Team Urban Moorings Virtual BCN Challenge 2020 Cruise Log

[Kate_MM]

We had an eventful time on the flight. The updated Time Machine with flux capacitor (Midland Chandler’s best) was flipping us all over the place. One minute we were trying to get the ‘Ampton down the flight by wheeling it along the towpath, the next we were learning… we’ll get to that bit in a minute, let’s just sort the ‘Ampton first.

 

Yes, we’ve still got the damn thing with us. Whose idea was it to gather up a, totally unsuited to most of the BCN 80’ wooden boat? Ah yes, Ali!

 

Long discussion ensued, whilst we reset all the locks (they’d drained while we were eating toast), as to whether Ali should be sacked and left to get said ‘Ampton to Urban Moorings toute seule, or possibly all by herself.

 

Reminder: this is what the old girl looks like (the ‘Ampton, not Ali).

Two things ended the discussion: Lesley pointing out that Ali was the only one who knew how the flux capacitor works so unless we wanted live out our days in Edwardian Birmingham, we had better be nice to her, and a shriek followed by a splash followed by…

 

Ali had took a look! Her first apparently. And it was freezing with the canal covered in ice (told you the time machine was all over the place).

 

By the time we reached her, the ice had thawed, she had managed to get a foothold on the rudder, grab the swan neck and climb out. And we were too late to capture it on film. We did ask why she hadn’t rung us for help to which she screamed some very unladylike epithets and pulled out a soggy phone from her back pocket. We assured her she was now a Proper Boater, that made her feel much better, or at least reduced the swearing.

 

We left her drying off and hunting for the rice to put her phone in and went back to the locks, all set for a swift descent because they were all set. Only they weren’t, they had unset themselves AGAIN while we’d been heaving the ‘Ampton on to the towpath and Ali into the cabin.

 

Every single one had drained.

 

Thankfully one of the wonders of virtual travel is being able to conjure up just the help you need when you need it. Kate clicked her fingers (Lou was very impressed, she’s always wanted to be able to do that – turns out Kate has too, more virtual virtuosity) and conjured up a veteran boater and RBOA stalwart for assistance. Beryl McDowell gave us all a lesson in managing leaking locks…

 

 

[Alarum Productions: I Dig Canals project, oral history interview]

 

Alex Bennett who owned Tench until her death in February 2018 could be as daft as a brush and had a capacity for Gin that the rest of us could never hope to match but she was a fine boatwoman, and she loved and cared for Tench with a passion. So, needless to say, the very thing we needed – a tarpaulin, was there, ready to use in the hold.

 

Getting it in place to keep the water in the lock while we filled it wasn’t quite as easy as Beryl had made it sound… but we got there in the end.

 

Once at the bottom of the flight, we retrieved the tarp, folded it ready for the next challenge, and got the kettle on again.

Suitable fortified off we set passing the junction with the Tame Valley anal from t’other end.

[Kate_MM]

And onwards to the top of Perry Bar locks

It was at this point that we noticed steam emitting from inside Tench. Oh no it was coming from the time machine. Quick give it to Ali. Ali examined it and there was much muttering and pressing of knobs and sparking of capacitors but it was having none of it. So, Ali put it on the floor and kicked it. There was an almighty flash of lightning and suddenly, whoosh, we were brought forward in time straight through 2020 to…  

 

And there were a few familiar sights.

 

Thankfully this sign suggested we were in the right place.

But not as we knew it. The canal was still there and so was the water but all the locks were now electric and the towpath was replaced by a moving travelator with flashing lights and a loud voice warning you not to disembark between stopping points.

 

Pedestrians were dressed in silver bodysuits and headbands traveling up and down. They seemed friendly enough and waved at us. We must have looked odd in our 21^st century (actually mostly 20^th) boating clothes. Suddenly there was a whooshing noise and a gentleman was stood next to us. He introduced himself as the local CRT bloke and asked if we needed any help with the locks.

 

‘Well. Gosh’ we said ‘that’d be handy’ we said, slinging him a windlass. He caught it neatly and chucked it straight back.

 

‘Oh no’ he said. ‘You don’t need that’ he said.

 

‘Perry Barr flight: prepare for narrowboat Tench’

 

He seemed to be talking to his wrist watch… but it worked. The paddles rose, the lock filled, the gates opened.

