Heading Down to the Severn

We've revisited our plans and have now decided to continue down the Staffs and Worcs Canal to Stourport and join the River Severn there.  Since the last posting we have crossed the summit level of this canal at 294 feet above sea level and we are now going down.

On Sunday we left Tixall Wide and climbed five locks to Penkridge.

 This fibreglass narrowboat is called 'True Blue' and we came up the Fradley Locks at the same time a couple of weeks ago.  We were interested to see her out of the water with her owner working on antifouling her.

 Penkridge is a small town with some interesting old buildings, like this one, called "The Old Cottage".

And this is the town jail.















From Penkridge yesterday we climbed the final locks to Gailey after which there follows 10 miles of canal across the summit level before 31 locks will take us down to the Severn at Stourport.

 This is Gailey Lock with Leo coming up.  The round tower was built for the toll keeper on the canal to see boats coming in both directions to ensure that the right tolls were imposed.  The tower now contains a delightful small shop selling canal memorabilia.  We bought a canal plaque of which this shop has a comprehensive stock.

Monday evening we moored close to Hatherton Junction.  The photo shows the canal which used to turn off here heading for Lichfield and Birmingham.  Today the branch goes nowhere but provides mooring for a few boats.

Today we've crossed the summit level to Compton where the first lock going down is reached.  Pas Mèche unfortunately picked up a sleeping bag on the prop coming into the lock.  It took David half an hour to remove it.  This is our worst prop incident yet this year.

This narrow section of canal is called 'Pendeford Rockin'.  Apart from a few passing bays it is only wide enough for one boat at a time.  You can see that this channel is cut down through solid rock.

We passed two junctions today.  This is Autherley Junction where the Shropshire Union Canal goes right under the bridge and takes boats all the way to Chester and Ellesmere Port.  We went that way in 2012.

In the half mile between Autherley and the next junction, Aldersley, there are several pipe bridges and the high railway bridge you can see.  We have read that the pipes are carrying water from Wales to Birmingham.

At Aldersley Junction a canal turns left and climbs 21 locks to the centre of Wolverhampton and leads on to Birmingham.  You can see the first of these locks under the bridge.

These intriguing circular weirs are characteristic of this canal.  This one is at Wightwick Mill Lock.

We passed this swan family this afternoon.  The cygnets must be only a day or two old.

And here we are moored at Dimmingsdale.  You can see from the state of the towpath that it has been a bit wet lately.  We've had a succession of heavy showers both yesterday and today.  We are looking forward to drier weather promised for later this week.

We have the delights of Kinver and Stourport to look forward to before we join the Severn.  Depending on how much sightseeing we do we will be on the big river sometime this coming weekend.