NEW – The Birmingham Ring – Interactive Map

[David Floyd]

Birmingham Ring Interactive Map is now released, The ring is about 45 miles and go through 49 locks. We have 82 locations mapped so far.

 

Let me know if I have missed anything 🙂

 

David

[RobertT]

We are booked with ABC for the Birmingham "mini-ring."  Is there an Interactive map here that is better for that route?
https://www.abcboathire.com/our-routes/short-breaks/alvechurch-marina/birmingham-mini-ring

Looking to map out how to traverse roughly along these spots, expecting about 8 hrs travel a day, but where to stop day 1, if we are heading out from Alvechurch at 4 or 5, and then need to pace in and out of Gas Street for the loop.

Alvechurch start 5pm

Hopwood

Bournville

Gas Street Basin

Catherine de Barnes

Hockley Heath

Alvechurch stop

 

[5239]

If you get your skates on you can make Gas Street in 4 hrs. 

Id be tempted to head straight there, especially with the light evenings.  
Moor up somewhere by the Arena for a quieter night. 
 

[Rob-M]

That's what I would do, wouldn't stop at bournville unless wanting do visit Cadbury but would then want to move on to Gas Street area and not stay at bournville overnight.

[5239]

👍it won’t need any dithering and faffing, mind from what I’ve seen of the Alvechurch boats setting out they don’t hang about 😂

 

 

 

[RobertT]

Thanks. Probably not setting out from Alvechurch until about 5ish due to the pickup and walkthrough time. So I wasn't sure about gunning through to Gas Street on first night, or whether it would be better to moor at Bournville. But then the day after we'd be looking at 8+ hours to get through Birmingham and out, and down the Grand Union a bit to stay on pace.

[Ken X]

If you have allowed four nights for this ring I would definitely be heading for Gas Street for your first night. It's around 10 1/2 miles, so four hours is quite possible. Not many moored boats to pass on this stretch.

[5239]

Consensus says gun it, 

I went back and forth along there last year and I couldn’t (or didn’t) do it in less than 4 hr.  
But I had it well timed for 4hr. Plenty of stretches without boats, just slow down a bit for Bournville. 
 

leave at 5 be in Brum for 9. Town’s all lit up anyway. 

drive it like you stole it as they say. 

[Rob-M]

Don't get nipping in the Weighbridge before setting off or you won't make it to Brum.

 

I've done one late night from Alvechurch where I came out of Wast Hill tunnel and it didn't get any lighter but carried on and arrived in Brum just after 1am but a bit late for a hire boat.

[PeterScott]

 

 

It always rains when we decide on heading for GasSt from King'sNorton, and usually thinking of being dark before we get there. Too easy to bang the two skew railway bridges which seem narrower than you might expect.

 

 

and Edgbaston Tunnel has had some waterspace stolen for a wider towingpath - so now one-way. And there are long stretches of brick-sided towingpath, with no hope of mooring even if you wanted to ...

[5239]

The other option is stay at Alvechurch for the night and drink yourself silly in the Weighbridge. 
Then get up at 4am and be in Brum for 8am. 
And then decide it’s time to move on 🤷‍♀️ And go Tipton!

 

[john6767]

Is your plan is to  stop at Hopwood on the first night and the Bourneville the second night?  Obviously Hopwood is close to Alvechurch but if you don’t want to rush then stop there, but then the next day just go straight into the centre of Birmingham, it’s only half a day anyway.  From Birmingham going to CdeB in one hop is a good plan.  CdeB to Hockley Heath is a good day, if you now have the time you could stop at Kingswood junction, or on the moorings near to the Boot a few locks up Lapworth. Rather than Hockley Heath you may then want to think about stopping at Warings Green, near the Blue Bell, instead. From there to Alvechurch is an easy day.

[davem399]

I wonder if you can get away earlier than about 5pm?  I was returning our shared owners boat to Alvechurch back in March from Brum and we met several ABC boats heading towards Brum that must have left the base around 3.00ish or shortly after.

[agg221]

2 minutes ago, davem399 said:

I wonder if you can get away earlier than about 5pm?  I was returning our shared owners boat to Alvechurch back in March from Brum and we met several ABC boats heading towards Brum that must have left the base around 3.00ish or shortly after.

 

This is what I was thinking.