 

Tom was a wee bit disappointed; he’d got the whole poking the tarp down the side of the lock gates thing down to a fine art on the Rushall flight and was looking forward to refining it at Perry Bar.

 

‘Could I just…’ he said

 

‘No’ said Ronnie ‘put it back in the hold, I’ll get the kettle on’

 

‘Just move forward carefully doing each lock at five-minute intervals and they’ll automatically operate for you’

 

So we did. Sandra sipping tea at the tiller, the rest of us with our feet up in the hold, which, oddly had sprouted some rather comfortable recliner chairs. Watching each lock prepare, open the gates, drop the paddles, lift the paddles, lowering us gently, open the gates and out, became quite mesmerising.

 

Until the fourth lock and the dreaded, and familiar, juddering of the tiller arm. The old blade full problem. So, the 22^nd (or possibly 24^th, there weren’t many clues) century hadn’t solved all the cut’s irritating little ways!

 

Except it had. Lesley spotted a new button on the speed wheel labelled ‘auto prop clear’. We pressed it and suddenly the prop was free again and all the rubbish was magically in a bin bag on the boat. So, continued our lazy way down the rest of the Perry Bar flight reaching Salford Junction.

 

Now although it had been quite exciting all this space age automation it just didn’t feel like proper boating so we had a team vote and decided to return back to current time. We activated the time machine thingy once more. It was still playing up, whizzed straight past 2020 to a rather blurry 1960s.

Ali had another fiddle and finally got us, the sloe gin jam, the ‘ampton and Tench back to May 2020

[Kate_MM]

It isn’t the most scenic of spots but we’re stopping.

 

Ronnie put the kettle on,

Ronnie put the kettle on,

Ronnie put the kettle on,

We'll all have tea.

 

Lesley took it off again,

Lesley took it off again,

Lesley took it off again,

And turned on the still

 

Shloe jjjin anyone?

[Kate_MM]

18 minutes ago, Capt Ahab said:

You guys know me toooo well! NB someone seems to have de modernised our clubhouse.......

I think we just popped you back to 2013! For once the time machine actually arrived where it was meant to ?

[TheBiscuits]

27 minutes ago, Kate_MM said:

And it was time to get locking down Rushall.

 

 

There was more of a queue last time I was there ...

 

[Golden Boyz]

Fridays Challenge Photo of contents of a typical boat roof ... mast with Irish flag ( it was from one of our Irish team members afterall) Nicholsons guides, centre rope, scooter. gang plank, boat hook, Thermos flask & coffee cup,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Kate_MM]

TEAM URBAN MOORINGS FRIDAYS LOG

 

After a night on the sloe gin, we awoke with fuzzy heads and feeling a bit out of kilter. As we looked across the cabin, we saw Lou in a heap on the floor. We didn’t remember her being that drunk… but then again, we didn’t remember much at all. Someone mentioned dancing along the beam at midnight…

 

Apparently, she’d fallen out of bed in the night. And as we got up, we fell over too. That Sloe gin was powerful stuff.

 

But once we crawled to the hatch and heave ourselves up to look out, the reason became apparent: the water levels were well down and the boat was tilting at a precarious angle. Not good news when we had Aston and Farmers flights to do today. So, without further ado we left Ronni on breakfast duty, heaved the boat back into deeper water we set off on our very very slow journey.

 

We passed underneath spaghetti junction. Normally weird to think we’re going by so slowly underneath as cars and lorries whizzing above us at speed. Of course, currently there isn’t much traffic.

There was the usual struggle to get round the very sharp turn on towards Cuckoo wharf and the Aston flight made harder by the lack of water and Ali announcing smugly ‘just try doing it with a butty’.

 

‘For that, you get to bow haul the ‘Ampton’ said Lesley!

 

Ronni soon appeared with cups of tea and toast just as we passed Cuckoo Wharf and were approaching the Aston flight. Thus fortified we had a good look at the map for today’s journey. And Tom, who seems to have survived the Sloe gin rather better than the rest of us, whisked off in the gyrocopter…

 

Hang on, he only borrowed it to use on Wednesday, how come it’s still in our hold… Tom? Tom! TOM? But he was off…

 

…for an aerial view of the wharf.

The rest of us drank tea and checked the map for the day.

