BCN…Areas best avoided?

[Shockabilly]

We're planning an extended trip for 2015 which will entail trolling through the BCN which we are looking forward to very much, however, a friend and fellow boater had a really bad experience last month whilst clearing his prop underneath Spaghetti Junction where he was stoned and seriously hassled by low life scumbags... he vowed never to return to the second city! For those who know the BCN like the backs of their tillers, a simple question…which, if any are the best areas to avoid whilst transiting through Brum?

[James Owen]

Best to avoid anywhere east of Autherley, south of Fazeley or north of Knowle.

 

;-)

[nicknorman]

I think he was very unlucky. We have passed underneath Spag junction many many times and never had any problem.

 

Probably it is more a matter of when, rather than where, you go. Best to avoid school holidays and weekends in fine weather. Best to go for weekdays term time in the rain, or failing that to cruise in the morning when the scroats are in bed.

[Black Country Lee]

Best to avoid anywhere east of Autherley, south of Fazeley or north of Knowle.

 

;-)

 

Just a small area then lol. I never have any trouble on the Brum network, mind I'm 6'2", fairly well built, shaved head and mostly look like I'd snap 'em before looking at them. Most entertaining watching groups of local inbreds youth part like the Red Sea as I walk straight at them.

 

I agree with NN, timing is a factor, they are rarely up before lunch unless it's signing on day lol.

 

Lee.

[Shockabilly]

Best to avoid anywhere east of Autherley, south of Fazeley or north of Knowle.

 

;-)

My highlighter pen is working the network map with this information...

 

I think he was very unlucky. We have passed underneath Spag junction many many times and never had any problem.

 

Probably it is more a matter of when, rather than where, you go. Best to avoid school holidays and weekends in fine weather. Best to go for weekdays term time in the rain, or failing that to cruise in the morning when the scroats are in bed.

Coppers friend the rain…looks like it's also a boaters!

[nicknorman]

We did the BCN challenge earlier this year - 24 hrs cruising. We had zero antisocial behaviour with one exception - some kids on the curly wurley threatened to spit on us from a bridge. They scarpered when I produced a phone (camera).

Edited October 14, 2014 by nicknorman

[Starcoaster]

I was stoned at Spaghetti junction too, but I rather enjoyed the experience.

/joke.

 

Not kidding though, I've boated through there 5-6 times now, not had a problem. Avoid school holidays maybe?!

Like Nick, had some dodgy-looking kids giving me the hairy eyeball off a bridge at one point, got out the camera and they all transformed into the goon show and started mugging for it and waving lol.

[Guest]

Genuine question time.

 

Spaghetti junction is an interchahage of Motorways and A roads AFAIK.

 

How do people stop off and lob stones at boats passing below??

[AndrewIC]

Sounds like he was unlucky, we've done all the navigable bits that you've just run your highlighter over and love it.

 

The only place I've ever had any bother was the south end of Coseley Tunnel, with some kids dropping stuff off the parapet. Sent the missus through first with the ship's biggest windlass and camera

[Black Country Lee]

Genuine question time.

 

Spaghetti junction is an interchahage of Motorways and A roads AFAIK.

 

How do people stop off and lob stones at boats passing below??

 

There are footbridges and pavements across the A road bridges.

 

Lee.

[Guest]

There are footbridges and pavements across the A road bridges.

 

Lee.

Noted cheers.

[dekker]

We're planning an extended trip for 2015 which will entail trolling through the BCN which we are looking forward to very much, however, a friend and fellow boater had a really bad experience last month whilst clearing his prop underneath Spaghetti Junction where he was stoned and seriously hassled by low life scumbags... he vowed never to return to the second city! For those who know the BCN like the backs of their tillers, a simple question…which, if any are the best areas to avoid whilst transiting through Brum?

I agree he must have been very unlucky. We have done that route 2/3 times every year for over 20 years with no probs.....touch wood.

[Shockabilly]

We did the BCN challenge earlier this year - 24 hrs cruising. We had zero antisocial behaviour with one exception - some kids on the curly wurley threatened to spit on us from a bridge. They scarpered when I produced a phone (camera).

I was thinking more of an AK47 myself!

 

I was stoned at Spaghetti junction too, but I rather enjoyed the experience.

/joke.

 

Not kidding though, I've boated through there 5-6 times now, not had a problem. Avoid school holidays maybe?!

