W&B Stoke Prior winding hole (Black Prince)

[brianthesnail96]

Hi folks, 

Me again. Inspired (?) by our summer trip out a bunch of my mates said they fancied a go. As such we're taking a not quite 70 footer out from Worcester this weekend (Friday- Monday but we're dropping it back late Sunday). I'm not quite sure how enthusiastic they're going to be so I've wimped out of aiming for Droitwich and doing the ring, we're just going to run up the W&B. If we're not making progress we'll wind at Hanbury, stop on the VMs above the junction and mooch into Droitwich (the Eagle and Sun is closed, and has mixed reviews anyway). However if we're making good time we'll carry on up to Stoke Prior. I just wanted to make sure the winding hole will be available to use, I'm not sure if it's part of the Black Prince base and therefore liable to be full of boats out of season or not (we'll get there Saturday evening if we do get that far). 

 

 I'm not sure I'll make any friends having to do Tardebigge in the dark just to turn the boat around and come back down at dawn the next day 😁

[frangar]

I’m local and I’ve never had an issue winding there. Just take it steady and you will be fine. 

[brianthesnail96]

Cheers - I was sure it wouldn't be a problem, but given the collective experience on here I thought it worth checking 🙂

[gatekrash]

Is normally got some BP boats moored in it, but it's fine as long as nobody is moored on the towpath opposite. 

 

If you're going in to Droitwich the Talbot is a good real ale pub, the Italian isn't bad for food but you'd need to book and there's a Thai takeaway at Bullocks and a Chinese (Panda) is ok. The Indian near the butcher has a good reputation but I haven't used it myself and the chippy (Queens) does huge portions and Blue light discount!!

 

[robtheplod]

1 hour ago, gatekrash said:

Blue light discount!!

 

often wondered about these deals.... is it worth hiring an outfit or are the savings not that great?  Hope things are swell at Droitwich! 

[Rob-M]

1 hour ago, gatekrash said:

If you're going in to Droitwich the Talbot is a good real ale pub

I'm sure it was the Talbot that I had an awful pint in there last month, two different beers and both had a vinegar after taste.

[Hudds Lad]

45 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

often wondered about these deals.... is it worth hiring an outfit or are the savings not that great?  Hope things are swell at Droitwich! 

Think you'd need some form of ID really, Rob. Don't expect your saucy nurse outfit will cut it  

 

 

Edited October 7 by Hudds Lad
repetition

[Ray T]

21 hours ago, brianthesnail96 said:

Hi folks, 

 I'm not sure I'll make any friends having to do Tardebigge in the dark just to turn the boat around and come back down at dawn the next day 😁

 

Hire boats aren't usually insured to travel in the hours of darkness. Best check with Black Prince, if it's a hire boat you are cruising with.

Edited October 7 by Ray T

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Ray T said:

 

Hire boats aren't usually insured to travel in the hours of darkness. Best check with Black Prince, if it's a hire boat you are cruising with.

 

I believe they usually *are* insured to travel in the dark (because anything else is impossible to enforce/check) but the hire bases often tell hirers they're not, because they don't want them doing this and risk causing even more damage to the boat than during daytime... 😞 

 

Either way, if you ask the hire base they'll almost certainly say "no". Unless you phone them up and say that due to unexpected delays the only way you can get the boat back to base in time is to do this, then you might find the insurance miraculously becomes valid... 😉 

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, Ray T said:

Hire boats aren't usually insured to travel in the hours of darkness.

Yes they are! Even though the hirers may be told otherwise.

How would you feel if a hirer, disregarding the company instructions, rammed your boat during the hours of darkness doing significant damage, only for you to be told that the hire company insurance would not pay out?

[matty40s]

7 hours ago, David Mack said:

Yes they are! Even though the hirers may be told otherwise.

How would you feel if a hirer, disregarding the company instructions, rammed your boat during the hours of darkness doing significant damage, only for you to be told that the hire company insurance would not pay out?

I would be happy that the hirers lost their deposit, and also happy that the hire boat was insured. No doubt their deposit would cover the excess.

[brianthesnail96]

Thanks folks. The comment about doing Tardebigge by night was firmly tongue in cheek- if we really got snookered we'd have to extend the holiday by a day. There'll be enough of us that we can rope the boat around if it's a bit tight- I was just a bit worried about arriving to 4 BP boats wedged into the hole and another on the bank opposite... 

We're hiring from ABC in Worcester (Lowesmoor) by the way. 

Appreciate the advice on eating (and drinking!) in Droitwich. The chippy sounds like a good shout.

