Where "Not To Miss" On THe BCN?

[Laurie Booth]

Hi Alan,

 

What a fantastic post.

It brought back such wonderful memories of the "Brum" boat we hired.

 

 

[PaulG]

On the BCN Mainline in 1995 I was the only male adult; youths spat on us from a bridge which had my my 12-year-old daughter in tears, approaching one of the narrows we had polythene sheet deliberately deployed under the bow, which I pre-empted by a burst of speed then running over it in neutral. On one flight the lock beam had been substantially reduced by a fire. I hope the social situation has improved by now. If you see a dead cat hung in a bush, press on!

 

I think that you will find that general behaviour of the locals on the BCN has improved somewhat. We've cruised through most summers for the last few years, and (without wishing to tempt fate) we've never had a problem.

[Laurence Hogg]

Hollybank basin on the Wyrley has now proper mooring stumps and is deep all the way up to the top, don't miss it. Then just 300 yards further is the secured offside mooring at the United Kingdom pub at Lane Head, you also have the "Bridge Inn" here too, Lane Head developed as a canalside settlement due to the Wyrley diverting the main rd when built.

[Mac of Cygnet]

Here's another whose first canal holiday was in a Brummagem boat from Sherbourne Wharf, in the early 80s. So we decided to reprise the trip last summer in Cygnet (had to get there first from Yorkshire!). I must say the highlight was the Black Country Museum, with excellent moorings and an 'authentic' evening event which took me back to my childhood.

[cheshire~rose]

Thanks for all the continued replies everyone. I have been waiting for my "navigator" to study Canalplan and the Nicholsons and come up with our itiniary so that I could wheedle in some of the suggestions all you guys have made.

 

Now he has made a plan he appears to have written into it The Tame Valley and omitted The Walsall. I just read out the pertinent points from the various posts on here and I think we are on Plan B. I will need him to draw up a fresh itiniary!

 

I think plan B will involve turning left at the top of The Wolverhampton 21, along the W&E taking in the Cannock Extension and Anglesey Branch. Then onto the Rushall Canal and truning right up The Tame Valley. We need to check our timings to see if we can fit in a run along the Walsall Canal from that end before doubling back. The alternative might be to get a bus or train from somewhere on the W&E or Daw End into Walsall to see the museum. We both rather like the sound of that. We also plan to spend one night in the centre of Brum. We always love it there.

We then plan to go through The Netherton Tunnel and saunter down past Gosty Hill to the end of the Dudley No 2 to see where the Lappal Tunnel used to be before turning back and heading down past Stourbridge and The Delph to get us back onto the S&W and home.

 

We are trying to include as many places that we have not done before as is possible in the time available. Of course there are places that one or the other of us have done before but not both together. It means in the time given we are likely to have to miss some of the places we know and love but that is the way the cookie crumbles and I still hold a very faint hope in my heart that one day we might get to do the BCN. Now I have managed to get Dave focussed on the plan it might start to come together.

We are not concerned about reports of unsocial behaviour. Bad things can happen anywhere at any time. We have never experienced any roblems when travelling through or staying in Birmingham in the past and we see no reason why this should change. It is always wise to be cautious in urban situations but if people stop going to these places then they become ghetto's and the unsocial behavious becomes a self fullfilling prophecy. Dave has had a brick thrown at him in the past, he has also been shot at with an air gun but they were booth years ago and he does not mention to other boaters where these things happened because he does not want to put anyone off enjoying those stretches of canal because he happened to have a bad exprience there.

 

I expect I will be back with more questions as Plan B starts to take shape. Thanks everyone

[cheshire~rose]

We have tweaked the plan:

Day 1 Friday -> Autherley Junction (after work that day)

Day 2 Saturday -> Pelsall Junction. This will mean a long day of 9 hours and 21 minutes with the 21 locks. May have to stop a little earlier if we get held up.

Day 3 Sunday -> Anglesey Basin. A very short day today but there are trains running at Chasewater and it gives us time to explore.

Day 4 Monday -> Daw End Bridge. Another very short day but we have to sample the wares at The Manor Arms

Day 5 Tuesday -> Walsall Town Wharf.