Like Nick, had some dodgy-looking kids giving me the hairy eyeball off a bridge at one point, got out the camera and they all transformed into the goon show and started mugging for it and waving lol.

Or perhaps a tazer!

 

Sounds like he was unlucky, we've done all the navigable bits that you've just run your highlighter over and love it.

 

The only place I've ever had any bother was the south end of Coseley Tunnel, with some kids dropping stuff off the parapet. Sent the missus through first with the ship's biggest windlass and camera

Highlighter pen now in the bin!

 

Just a small area then lol. I never have any trouble on the Brum network, mind I'm 6'2", fairly well built, shaved head and mostly look like I'd snap 'em before looking at them. Most entertaining watching groups of local inbreds youth part like the Red Sea as I walk straight at them.

 

I agree with NN, timing is a factor, they are rarely up before lunch unless it's signing on day lol.

 

Lee.

My wife is worried that I will be the one getting nicked if some scumbag vandalises my lovely NB!

[Sabcat]

Goscote, Bloxwich, Walsall can be interesting. A combination of a camera, a catapult and bag of marbles have always seem me all right though.

[MtB]

ISTR the Walsall canal was well worth avoiding in good weather, judging by the detritus on the bank by most of the bridges when Munky and I cruised it in endless slashing rain on the BCN Challenge

 

MtB

[nicknorman]

The Walsall canal is really the only remaining really grotty, shallow and rubbish strewn bit of the BCN. We did it from the south up to the town basin. Very slow but no trouble with the locals and it wasn't even raining! We didn't so the locks but when we wanderd up there they looked fine and deserted. However the BCN challengers that did the locks seemed to have had some grief, although I think it was late in the evening. Otherwise the bits of the curly wurly near Walsall are grim in places and that is where we had the spitting incident - definitely not somewhere I would want to stop. But the trip into Wolverhampton was not unpleasant and going the other way, the whole trip from just short of Pelsall right round to Spag Jn seemed fine the couple of time we did it. I don't like the Tame Valley W of the M5 aqueduct much - 1st time it was mega rubbishy, 2nd time it had been dredged but was still very grim and being straight, very boring, plus a couple of high bridges with pedestrians that make you feel vulnerable.

[tony collins]

From my experience, avoid mooring up overnight anywhere other than the gas treet/symphony hall area. This is a generalisation, but good advice. There are other safe areas, but they are few. Calculate your departure to make sure you can arrive in the centre before dark.

[nicknorman]

From my experience, avoid mooring up overnight anywhere other than the gas treet/symphony hall area. This is a generalisation, but good advice. There are other safe areas, but they are few. Calculate your departure to make sure you can arrive in the centre before dark.

Well that makes it sound a bit grim! Other safe areas include Star City, Camp hill top lock (OK neither are strictly BCN but never mind), cuckoo wharf, top of Perry Bar flight, Anglesey Basin, Brownhills, Pelsall (best moorings on the BCN), Walsall basin, Wolverhampton just before the last bridge before locks, Tipton, Black Country museum, Hockley Port wharf (if you speak nicely to the residents), end of the Engine Arm, Ocker Hill arm. And probably some I missed out. Nowhere is 100% safe but these places are just as safe as any other mooring in a town - and some like Pelsall are in the depths of the country.

[Sabcat]

Well that makes it sound a bit grim! Other safe areas include Star City, Camp hill top lock (OK neither are strictly BCN but never mind), cuckoo wharf, top of Perry Bar flight, Anglesey Basin, Brownhills, Pelsall (best moorings on the BCN), Walsall basin, Wolverhampton just before the last bridge before locks, Tipton, Black Country museum, Hockley Port wharf (if you speak nicely to the residents), end of the Engine Arm, Ocker Hill arm. And probably some I missed out. Nowhere is 100% safe but these places are just as safe as any other mooring in a town - and some like Pelsall are in the depths of the country.

 

What he said, except for Pelsall being the in the depths of the country, it's really not, it just looks like it from the cut. The BCN is great, the problems it has are bored kids and they're only a problem in a few places generally and it's not like there's anywhere you can guarantee you'd have a problem, it's just a possibility.

[Barry]

I was steering Lemontoes' boat to Birmingham. Between the locks at the Dudley end of the New Main Line and the turn for Netherton tunnel a group of what liked like 14 or 15 year olds were walking alongside us.