 

Hire bases don't run through every boat handover simultaneously. When we were on a bit of a schedule we used to turn up about 1.5hrs before handover time, let them know we were there and then come back about 15mins before handovers started. That would put us first, which usually meant first away. We would have everything ready to sling aboard - no particular worry about sorting at that stage, just get it onto beds, seats and tables so it was off the floor. This meant we could get away quickly. For the direction you are going, you have no locks to worry about so whilst one person is steering, anyone else can get the boat sorted out.

 

With a bit of luck,. handover will start at 2:00pm and you will be away by 3:00pm, at which point getting to the centre is easy. Plenty of food places in the centre which serve fairly late so if you aren't planning on eating aboard on the first night it is a good option and means you don't need to tie up to cook.

 

Alec

[RobertT]

Thanks, all. 
John6767, good stuff. We are on a 4 night hire, so really wouldn't want to stop at Hopwood, Bournville *and* Gas unless we were just going up to Birm and back.  Sounds like we can bet on getting out of Alvechurch well before 5 and get to Birmingham for the night, and then on to CdeB the next morning.

Next Q for all: reasonable to expect CBT volunteers on hand for the clusters of locks coming down into Grand Union, and then back up when we hit Lapworth on the loop? 

[5239]

Really don’t know. Sometimes they are on sometimes not. there’s a good chance of someone being on at Farmers Bridge. I think you’d have to ring CRT with dates to find out for sure. 
But if there’s a few of you on board I can’t see you being any better off with the help of volunteers. 
In fact I’d say this is a case of it being more enjoyable without their help. You’ve paid a lot of money to hire so get your money’s worth and enjoy doing them. 
None of the lockies start til 8am so if you want to avoid them start at 7.30 😃. 


some say Knowle locks can be tricky, but I can’t remember it being so. 
and Lapworth is a pretty and lovely flight which is very easy to do. 

have you hired and done locks before?

[agg221]

How many people in your party, and how physically able?

 

If you have three or more people who are capable of steering or working locks (say 10yrs old or older for the latter) then you will be just as fast without support crew. You just need to work out a routine where the boat is always moving (forwards, up or down). That means someone walking on to the lock ahead and someone closing up behind the boat afterwards.

 

Alec

[Victor Vectis]

I'd agree that you need to get into Brum on your first day.

After that you will have a long day going down Farmers Bridge and Ashted then up Camp Hill, 25 locks, but I'm guessing you will have crew.

TBH its all a bit grotty through there and there isn't much to recommend stopping before C de B. Stop there if you're all knackered but if it were me I'd try to continue to Knowle. Nice quiet moorings near Kixley Bridge, No 72 and a short stroll to pubs, eateries etc.

You might find lock smurfs at Knowle and Lapworth and the next day I would aim for the Blue Bell at Warings Green, good pub food (ie not 'gastro') and beer.

Then, as has been said before its a lock free run to King's Norton, much nicer than the GU, left turn and then back to Alvchurch.

[john6767]

2 hours ago, RobertT said:

Thanks, all. 
John6767, good stuff. We are on a 4 night hire, so really wouldn't want to stop at Hopwood, Bournville *and* Gas unless we were just going up to Birm and back.  Sounds like we can bet on getting out of Alvechurch well before 5 and get to Birmingham for the night, and then on to CdeB the next morning.

Next Q for all: reasonable to expect CBT volunteers on hand for the clusters of locks coming down into Grand Union, and then back up when we hit Lapworth on the loop? 

Then yes you need to go for Birmingham, then CdeB, then Hockney Heath or Warings Green, then possibly Hopwoold on the return.

 

There are often volunteers at Knowle and Lapworth. I would expect to be on your own for Farmers Bridge, Ashted and Camp Hill.

[gatekrash]

There's often lockies on farmers, but only after about 10 ish. We're usually down well before they start, although the last couple of times we came up in the afternoon to be fair they were really good guys and happy to just set ahead and close up behind. 

 

If going via ashted tunnel then make sure you walk forward and run some water off the pound once you've emptied the lock before the tunnel, it'll help with the roof clearance in the tunnel which is just a little bit tight... 

 

Last time we went that way we carried on down Knowle and stopped at somewhere near the Black Boy pub. Looking at the log that was about 9 hours from Gas Street, if you stop at CdB then you'll knock a couple of hours off that.

[Ken X]

The Black Boy has 24 hr moorings for patrons. Three or perhaps four smaller boats worth.

[David Floyd]

2 hours ago, Ken X said:

The Black Boy has 24 hr moorings for patrons. Three or perhaps four smaller boats worth.

Thanks Updated

 

D