Day 6 Wednesday -> Gas Street Basin. We may not arrive there until early evening as we will be at the art gallery in Walsall that morning.

Day 7 Thursday -> Hawne Basin

Day 8 Friday -> Stourbridge Arm. Another longish day 8 hours 9 minutes with 25 locks but we need to press rather than stop in the locks and Stourbridge is lovely!

Day 9 Saturday -> The Bratch. Hopefully at the top if we arrive in time to go through

Day 10 Sunday -> Back to Hatherton Marina

 

We would really appreciate any comments contructive or otherwise regarding our plan and it would be great to get to meet up with anyone in any of the areas we are passing through. at 107 miles and 85 locks I think this should give us plenty of time to take in the scenery and explore the areas we pass through.

[sarahavfc]

 

Day 2 Saturday -> Pelsall Junction. This will mean a long day of 9 hours and 21 minutes with the 21 locks. May have to stop a little earlier if we get held up.

 

 

The only place I would recommend staying on this day, before Pelsall Junction is the Sneyd if there are moorings available outside the canoe club, otherwise I'd just carry on to Pelsall. You wouldn't really want to moor up in Goscote for the night. The stretch from the top of the 21 to Pelsall should only take you around 5 hours, probably less if you don't fowl the prop. Slacking off for bridge 'oles is the key.

[alan_fincher]

Hi Alan,

 

What a fantastic post.

It brought back such wonderful memories of the "Brum" boat we hired.

 

 

Nice beaver!

[Laurie Booth]

Nice beaver!

Why didn't I think of that

[cheshire~rose]

 

The only place I would recommend staying on this day, before Pelsall Junction is the Sneyd if there are moorings available outside the canoe club, otherwise I'd just carry on to Pelsall. You wouldn't really want to moor up in Goscote for the night. The stretch from the top of the 21 to Pelsall should only take you around 5 hours, probably less if you don't fowl the prop. Slacking off for bridge 'oles is the key.

 

That is really helpful Sarah thank you. We don't mind pressing on generally, especially as the next couple of days are positively leisurely!

[Keeping Up]

 

The only place I would recommend staying on this day, before Pelsall Junction is the Sneyd if there are moorings available outside the canoe club, otherwise I'd just carry on to Pelsall. You wouldn't really want to moor up in Goscote for the night. The stretch from the top of the 21 to Pelsall should only take you around 5 hours, probably less if you don't fowl the prop. Slacking off for bridge 'oles is the key.

 

About 45 minutes before Sneyd there is an excellent and secure mooring at Lane Head Bridge, with a good pub too (the United Kingdom).

[cheshire~rose]

 

About 45 minutes before Sneyd there is an excellent and secure mooring at Lane Head Bridge, with a good pub too (the United Kingdom).

 

Thanks Allan, I have marked that one in the book just in case we hit problems and need an oasis!

Edited March 14, 2014 by cheshire~rose

[Laurie Booth]

 

About 45 minutes before Sneyd there is an excellent and secure mooring at Lane Head Bridge, with a good pub too (the United Kingdom).

Great place to moor, choice of two pubs and two takeaways.

The United Kingdom is my choice if the new owner is still there.

[cheshire~rose]

What a lovely day! The Wolverhampton 21 was kind to us and The Wyrley & Essington is a fascinating canal. We spotted a total of 27 different species of birds on our trip today. Just two trips down the weedhatch so far!

 

We have tied up on The Cannock Extension and it feels like we are miles from civilisation. We nipped over to The Fingerpost tonight for faggots and peas washed down with a drop of Bank's Mild.We had not planned to eat out tonight but family arrived and by he time we had all chatted it was getting too late to cook.

 

I just thought I would share one photo of these Canada Geese taking off past a derelict factory.

 

 

We have a couple of really leisurely days now. Weather permitting we will have a walk in the morning before setting off to Anglesey Basin. There is a Sports Relief Mile event there tomorrow so it could be busy!

[junior]

More photos please!!

 

I need my BCN Challenge appetite wetting!

[AndrewIC]

Day 5 Tuesday -> Walsall Town Wharf.