 

"Give us a ride on your boat mister"

 

"I can't do that"

 

"Give us a ride or I'll break your windows"

 

With a smile and calmly..."No you won't"

 

Wry smile in return and they slowed their walking pace, dropped behind and disappeared a little while later

 

 

 

 

I think it was the beginning of the school holidays, they were bored and trying it on - and trying out being tough like teenagers do sometimes

Edited October 15, 2014 by Bazza2

[alan_fincher]

The Walsall canal is really the only remaining really grotty, shallow and rubbish strewn bit of the BCN. We did it from the south up to the town basin. Very slow but no trouble with the locals and it wasn't even raining! We didn't so the locks but when we wanderd up there they looked fine and deserted. However the BCN challengers that did the locks seemed to have had some grief, although I think it was late in the evening.

 

To be fair the BCN challengers that had trouble were going through at the dead of night, probably not when OP will be making a trip down there. IIRC it was also the Walsall where another forum member encountered a naked couple enjoying themselves against a bridge they were passing under by darkness!

 

We were through an hour or two earlier in the "Challenge", and all was friendly, although the local fire brigade were there practising retrieving "bodies" from culverts, and as a corpse had been retrieved from the BCN only a few days previously, their black plastic "torso" somehow seemed a bit disturbing!

 

We didn't find the Walsall particularly slow going, but then we didn't find any of the BCN that we did on the "Challenge" particularly slow going.

 

Probably the greatest hazard we faced was the floating pontoons at Star City where we spent the night before we started - one of the most lethally slippery surface when rained on of anything I have yet encountered on the canals!

[Mrs Trackman]

Genuine question time.

 

Spaghetti junction is an interchahage of Motorways and A roads AFAIK.

 

How do people stop off and lob stones at boats passing below??

As others have said, there are footbridges over spaghetti junction, I love it, interchange on the canals as well as the roads. We have had very minor incidents there over the 25 years or so we have been through there, once two lads hurried to be on a footbridge as we went under then kindly tipped a can of sticky drink over our boat, surprised they were prepared to waste their drink, Once we left the boats there briefly to show a school party the marvel of the transport layer on layer all meeting at this point and returned to find our boats cast off. Seemed surprising as seemed no one around and was possible had not been tied securely enough.

More annoying to me are the huge red notices telling boaters not to bump into the wall of a yard, like anyone would choose to on what can be a very difficult turn.

However, I just love being there, so much better than on the M6 above and once in recent years we followed a kingfisher for at least a mile along the canal towards the junction.

I admit to a certain nervousness about the BCN, it is an urban area but it is so fascinating and you won't be queuing for locks. There are so many unsuspected green areas close to city centres. The BCN is such an important part of our canal heritage.

[TaffyRon]

Its sad we have no go areas in our own country

[Catrin]

Sorry to hear about your friend's experience.

 

We've only ever had one mild incident in Birmingham - some quite young kids shouted that we were disturbing their fishing (no equipment!), and threw a couple of small stones - they ran away as we picked up the camera. However, I usually find that engaging the kids before there is any problems works well for us. Heading down into Manchester this summer a group of kids on bikes stopped by the boat in a lock:

 

"My mate's going to jump on your boat."

"No he's not, he wouldn't walk into my house." I then changed the conversation, where were they going, what were they going to do there, were they enjoying the break?

 

It turned out that they just wanted to know about the boats - did we sleep on the boat, was there a toilet, how did we cook? They then turned away and rode off.

 

I do have an advantage, I spent my career talking to teenagers, but I do think that some boaters are downright rude to the kids passing by, they do themselves no favours.

 

If there are kids near to the lock as I approach on foot, I start with a cheery greeting, and pull the camera from my waist pouch. "Are you local? Great, give us a big smile for the blog!" That way I've got the photo before they can start anything. Having done that I ask them about where they at school, what they are doing for the holidays, etc. If you actually talk to them you will find that in general most kids are decent - just fed up with the way that some boaters speak to them.

[midnight cowboy]

Not sure if you will be on the Curly Wurly - seemed vandal free - apart from some shallow weedy sections it's a fascinating canal - open common land in the Northern part, the only problem we had was someone [local anglers?] had stuffed all the padlock keys on the Rushall flight with wood, fortunately my friend has a full workshop on his boat and had to use his rechargeable drill to clear them. Sneyd facilities were underused and wide open - great quiet place for lunch. Also - you must stop at the Manor Arms, Daw End on the Rushall - moor up by the pub garden [safe overnight] - unique - no bar counter & self service beer taps - more info on http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/48/4873/Manor_Arms/Rushall - enjoy.