We slowly made our way up Aston locks with every lock taking twice as long as normal due to the low water levels in the cut, and the high alcohol levels in the veins. Tom was still playing in the gyrocopter and captured a great shot of the British Timpkin Roller Bearing Works on the flight in 1934

[Captain Pegg]

Great photos on this thread. The house at Perry Barr top lock is one of my favourite BCN things.

[Kate_MM]

[source Britain From Above]

 

Arriving at the top amidst much relief and calls for more tea.

 

‘I’m busy’ came from the corner of the hold with the stove in it.

 

Doing what? We all wondered. Ronni’s only job on this trip is to make the tea. She should have loads of time on her hands.

We took the sharp right at the top of the locks and walloped the wharf edge – that upset the time machine and it flipped us back to 1911 to find a boat, NB Burton heading straight for us.  It was widow Eliza Cresswell with children William, Lena and Stephen. I think they were a bit surprised as well but after a bit of yelling, arm waving and horn tooting we managed to avoid each other. It was nice to see her carrying on with the boat single handed; we watched, admired, the kids working down the locks like clockwork.

 

As they disappeared, we heard William shout to back to Eliza ‘’Ere Mum! Them is wimmin on that boat and they’s wearin’ trousers. T’ent ladylike wearin trousers’

[Source: Wolverhampton Census 1911]

 

A well-aimed kick from Ali and the machine had us back in the 21^st century. And well behind schedule so it was straight onto Farmers flight.

All was going well until we arrived at the 3^rd lock from the top and it was completely empty with a CRT tour going on in it.

 

Before you could say “Farmers Lock flight!” the all crew abandoned ship and were off inside the chamber exploring…

It was fascinating hearing all about the lock and actually be able to climb down into the lock chamber to see the construction and brickwork at close quarters. Luckily CRT decided to demonstrate how the lock works for all the visitors and gongoozlers so we (very nobly and with no thought of how this might help us win the challenge at all) volunteered to be the boat that went through. It was then up the last two locks and finally after a slow journey we were at Cambrian Wharf

[Kate_MM]

From there we just tootled round Old Turn and we were surprised to see all the trading boats moored up. Sadly, in these difficult locked down times they can’t be roving traders. All the planned floating markets have been cancelled. However, we were delighted to hear that all this week that they’re running an online market instead so please do go along and support them if you can. This week’s theme is Artists and Writers:

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1370660033124493/

 

There are other markets running across the next few weeks and details can be found here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/buyitoffaboat/events/

 

So that’s what Ronni has been doing between brewing endless pots of tea and toasting mountains of toast. No wonder she said she was busy!

 

With all the market dates duly noted in our diaries we bade the traders farewell, from an appropriate distance of two metres, of course, and continued up the mainline towards Icknield and Soho loops where we had a bit of a fracas, a contre-temps, a flaming row.

 

All rather embarrassing. Kate wanted to go round the Soho loop, always been intrigued by Hockley Port, even thought about bringing her boat up here in 2010, the year she spent mostly inside Winson Green Prison (we didn’t even ask…). But… Navigator Tom said ‘No’. Just like that ‘the computer says No. There isn’t time. We won’t make our mooring if we do that’.

 

So, she just took the gyrocopter and went off…

[Kate_MM]

And discovered that where the residential moorings are now at Hockley Port there used to be a thriving community centre and the Hockley Port Waterways Group.

One member in the 70s and 80s was Jeni Hatton and her husband Graham – they met another boater in Birmingham who invited them to a rally there. They had such a good time they joined the Hockley Port Waterways Group. The aim was to regenerate the arm and provide facilities for local young people. They fundraised with a trip boat, Atheni, an old boat that needed constant care. Took it to rallies, and would collect beer cans full of 10p pieces. They held regular rallies before the Birmingham boating festival was thought of.

 

“I think we were seen as a bit reprobate since we had fun, got drunk and rattled collecting tins at people!”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UOty9fCze4andfeature=youtu.be

 

But the activities were taken over by the council in the mid-80s and after the first meeting with the woman who would be running it there was a committee rebellion in which they gave their remaining funds to the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society to contribute to the signposts they were building at the time. Bought three, handed over the books and everyone left the basin. Sadly, she said, it was derelict within a few months, stayed like that until BW took it over and created new moorings and dock.

[Source: Alarum Productions project ‘I Dig Canals’, oral history interview with Jeni Hatton]

 

And here is one of those signposts:

In the meantime, the rest of us had decided to have another go at making the time flux capacitor thingy do as it was asked for once, and have a little foray up The Cape Arm.