 

Others may take a different view, but personally, I wouldn't want to moor there overnight. There is/was a secure pontoon mooring at the junction though, where we did moor overnight without incident.

 

ETA: otherwise looks like a good route, go for it!

Edited March 23, 2014 by AndrewIC

[Laurie Booth]

More photos please!!

 

I need my BCN Challenge appetite wetting!

[cheshire~rose]

Others may take a different view, but personally, I wouldn't want to moor there overnight. There is/was a secure pontoon mooring at the junction though, where we did moor overnight without incident.

 

ETA: otherwise looks like a good route, go for it!

 

 

Oh right, thanks for that. We are currently moored at Anglesey Basin and it has got very busy here!

 

 

The couple on the other boat are planning to head into Walsall then they leave here and were asking us where it is ok to moor.... any suggestions anyone?

 

It has been a bitterly cold day in the wind today and we got a very sharp hail storm as we came through Brownhills earlier.

 

We had a wander over to the Chasewater Railway earlier and we thought they were running a diesel service today but it appears we were wrong. Never mind. The museum there has some lovely bits but is hopelessly signposted and we only stumbled upon it by accident.

 

More photos? Ok then:

 

A low branch tugged the coolie hat off just before this bridge

 

Now who can tell me more about this:

 

 

I loved this! The sleek shiny curves set against the heavy duty angles of the old architecture. The reflections of the boat in the polished metal as you pass under it. I even had to ask Dave to reverse to let me get another photo!

 

So who can tell me more about it?

Most of the photos I am taking seem to be of the birds!

 

 

Our BCN birdlist is now standing at 31 across the two days. It was assisted by the addistion of lapwing and Stonechat by The Cannock Extension and Great Crested Grebe here at Chasewater.

[Dave_P]

Others may take a different view, but personally, I wouldn't want to moor there overnight. There is/was a secure pontoon mooring at the junction though, where we did moor overnight without incident.

 

ETA: otherwise looks like a good route, go for it!

I had planned to moor in basin a few weeks back but the neighbouring bar had an open mic night on with a succession of noisy bands. So at about 11.30, I moved down to the junction and had a very peaceful night's sleep.

[cheshire~rose]

Thanks Dave. We will try that then.

 

Well today was another amazing day! Having settled down last night with a very brisk wind blowing it seemed very odd that when we woke up this morning there was a LOT of traffic noise, none of which we had heard the night before. Of course the M6 Toll road runs adjacent to Chasewater so the noise should not have been surprising but the strong wind must have blown the noise in the other direction yesterday.

 

I had to throw clothes on and get out early with my camera this morning as a peep out of the curtains revealed a sharp frost and mist swirling over Anglesey Basin as the sun came over the horizon. It was such a beautiful morning! We had promised to meet Ade & Tina at The Manor Arms at lunchtime and so we got going around 9am and nipped back to Brownhills to get a few supplies before winding and moving on again. The stretch of canal through Aldrige has all been very recently dredged. Passing through a wide variety of terrain, high above very deep quarries to the side at places and going through both commercial areas and hosing estates then back out into countryside again. In the sunshine the edges of the canal have been coloured by gorse, forsythia and flowing currant with occasional Mahonia and ice plants all blooming.

 

We arrived at The Manor Arms around midday and it did not dissapoint! What a wonderful place! As Ade and Tina could not stay too long and the weather forecast for tomorrow is a wet one we decided we would press on a little further and see if we could moor on the long pound below the first two locks in the Rushall flight. Shortly before Longwood Junction we came across a bloke pointing a dirty great big lens into a tree. A quick enquiry and he pointed out the little owl sitting watching us with one eye.

 

Down the locks we went but he level of the pound was low and it seriously needs dredging and although we don't draw very much at all there was no way we could get anywhere close to the side to tie up so we carried on. Some pounds in the flight were so low I had to go back and let water down as the boat sat on the bottom each time I tried to fill the next lock. We eventually ended up at the bottom of the nine locks but getting her close to the side is impossible. he is closee enough though so here we have stayed.

