Warings Green

Today's Canals - Worcester and Birmingham, Stratford (North)

Although it had been rather cold overnight - a little frost could be seen on the ground when we first awoke - it was a brilliantly sunny day with almost cloudless skies from start to finish. The temperature quickly rose to a level comfortable for no-lock cruising.

Shortly after setting off we arrived at the junction and were keen to see the progress with restoring the iconic former toll house, very badly damaged in arson attack in 2019. When we came by last October the site was surrounded with high safety fencing and we could see very little. The modern reproduction of tolls from 1793 that was above the front door has already been very carefully reinstated (now on a green rather than brown background).

Today the workers seemed to be concentrating on landscaping the surrounding area. Hopefully it will soon be ready for occupation once more, despite being very isolated with no road access at the time of the fire. From Google imagery it seem as if, at least during the restoration works, a track has been formed across the adjacent field.

We turned right onto the Stratford and just afterwards paused in the former guillotine stop lock to remove the chimney. As it was on the side away from thew towpath we left it until here as it was much easier!

Brandwood Tunnel is only 322m and we were through in about 5 minutes.

We stopped at Bridge 5 - there is a water point as well as a short term mooring but we did not need it today. Several times in the past we have found a nearby Co-Op to be a useful place to top up our stores so Christine sent Mike off with a list. As this included two large bottles of  milk, he was designated as carrier! Alas, that shop has now been replaced by a Herons Store - bargain prices but a much more limited range. Mike picked up what he could and then tried three small convenience stores located at the nearby roundabout. By picking items from three out the four he obtained most of the list but definitely no fresh veg!

Shirley Drawbridge seems to be a very popular shortcut for vehicles and only just a short time ago was closed following a strike to the barriers - a not infrequent event. It seems that bridges on this and similar rat runs are very prone to drivers thinking that they can beat the lights, only to discover that once they are coming down nothing will stop them. At that point non-functioning barriers means that the bridge has to be closed (alas to canal traffic) for safety reasons. It only re-opened a few days ago.

This railway bridge may look uninteresting but Whitlocks End station is just to the left of the canal. Some of the trains through Droitwich into Birmingham Snow Hill run in a loop to this station (at times on to Stratford) and then shuttle back again to Worcester so we have been used to seeing the name on the departure boards.

After a good lunch break in the sunshine moored near Bridge 11 we continued for about another hour to a designated 48hr mooring opposite Warings Green  moorings. After tying up, there was an opportunity for a little mopping down of the front and rear decks! Muddy towpaths at moorings do not help. (It would not ne healthy for us not to record that Christine spent some time this morning giving the inside floor a good clean - it certainly looked a lot brighter afterwards)

This is the eighth time since 2012 that we have been this way and we have, so far, not seen the north Stratford looking any better. It may, alas, rain tomorrow so our opinion in the next blog may not be as glowing!

7.7 Miles - 0 Locks