 

And it worked!

There obviously hadn’t been many boats up there in a while so the inevitable happened…

 

…. with a judder the boat ground to a halt. Sandra got herself stuck in the same vicinity a few years ago with a sari round her prop. Luckily, we spotted a half-naked man on the towpath (as you do) who was more than happy to help us damsels in distress (we made Tom hide inside)

He did a sterling job and saw us off safe with a cheery wave. Good folks these boaters.

It was then just a short cruise up to Smethwick Junction where after a much longer and slower day than planned we tied up for the night.

 

Ronnie put the kettle on,

Ronnie put the kettle on,

Ronnie put the kettle on,

We'll all have tea.

 

Ali took it off again,

Ali took it off again,

Ali took it off again,

And fetched us fish and chips

[Golden Boyz]

For todays challenge which is of a culinary nature team Urban Moorings have had a veritable feast cooked up by chef Ronni.

We started the day with a full cooked breakfast

Lunch was buffet style due to being on the move

Then we treated ourselves to afternoon tea ( well it is the last day)

And supper was a tasty chicken curry with rice topped with raita & fresh coriander with the most perfect canal view & a cheeky little glass of wine

[cheshire~rose]

I am posting here because the time is now 6pm on Saturday 9th May 2020 and all virtual boating should now cease.  Please ensure you boat is tied up securely and join us in the virtual beer tent for an evening of virtual celebration. We will be announcing the scores tomorrow lunchtime

 

Anything added to the cruise log after this post will not be considered in the judging

 

All the organisers (that is myself, @Capt Ahab and @Postcode) would like to thank this team for all their hard work in managing to virtually navigate around the BCN in these challenging times. We hope the team have learned a bit about the BCN, especially the lost 60 miles and we hope their narrative about their journey this week has instilled an interest in the reader too. We also hope the team and their readers have found the experience fun and I think we have all benefited from the incredibly informative, imaginative, dramatic and sometimes just plain silly posts that the teams have produced throught this week.

 

We sincerely hope that this will lead to some of you heading off (whether by boat or on foot) to explore these amazing locations in real life as soon as the retrictions on travel allow us to do so.

 

I think it is important to remember that this virtual event is taking place because the real BCN challenge could not. The Real BCN Challenge is an important event in the calendar of The BCN Society and, as their event had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 this year they are missing out on the entry fees of a lot of participating boaters and a lot of donations that the event would usually generate.

 

It is also fair to say that without this fine forum tolerating all these teams mucking about with their virtaul cruise diaries we might well struggle to work out how this event could have been hosted. It is free to join this forum and it is free to read it as well but there are costs involved in it's existance and it doesn't hurt to remind people that, if they can afford to do so, bunging the cost of a round of drinks with your mates into the frum coffers may just help it continue to be free for everyone to enjoy

 

 

It is with that in mind that I want to say, if you have enjoyed this event, either from the perspective of a participant, or from the perspective of an onlooker perhaps you would consider making a small donation, either to The BCNS or to the forum.

 

The BCNS do not have a clickable link where you can donate but you can do so via online banking by using these details:

BCN Society
Barclays Bank
Sort Code 20-84-13
Account Number 60176419

Or you may wish to consider becoming a member of their fine organisation and help to ensure that these amazing canals with all their wealth of heritage are looked after and restored where they can be.

To find out more please visit their website here:

 

https://bcnsociety.com/

 

If you wish to donate to the forum you can do so here:

 

https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/store/category/6-make-a-donation-to-canal-world/

 

There have been an incredible (or maybe barmy?) 14 teams of boaters who have been virtually haring around the canals of birmingham this week. Each of their cruise logs has it's own unique style. If you have enjoyed reading this one then why not dip your toe into one of the others - likes to them all are shown here:

 

• The Workers: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105850-team-“the-workers”-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Pugnipeek: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105877-team-pugnipeek-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Firefly https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105892-team-firefly-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Indigo Dream https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105875-team-indigo-dream-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Rebellion https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105883-team-rebellion-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Steaming Behind: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105886-team-steaming-behind-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Barnier's Stern Gland https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105863-team-“barniers-stern-gland”-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team NB Styxl: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105861-team-nb-styxl-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Urban Moorings: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105895-team-urban-moorings-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Biscuits: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105887-teambiscuits-nb-good-times-virtuous-bcns-42hr-snickers-challenge-crew-slog/
• Team Willum: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105873-team-“willum”-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Sugar 'n' Spice: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105899-team-“sugar-n-spice”-virtual-bcn-challenge-cruise-log/
• Team whisky Galore: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105932-team-whisky-galore-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/
• Team Anado Solo: https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105905-team-“anado-solo”-virtual-bcn-challenge-2020-cruise-log/

