering around this part of Birmingham, the canals have become very popular and are starting to command top dollar all over Britain if you want to live or build a commercial building near them. There are more miles of canals in Birmingham than in Venice and they have lots of shops and cafes nearby to investigate. Not far from our mooring is the main shopping centre of Birmingham, we seemed to visit each day, particularly The Bull Ring shopping centre. With time on our hands it was also a great chance to wander the numerous pedestrian malls.

We managed a busy few days here in Birmingham but most enjoyable.

Tardebigge - Locks! Locks! and More Locks!

Another nice cruising day as we set off from Worcester to continue the steady climb up to Birmingham. Today we were heading for the moorings at Tibberton, a small village along the way. The locks seem to come in pairs and by the time we had moored we had done 14 locks, not a bad days work. When we arrived on the moorings we were the only boat there, other boats passed but that's the way it stayed for the night. We had a walk around Tibberton which didn't take us too long and finished up back at the Bridge Inn, right next to our mooring.

Just the overnight stop at Tibberton, we set off on another fine day heading for the moorings next to the Queen's Head Pub. We caught up with the boat ahead of us, the pic below shows the canal a little overgrown with reeds in places, as we push on.

Some pretty old hump bridges along the way that look like the brick has been rendered with a concrete mix that must be feeling its age. The whole bridge was covered in a plastic netting, I'm guessing more for safety reasons than anything else. Unfortunately, you can also see the graffiti on the bridge: what sort of person says to themselves 'today I'm going go and graffiti a 200 year old (approx) bridge'.

Netting close up

We lost the leading boat at Hanbury Wharf as they pulled over for fuel, cruising past the junction with the Droitwich Canal we moored up around 11:00am just before Lock 17 so we could make our way across to Hanbury Hall (National Trust) for a look see. I couldn't see the house from the canal, only a stile and a public footpath heading across the paddocks. So, after checking for bulls, off we went crossing about three paddocks and five stiles; Rachael wasn't impressed!

The walk wasn't too long, only 10 minutes or so and this was in the garden of one of the outer houses.

The beautiful gardens of the main house.

The front gates leading to the house. The house was of course beautiful inside, the feature were the murals in the main entrance over the staircase and the ceilings throughout. It was well worth a visit!

Back to the boat and we continued our journey to the Queen's Head Moorings. A stop over for water at Stoke Works, the tap was nice and fast, another half a dozen locks and we arrived with one other boat around 4pm. There were a few boats moored just below the last lock and once we moored I could understand why, it was a little rowdy at the Queen's head with a 21st party, fortunately it was Sunday so it closed down reasonably quickly.

No matter which way you take your boat to Birmingham there are plenty of locks and in the case of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal you get them in the form of the Tardebigge Flight, the longest flight on the system with 30 locks. We were up early for breakfast and ready for a busy day's work, we were also hoping to catch as many locks set our way as we could get. We had to start somewhere so 200 metres from our overnight mooring at the Queen's Head Moorings was the Tardebigge Bottom Lock.

Plenty of locks ahead!

And more locks ahead.

All the locks were close so I could get the lock Serafina was in going and head up to the next lock to get the gates open.

The lock gear was in reasonably good condition, some were a bit tough to get going but you get that. I liked the gear locking mechanism which was balanced to fall back out of the way once you started winding.

A stop along the flight to check out the books and we were flush with eggs so it was only a short stop.

Nearing the top of the thirty lock flight now and the reservoir supplying the flight appeared. This was at Lock 50, apparently the water is pumped up to the pound above the top lock (Lock 58). It was at this point we met our first boat going down the flight, it was a single hander, he only had 24 locks to go! At least they were all set for him!

We made it to the top lock of the Tardebigge Flight in just short of four hours and had covered around three miles.

The day wasn't quite over, we continued on for another hour including the 580 yard Tardebigge Tunnel before mooring up at the town of Alverchurch.

Let's Head to Birmingham, Cruising the Worcester and Birmingham Canal

It poured rain overnight in Tewkesbury but the next morning was bright and sunny as we dragged the boat on to the water point for a fill before turning into Tewkesbury Lock. We dropped down the lock and out into the channel, heading out to the River Severn where we turned into the current and off upstream to Worcester. It took us about three and half hours to get to Worcester, as this sign at Lock 1 of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal says, 16 miles.

An unassuming brick opening off the River Severn and not far from the centre of Worcester marks the start of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. We moored up against the jetty and set the first lock, a double lock.

Two double locks lead up to the marina, from that point on the locks become narrow.

Our mooring in Worcester for the next few days.

This monument on top of the bridge just ahead of our mooring, commemorates the last battle of the civil war fought here in 1651. It's a series of shields, lances and helmets.

Just an interesting old pub we found as we roamed around Worcester, the ground floor external walls are completely covered with glossy ceramic tiles and old advertising.

A pic of the Worcester Cathedral, building began in 1084, it's a beautiful cathedral. Apparently, this site has had a place of worship here long before the cathedral was built. If you want to see more pictures and information about Worcester you can go here.

A tour of the National Trust managed Greyfriars. Besides being a beautiful old classified building, our tour guide tells us it was of no particular significance. This is a pic across the lovely rear gardens back to Greyfriars.

Worcester had a comprehensive shopping precinct that kept Rachael amused for a couple of days. We also made enquiries about the manufacture of Worcestershire Sauce at the Visitor's Centre. It seems that now they make the minimum amount in Worcester required to maintain the Royal Seal, the balance is made under licence.

Cruising on the River Avon

After our first day out cruising on the Avon we couldn't find a mooring in Bidford, there are only three visitor moorings for narrowboats, even the pub moorings were full. It was a case of continuing on a little further where we landed in this great mooring next to Harvington Lock. While I was taking this shot in the morning there were six large fish out in the middle of the pound sunning themselves, just below the surface.

While at Evesham, our next stop, we headed over with our friends to the Pershore Plum Festival. Pershore is about a four hour cruise from Evesham but with the festival on there was no mooring space. This was the case still, when we cruised through three days later. This pic shows part of the huge car show.

Part of the festival was in the church yard where we were moving around the graves and headstones. Lots of food tents with lots of samples; I didn't need a big lunch.

Saw this deer feeding as we cruised past, not something you see everyday.

A lovely cruising day out on the Avon.

Cruising through Wyre Piddle (great name!) we passed this boat, the owner seems to have a sense of humour about his town's name.

We finished our day at Wyre Piddle, mooring at the visitor moorings at the lock. THis is a diamond lock and confuses the hire boaters somewhat, it's the first lock they do by themselves when they set out. Kept me busy, I had to help two boats through over a couple of hours. Across from our mooring was a two storey wide beam, great until you get to a bridge! Although, I don't think it moves very far.

Rachael with Serafina waiting for me to set the lock. The blue tipped poles signify 24hr Visitor Moorings. In fact, we moored here in 2017, picturesque and quiet!

This narrowboat wreck has been here for quite a while, my information is that it was dumped there by a flood.

A couple of pics from around Tewkesbury, a very old place, in fact mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1066. Lots of old buildings and plenty of little lane ways like this one.

And, The Royal Hop Pole is a JD Wetherspoons pub and part of the building dates back to the 15th century. There were plenty of these old buildings but I chose this one as it was mentioned in Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. It became the 'Royal' Hop Pole after the visit of Princess Mary (later Queen Mary) in 1891 and thus displays the Royal Coat of Arms over the entrance portico.

No photos of the Abbey, but if you want to see some pics from our last trip here in 2017 go here.