Hatton to Chirk Bringing Boat home at last

[isatis]

We Finally left Hatton on Wednesday 2.30ish having to make best run towards home as my sister in laws funeral tomorrow Monday

Wednesday we made it as far as Tom o the wood wonderful grub really nice place will go again if we can.

Thursday we ended up just below the Anderton road bridge Sparkbrook amazing food from little kebab /fish and chip shop.

Friday we got in a mess due to no conservation key .......C&RT ( Andy and Barry) were great we bought a key from them they helped Roj Steer boat out of grounding as the wind was so strong he could not bring it round.

Saturday we ended up having visited Sherbourne wharfe for more fuel and water and coal and a centre line and settling just back on the main line, the Farmers bridge locks were a flipping nightmare especially under the Bt tower .

Sunday we needed to be somewhere safe to leave the boat for sister in laws funeral as said before well i cannot say i enjoyed the Walsall canal, filthy dirty, Had to call C&RT out agin as the pound below lock 6 had NO water in it just a small trickle down the middle and although the boat is empty, a paper boat would not have made it ...and to the rescue comes Barry again ........bet he is glad we are out of his patch now.......?? The canal just got dirtier with beer cans and junk we struggled into Walsall for the night.

 

 

[nicknorman]

Did anyone mention that Walsall is not on the way to Chirk?!

 

Well done for braving the Walsall, it is by far the worst canal on the BCN. If you are continuing onto the Curley Wurley, it gets a lot better.

[matty40s]

Curley Wyreley better??.....Cough.!!!!

Edited January 12, 2015 by matty40s

[nicknorman]

Curley Wyreley better??.....Cough.!!!!

A lot better than the Walsall, surely? Well unless your boat draws over 3' in which case they are all bad!

[isatis]

The only way to get through the system with Coseley closed and the other closures thankfully the boat has a very shallow draft as there is nothing on board as yet other than basics and dogs ,Roj not included

it really could not be any worse ?!!

[nicknorman]

The only way to get through the system with Coseley closed and the other closures

Fair enough, I hadn't thought of that. I might have been tempted to turn right onto the Tame Valley / Rushall just because I hate the Walsall so much - the Rushall flight is quite pleasant, ditto Daw End and Curley around the top. Although I haven't checked for stoppages.

[Sea Dog]

 

it really could not be any worse ?!!

 

Eek!

 

Thanks for the report Isatis. I'm intending to follow in your wake (from Brum onwards) at the end of the month (again, mostly due to the Cosely stoppage) so I'm particularly interested in your Walsall and Wyrely & Essington adventures. They sound rather worse that I was anticipating, so perhaps you could make recommendations (or otherwise) particulary on your moorings. Or maybe someone has an alternative?!

[matty40s]

A lot better than the Walsall, surely? Well unless your boat draws over 3' in which case they are all bad!

The section from Sneyd Junction to the top of the Walsall was probably the worst canal I have seen for rubbish,sofas,etc etc.

Yes, worse than the Walsall itself.

[isatis]

We have ended up in WalSall town Arm last night had to leave it there todays, as funeral this pm going back tonight, set off again tomorrow a little over 24 hrs but absolutely no where else seemed safe or achievable after an hour hold up in the ryder green locks waiting for Barry to sort the water levels out, no one else there though.

[nicknorman]

The section from Sneyd Junction to the top of the Walsall was probably the worst canal I have seen for rubbish,sofas,etc etc.

Yes, worse than the Walsall itself.

 

When we did it for the BCN challenge back in May it was fine though. The boat you took through recently was pretty deep drafted though wasn't it. Mind you, I think you could wait a long time to find a boat doing that bit at this time of year so maybe it always gets bad in the winter?

[isatis]

Well returned to the boat at about 8.00pm boat fine not fiddled with at all ropes as we left them. Not sure about the wharf bar disco sounds, five guests and security does not look like they are expecting trouble. Brewers fayre as usual lots of easy access shops no other boats

Start on the locks tomorrow

[matty40s]

Well returned to the boat at about 8.00pm boat fine not fiddled with at all ropes as we left them. Not sure about the wharf bar disco sounds, five guests and security does not look like they are expecting trouble. Brewers fayre as usual lots of easy access shops no other boats

Start on the locks tomorrow

make sure you moor somewhere sheltered on wednesday afternoon, bottom of the wolverhampton flight before Autherley could be a good spot.

[isatis]

Thank you will do our best

[Paul C]

Agree with the above, Walsall canal is the worst one we've ever done, and the section of Curly Wurly is also poor for rubbish; but the C&W is a hidden gem and is just underused. We will be doing the BCN this year - but we won't be doing the Walsall bit (didn't do it last time either, having done it once).

[isatis]

It's now half six just been woken by a flock of Canada geese stoked fire writing this and considering putting kettle on, early start to get out of here and hopefully to roughly where Marty suggested as weather tonight iffy

[isatis]

Well today we did not get so far, we started off fine, reached lock 3 of the Walsall locks and some bodies little darling had shoved elder branches in to the conservation key apertures so twenty minutes later I had freed one to open the paddle and get us free I said to Roj I would phone C&RT to let them know about the other three, so off we went all the way to lock six where there was no water in the pound so I had to phone them !!#

We get to the top lock and the boat is handling like an old wellies and some bloke working on a boat suggests that the proposed might be fouled, he wasn't wrong! Bags, wire plastic cable

[isatis]

Net curtain you name it we found it, so half an hour later sorted,guy suggests a lookout on bow for shopping trolleys.!!

So off we toddle round on to the curley wurley and we come to devils elbow bridge and then the bend Roj kind of bogs it up just as we come across a lovely garden balcony built over the corner of the canal that nearly gets dismantled by the boat ......

It's fine more than Roj's nerves we get to wednesbury and he sails past the moorings so we are a little past that on other moorings behind a chain branded pub called the nicolodian

A branded pup but useful for shopping if you want big shops also sainsburys etc

A branded pup but useful for shopping if you want big shops also sainsburys etc

Had enough of spelling and predictive text stuff and frankly today.....and it snowed

[matty40s]

Nickelodeon is where I stopped as well. Decent well lit moorings, with security on the retail leisure site. I did poke my nose down what is left of the Bentley Canal but decided that it would not be a good idea after the plastic bags started surfacing half way in.

Good luck today.

[isatis]

Well we got as far as lock fifteen due to every lock against us and having to grovel in th weed hatch again more bags and an old fender thank goodness I have a good sharp knife to cut the blasted thing away. But we are strongly moored up in a quiet spot discreet no tall trees and not being battered too much from the wind

[isatis]

Spent last night at Autherley by napton narrow boats bit of a troll to get anywhere but ok stopped in Brewood pronounced brood, lovely little town/village very helpful hardware store will deliver coal to boat great pub the bridge.

[Victor Vectis]

great pub the bridge.

And a couple of even better ones in the centre.

 

[isatis]

Stopped by shebdon last night pub the wharfe was shut had been for a year or so.tonight we are at Market Drayton good Sunday lunch at the crown as we were too late for the Talbot by five mins to three the chap said they finish serving at three a local lady described him to us as a miserable bloke