[cheshire~rose]

Well we are moored in Walsall Town Basin tonight. A couple of community enforcement officer (parking wardens) advised us that it is a quiet night in the pub tonight (student nights are Monday and Thursday) and there is CCTV covering all this area so we will be fine here over night.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the art gallery and the leaher museum. Years ago when I used to come to Walsall a little more regularly I used to visit a good old fashioned junk shop and we set out to try and find it without any success (even though I was fairly sure I was in the right place) I asked another parking warden if there was a junk shop in the area and she directed me to it - it moved 5 years ago when their old place was condemned!

 

 

The Walsall canal is a disgrace. I have never seen so many lager cans floating in a canal anywhere. There was a lot of other interesting things waiting to catch a ride on a passing prop. We did not meet the great mattress of Tame but there was a rather impressive pop-up tent at the junction. There was a place where there was an abundance of lorry tyres showing the top few centimteres of tread on the surface of the water. A sofa.. all it's cushions could be counted over the next 200 yards. a divan bed, a wide range of traffic cones, the orange plastic netting they put around roadworks with the obligatory signage too! I am told there are plans for a clean up in June? I hope they manage to sort it out. We got to the basin without visiting the weedhatch but decided to check once tied up as we were fairly certain there was "something" on there. Plastic bags, rope and a fishing hook just to booby trap the bladeful for ususpecting hands. I do hope Tawny Owl comes this way for the BCN challenge as Richard Parry would do well to see just how wonderful the area could be but how shallow and rubbish strewn the approach is.

 

We passed a boat that has stopped to visit the weedhatch on the way here. The lady pointed out their boarded up window and said they were vandalised last night. "oh dear" I said "Where were you" .. "In bed scared to death" was the reply so now we know that if we want to avoid the vandals we need to avoid going to bed

 

They have caught us up tonight and are now moored next to us. I asked again where the vandalism occured. They said a bridge name which I think was Lea Road Bridge? I think they have travelled up from Alvechurch so perhaps someone will recognise were it is?

 

At least some of the graffiti brightened up a very grey and wet day

 

 

..................and we get BT wifi here

[cheshire~rose]

We are moored outside the NIA after a bit of a difficult day. I have lost count of the times we have been down the weed hatch but it has been at least 9.

We limped the last couple of miles as we have gearbox issues again. We are waiting for RCR to ( hopefully) confirm it has thrown yet another oil seal and fix it for us. One day we might actually go away without having gearbox issues but I might miss them if we didn't get them any more

[nicknorman]

We are moored outside the NIA after a bit of a difficult day. I have lost count of the times we have been down the weed hatch but it has been at least 9.

 

Presumably from the Walsall canal? Allegedly this is to be dredged prior to the floating market in the summer. We did struggle along there but I think only had 2 weed hatch trips. Never mind, that is the worst bit of the BCN and the rest will seem easy!

[cheshire~rose]

I have been told there is a group (acc?) Planning to do a clean up in June. I don't know about dredging but it is extremely shallow in many places.

Oddly we managed fine from Tame Valley junction to Walsall Town Basin and back again only visiting the weed hatch once each way. It was from the junction up the locks we struggled having to clear the prop at almost every lock! Dave worked out a strategy of getting lots of power on in the pound and cutting it early to drift into the lock and not have to apply reverse until well into the lock. It helped but was not perfect.

[nicknorman]

I have been told there is a group (acc?) Planning to do a clean up in June. I don't know about dredging but it is extremely shallow in many places.

Oddly we managed fine from Tame Valley junction to Walsall Town Basin and back again only visiting the weed hatch once each way. It was from the junction up the locks we struggled having to clear the prop at almost every lock! Dave worked out a strategy of getting lots of power on in the pound and cutting it early to drift into the lock and not have to apply reverse until well into the lock. It helped but was not perfect.

Just a matter of luck I suppose, we didn't have a problem in the Ryder's green locks last autumn, apart from going under the footbridge (just before bottom lock?) where there was a lot of under water debris, trolleys I suspect, that caught the rudder and stopped our progress. I tried a few times to pass under the (wide) bridge at different points but it seemed blocked by underwater obstructions across all its width, though we finally managed it.