Worcester and Birmingham to King's Norton

 Another junction so another posting to conclude our passage on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and turning onto the North Stratford. So this posting  covers our journey from Oddingley on the way north from Worcester, up the Tardebigge flight of locks towards Birmingham but turning off a few miles from the centre of the city at King's Norton Junction:

This is the entrance to Dunhampstead Tunnel. It is only 230 yards long and you can see the far end of the tunnel in the picture. Like other tunnels on the W&B it is two way so you can pass another narrowboat in the tunnel.

Some of the W&B is very overgrown as here where reed beds are present on both sides of the canal with just a narrow channel down the middle.

This picture is taken at Hanbury Wharf. The W&B is a narrow canal so what is the blue broadbeam doing on this canal and how did it get there? The answer is that they build them at Hanbury Wharf but when they are sold they have to be transported on a truck to somewhere that accommodates broad beam boats. Very curious, as that boat cannot go far in any direction from its present mooring before meeting a narrow lock.

Here is Hanbury Junction looking back. We had come under the bridge to the left in the picture. Under the bridge to the right is the narrow Droitwich Canal leading down to the fine moorings in Droitwich town and onwards on a wide canal to the River Severn above Worcester at Hawford Junction (see the previous posting).

On Tuesday (10 September) we climbed the Astwood and Stoke Locks (6 locks in each flight) and moored close to the Queen's Head for lunch. Our mooring was at the foot of the Tardebigge flight, the longest in the UK at 30 locks. On Wednesday morning we started early at about 8 am to tackle that flight. The picture shows us in lock 1 in early morning sunshine.

And here is Leo heading for lock 11 of the flight.

By lock 21 shown above we could see the dam of the Tardebigge Reservoir ahead. The reservoir provides a water supply to the flight and, by means of a pump, to the summit level which is on a level with Birmingham at about 450 feet above sea level.

Helen took this photo of Leo in lock 22 by standing on the reservoir dam.

This is  the top lock of the Tardebigge flight. While the depth of the other locks in the flight is around 7 feet each, this one is about 11 feet. Originally there was a boat lift here, but this was later replaced by a deep lock. At present there is a problem with the walls of the lock moving inwards so full width (7 feet) working boats are not allowed. Leisure boats like Leo are only 6 feet 10 inches wide so they are OK.

Here is the plaque recording the boat lift - note that the lift was man powered!

The bricks where the lock has narrowed have been scraped by boats using the lock. Ian tried to keep Leo forward of this area of the lock wall, just in case.

We moored at the top of the Tardebigge locks on Wednesday after a hard day. On Thursday morning we summoned up the energy to climb up to St Bartholomew's Church at the top of the hill. The view from here certainly shows that we are at the edge of a hill.

Here is St Bartholomew's Church, though it was closed when we visited.

On Thursday we had an easy day cruising to Alvechurch. Our route took us through two short tunnels - Tardebigge and Shortwood. The picture shows the boatyard at Alvechurch where a narrowboat has just been lifted out of the water.

On Friday we came past the two Bittel reservoirs. The picture shows the Lower Bittel reservoir. This too provides water to the Birmingham summit level. The mooring along the reservoir look great but unfortunately for us they are private moorings.

Soon after the Bittel reservoirs we came to the south portal of Wast Hills Tunnel shown in the picture. This is the fifth longest currently in normal use in the UK at 2,726 yards. It also marks a divide betwen rural Worcestershire to the south and the conurbation of Birmingham and its suburbs to the north.

A mile beyond the exit from the Wast Hills Tunnel we came to King's Norton Junction where the Stratford Canal turns right off the Worcester and Birmingham. The house in the picture is the old canal house at the junction. The plaque above the front door shows the tolls for the canal. The house has been vandalised in the past but now looks very smart and we have read that it is presently available to rent.

We think that, having restored the house, CRT now need to look after the signpost at the junction which is looking rather sad. We have turned right towards Stratford but intend to go only part way down to there, turning off onto the Grand Union Canal at Kingswood Junction. But that is for the next posting on this blog, so you must be patient.