Birmingham to Warwick

Birmingham to Kings Norton - 8 miles and 0 locks

We only spent a couple of days in Birmingham so I left James and Dudley at the boat and went shopping for the most of the afternoon. We also had a visit from Rebekah and her Patterpoo Polo, it was lovely to catch up again. It wasn't long before we were on the move again, this time leaving Birmingham by a different route through Gas Street Basin and continuing along the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. We left at morning commuter time and were amazed at the amount of bikes racing along the towpath not caring about the pedestrians or each other. We had a brief stop at Selly Oak to visit Sainsbury's then past Bournville where we came across a car which had taken a wrong turn and ended in the canal. We just managed to squeeze past it but as it was so shallow at the edge the three guys waiting for the recovery truck took a rope and helped pull us through. At King's Norton Junction we turned left onto the Stratford-on-Avon Canal and stopped shortly after for the night.

Passing the ICC

Very tight to get past

But we managed

Kings Norton Junction

The Guillotine Lock 

Moored up just past the boatyard

King's Norton to Lapworth - 9.5 miles and 4 locks

We've done this part of the Stratford Canal before but it was a few years ago, it's surprising how much you remember though. We did the first four locks of the Lapworth flight before stopping for the night.

Lapworth to Rowington - 3 miles and 15 locks

We continued down the remaining 15 locks of the Lapworth flight with the help of a volunteer down the second half, he was really helpful and stayed with us for for the remainder of the flight. At Kingswood Junction we left the Stratford-on-Avon Canal and joined the Grand Union, we turned right to head south. We stopped at a fantastic mooring near Rowington where it felt like we had our own private garden. Dudley enjoyed running around and as we stayed a few days James got lots of work done. On one of my walks with Dudley I came across the little church at Rowington.

There was a lot of water coming down the flight

Kingswood Junction where we turned right for Warwick

Rowington Church

Our lovely mooring for a few days

Rowington to top of Hatton 3 miles and 0 locks
We were late leaving as it rained most of the morning so we set off in the afternoon to get to the top of Hatton and would tackle the locks tomorrow.

Shrewley Tunnel with its separate horse tunnel

Hatton Flight 2 miles and 21 locks

This section of the Grand Union was originally the Warwick and Birmingham Canal which opened in December 1799, but when the Grand Union Canal Company took over this and several other canals in 1929 they were renamed the Grand Union Canal. The Hatton locks were narrow locks, however in 1932 work started to create wide locks to avoid congestion and two narrow boats could go through at the same time, it took two years and over 1,000 men to construct the new wide locks alongside the narrow ones. The narrow locks were closed and are now used as overflows, so you can clearly see them throughout the flight. 

Moored at the bottom of Hatton flight

Saltisford Arm 0.5 miles

The Saltisford Arm is run by the Saltisford Canal Trust and is a great place to stop at to visit Warwick. The first nights mooring is free and then £5.50 per night, you can have electric hook up as well and you only pay for what you use. We met up with Jo and Keith on Hadar whilst there and they kindly invited us for a welcome coffee. We were leaving Lois Jane for a few days to head off to visit Jess and Lee in Poole.

Saltiford Arm

LJ tucked away near the end for a few days on her own

TOTALS 347.5 miles and 342 locks

A brief stopover in Warwick and Leamington Spa...

We needed to be just the other side of Warwick/Leamington Spa by last Friday because we had an appointment to get the bongo MOT'd. Deb had found a guy who 'arranged' MOT's but was also experienced in the little idiosyncrasies of the breed. So we knew if anything was wrong it would be in safe (ish) hands. The guy also works on a mobile basis so could be handy in the future.

Problem was that I would have wanted to spend more time in these two interlinked towns. We had discussed coming back this way late winter next year as its only a few days away from where we intend getting iced in over winter (or hour or so by bongo!)  The only issue is that Warwick lies south of the canal main line, so its a good mile or so round trip to town, and the canal continues to the Old Leamington Spa area which should be pretty and quaint but well, it ain't. The moorings were OK but of the 10ish boats there 3 were hire boats with a group of lads (hooray Henry types) who we nearly bumped into a few days later as two of the three boats decide traveling in tandem is boring and decided to go everywhere breasted up with both engines running and two steerers. The rest of the boats, well I'd describe the average age of the boats to be over 30 years old, the average boater about 30 as well and all blokes, they kept themselves to themselves but the big group of hippy hutches kinda scene is one I'm keen to steer clear of.

The boat directly behind was quite well looked after and lived on by three brothers who had all hit trouble at the same time. One was going through a messy divorce, one lost yet another job and one had a vertebral artery occlusion that resulted in a stroke, the same as I suffered just before Christmas last year. Sadly he wasn't one of the sufferers who made a swift and full recovery. He is walking with a stick now but having difficulty with his speech and will only speak to his brothers and never in front of strangers. It happened to a friend of a colleague a week or so before me in December whilst he was at the gym.Whilst I was out of hospital on the road to recovery back to work and driving again this young lad was still learning how to walk.  Two of the unlucky 25%. If we do come back early next year we will probably pay to stay in the Saltisford arm which we passed through last year. 

Whilst in Warwick though we did manage to track down an old former maternity home. Actually it was a nursing home then maternity home and now a nursery (and probably a few other things along the away). It was here that my mum was born just over 70 years ago. I think the story was that whilst grandad was on active service nan got evacuated to Warwick to have the baby (maybe wrong there so expected an edit)