 

[Golden Boyz]

@cheshire~rose The email says boast to be finished by 6pm & entries to be in by 6.30pm? We're about to post ours

 

PLEASE REMEMBER you must arrive at the finish point NO LATER than 6pm today and your completed entries must be sent in no later than 6.30pm  today to allow our panel to judge your entries this evening so we can announce the scores tomorrow.

 

It's not 6,30pm yet lol

[cheshire~rose]

Post it then 

[Kate_MM]

URBAN MOORINGS SATURDAY LOG

 

After our overnight at Smethwick Junction we awoke to the delicious smell of sizzling bacon.  Ronni had decided to treat us as it was our last day of the virtual BCN challenge. We didn‘t need any encouragement.

Over breakfast we got news of heavy weed infestation on the New Main Line, so some rethinking of our route was needed if we were to make the finish line by 6pm. Navigator Tom set to work and came up with a new route.

 

Partway through breakfast we heard a “Hello” through the hatch and Sandra was delighted to se her friend Ian Jelf who is an absolutely wonderful Blue Badge Guide –in Sandras’s opinion the best. Ian lives in Smethwick and was a bit surprised to see Sandra here as he thought she was in Ireland.

 

We explained that she is, and that he was seeing things, and it was all virtual and none of us were really there at all…

 

…but we were ready to hang on his every word.

 

So, off we went on our own little personal tour of the area filling us in on the history as we went.

 

Handing over to Ian…

 

 Originally there were two parallel rows of locks here at Smethwick. When the canal first came through the area there was a rise of six locks. This was reduced in the 1790s to 2 when the engineer James Smeaton (who also designed one of the Eddystone lighthouses) lowered the Smethwick summit. He added a second flight of 3 locks parallel to the existing ones to increase capacity. The canal was getting congested even then! Up Bridge Street to the left hand side just before the Engine Arm Aqueduct in the nineteenth century the corner of Rolfe Street was the site of the Smethwick Engine, built by Boulton and Watt to pump water back to the upper levels of the canal. This was later moved to Ocker Hill and then to Birmingham’s Science Museum. Today, at “Think Tank” Birmingham the “Smethwick Engine” is the oldest working steam engine in the world!

[Kate_MM]

 

Smethwick probably comes from “Smooth – wick, meaning settlement on a plain. That makes sense, as it lies on flat land to the east of the Rowley Hills (which prove such an obstacle for canals; think of the Dudley and Netherton Tunnels!). That said, the Smethwick summit was still a difficulty to the canal builders and its users, hence Thomas Telford coming along in the 1820s and bypassing the lot with the vast “Galton Valley” along which we’ll be cruising. When dug (all by hand, remember, this was the largest earthwork in the world.

 

The land to the right of the Smethwick locks, in Lewisham Road, was once the Surrey Works of Evered and Company. They began manufacturing tubes for the frames that supported the crinoline dresses of Georgian and Regency ladies. When changing fashions caused that work to dry up, they put their tubes to other purposes, from gas lighting and bedsteads to waveguides for modern radar systems as late as the 1980s. c the company also made the models for Pott’s bizarre “Heath Robinson” type inventions in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

 

The bridge over the canal at Bridge Street is called Pope’s Bridge after Luke Pope, a horticulturalist who lived in the area and experimented with plant breeding and hybrids. His house north of here on the Birmingham Road was called “The Hawthorns” and gave is name to the adjacent stadium which is home to West Bromwich Albion FC. (This also the highest league ground above sea level in England.)

 

Building the New Main Line cut off the short branch line to the Smethwick Engine which was used to deliver coal. So Telford had to construct the magnificent Engine Arm Aqueduct to preserve the link from the old main line, across the New one. It's Grade I Listed (as is the famous Galton Bridge further on).

 

We paused briefly here whilst Lou painted the scene

 

On the left behind the Engine Arm Aqueduct is the former Smethwick Fire Station. This is said to be haunted by the ghost of a former Fire Chief who committed suicide in his accommodation there when told he would have to retire.