Edited October 8 by brianthesnail96

[brianthesnail96]

Thanks for the advice folks. Made good time, getting up to Hanbury for a slightly late lunch (see photo) and a few of the others fancied a go at driving locks so we carried on up to Stoke Prior. We managed to spin around without too much bother, although lots of Black Prince boats either side did make it a bit of a faff (in fact getting in and out of the lock was slightly awkward too), nothing on the towpath opposite at least. Judging by the state of the brickwork in the winding hole we were much more gentle than some other boaters! Actually winding in Diglis basin was worse than Stoke. It looks bigger on Google maps...

 

Food wise we ended up going "posh" (for us...) in The Danesbury, kicking most of the crew off after Blockhouse Lock while the rest of us plodded up to tie up at the Lowesmoor VMs (which were spot on) and walked back down. At Stoke we'd stopped in view of the Boat and Railway but they had a private event on so the kitchen was closed. We mooched up to the Navigation instead which we were slightly surprised to find was doing both Indian food as well as usual pub grub, but it was very friendly and the food (we nearly all had Indian) was decent and pretty reasonably priced. I'm afraid I can't comment on the beer 'cos I don't drink, the ice cream was nice though...

 

The guys at Worcester Marina were great, very laid back but very thorough - handover was taken seriously (as it should be) but they were very friendly and helpful. The boat was great too, spotlessly clean and everything worked. 

 

Canal wise there was only one out of use paddle, and only a couple of slightly leaky gates (and someone had not quite shut nearly every towpath side bottom paddle on the Astwood flight...) but a couple of the ones on the edge of Worcester have some very sticky top paddles. One low pound coming up Offerton on Saturday which  a couple of CRT guys were running water down to already before we got there. Couldn't get into the Gregory's Mill bottom lock until the police had finished dealing with a group of ne'er do wells loitering on the bottom gate. I was going to get them to help work the lock for us but they moved them on instead 😁

 

Edited October 12 by brianthesnail96

[frangar]

23 minutes ago, brianthesnail96 said:

Thanks for the advice folks. Made good time, getting up to Hanbury for a slightly late lunch (see photo) and a few of the others fancied a go at driving locks so we carried on up to Stoke Prior. We managed to spin around without too much bother, although lots of Black Prince boats either side did make it a bit of a faff (in fact getting in and out of the lock was slightly awkward too), nothing on the towpath opposite at least. Judging by the state of the brickwork in the winding hole we were much more gentle than some other boaters! Actually winding in Diglis basin was worse than Stoke. It looks bigger on Google maps...

 

Food wise we ended up going "posh" (for us...) in The Danesbury, kicking most of the crew off after Blockhouse Lock while the rest of us plodded up to tie up at the Lowesmoor VMs (which were spot on) and walked back down. At Stoke we'd stopped in view of the Boat and Railway but they had a private event on so the kitchen was closed. We mooched up to the Navigation instead which we were slightly surprised to find was doing both Indian food as well as usual pub grub, but it was very friendly and the food (we nearly all had Indian) was decent and pretty reasonably priced. I'm afraid I can't comment on the beer 'cos I don't drink, the ice cream was nice though...

 

The guys at Worcester Marina were great, very laid back but very thorough - handover was taken seriously (as it should be) but they were very friendly and helpful. The boat was great too, spotlessly clean and everything worked. 

 

Canal wise there was only one out of use paddle, and only a couple of slightly leaky gates (and someone had not quite shut nearly every towpath side bottom paddle on the Astwood flight...) but a couple of the ones on the edge of Worcester have some very sticky top paddles. One low pound coming up Offerton on Saturday which  a couple of CRT guys were running water down to already before we got there. Couldn't get into the Gregory's Mill bottom lock until the police had finished dealing with a group of ne'er do wells loitering on the bottom gate. I was going to get them to help work the lock for us but they moved them on instead 😁

 

 

The new people haven’t been in the Navigation for long….its getting rave reviews locally especially for its Indian food. We must give it a go soon. 

[brianthesnail96]

3 minutes ago, frangar said:

 

The new people haven’t been in the Navigation for long….its getting rave reviews locally especially for its Indian food. We must give it a go soon. 

 

I got the impression they were pretty new- they were extremely friendly and seemed genuinely pleased that we picked Indian food over English. Would certainly stop in again if we come back that way. 

[mrsmelly]

On 07/10/2025 at 09:12, robtheplod said:

often wondered about these deals.... is it worth hiring an outfit or are the savings not that great?  Hope things are swell at Droitwich! 

Never yet used mine lol. You do get some great discounts offered from time to time but its nearly always inedible crap such as Dominos Pizza and the like. Morrisons used to give 10 percent discount on shopping which they no longer do but they are twenty percent more expensive than Lidl anyway. You get the jist of it.