 

On that cheerful note, we felt it was time to drag ourselves away from Ian as we could have listened all day but we were conscious of our tight deadline today. If anyone is interested in Ians tours once lockdown is lifted please check out : https://www.facebook.com/ianjelftours/ He also has some podcasts currently on his page.

 

So we leapt back onboard Tench and headed up the three locks, past the pumphouse and Engine Arm aqueduct that we’d just walked past and round through to Oldbury Locks. ‘This won’t take long’ we all said to each other, not with Ronnie keeping our strength up with tea and cookies (it seemed an age since breakfast) and Kate and Ali flying ahead armed with windlasses…

 

Until just above the second lock where we found a completely empty pound!

 

Fortunately, before exploding and laying into the miscreants wot had drained it, we took a second look, being the second pound… (sorry)

 

…and realised it was Phil with a BCN workboat on its way back up to the Pumphouse to moor with the most ginormous chain wrapped around the prop. So, that’s why they’d drained it!

 

Look carefully at the back counter, it’s there. [photo Heather Wastie]

 

To Tiford pumphouse, where once again we tripped over Alarum Theatre – with their new show Acts of Abandon.

 

[Kate_MM]

 

Heather was on stage, singing about the restoration of the Droitwich Canal, not part of the BCN but the work involved certainly sounds familiar…

As you speed along the Saltway

or walk along the Hanbury Road,

have a look over the hedgerow,

see the hunt for heritage gold.

 

On the other side of the hedge

On the other side of the hedge

 

You won't find a bold magician,

a wizard with a magic wand

casting spells to cut a channel

where there's just a muddy pond.

 

On the other side of the hedge

On the other side of the hedge

 

There are sickles, scythes and slashers,

billhooks, axes, garden tools.

People cutting, chopping, mashing

reeds and brambles hunt for jewels,

 

not for kudos, not for glory,

not for money, not for praise;

there are locks to be discovered

buried in the tangled maze.

 

On the other side of the hedge

On the other side of the hedge

 

© Heather Wastie 2019

 

Still humming along to the chorus we sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed more tea, and a buffet lunch, or was it a picnic?

Once back down Oldbury locks we realised we were now actually making good time so we decided to have a little spin on our time machine up the Valencia Arm and back

The photo shows Roach tied up with the Union Towage fleet of mud-hoppers at Valencia Wharf, Oldbury. This was Les Allen and Sons boat building yard at the time. The hopper boat that Roach is tied to was towed around by John for a year or so, and used to carry pre-packed smokeless fuels, as Roach was being regularly loaded with housecoal in 20 tonne loads. The motor boat on the inside is Chertsey, and the River class butty alongside Chertsey is one of only two built to accommodate a lift-out cabin.

 

And we admired a little more of Oldbury’s past.

Back to the 21st century where we were now on a mission to get to Bradley workshops for 6pm. Back along to Oldbury Locks Junction and then through to Tipton passing Brades hall Junction, Coronation Gardens and The Slasher, The Fountain Inn and The Malthouses.

 

We followed the The Ocker Hill branch and The Old Main Line to get us to the Bradley workshops.

And arrive at

 

17:59 on May 9^th 2021

 

We’d done it! The 2021 BCN challenge.

 

Even managed to time it just right for a tour of Bradley workshops so we got to see how lock gates are made

Ronnie put the kettle on,

Ronnie put the kettle on,

Ronnie put the kettle on,

We'll all have tea.

 

Ali took it off again,

Lesley took it off again,

Sandra took it off again,

And chucked her in the cut

 

Once we’d dried her off we opened the…

[Kate_MM]

and toasted our steerer, navigator, lock wheelers, researcher, navigator and

 

THE FIENDISH ORGANISERS OF THIS HIDEOUS CHALLENGE, JAN AND ANDY.

 

(we enjoyed ourselves really)

[Golden Boyz]

[cheshire~rose]

Out of interest, did anyone in your team calculate the total miles and locks you covered during the challenge? If you have already mentioned it in the thread somewhere forgive me, I am asking because I am too lasy to go through 14 threads to find if the information has already been shared

[Kate_MM]

I know it's all over but I've just realised that I uploaded the wrong final picture - that's what comes of doing things without your specs on!

 

So, by way of a farewell from the Urban Moorings Team, here we all are, marooned on an Edwardian Canal somewhere near you...