Stewponey

 Today's Canal - Staffs and Worcs

The weather today continued much as for the past few days: bright, sunny spells with intermittent showers, some short, some longer, some light and a few rather heavy. However, we did not get a soaking!

We set off in sunshine and meandered along the Stour valley with three locks all spaced out. The first, Wolverley Lock, has a pub, The Lock Inn. 

The last two years when we came by it seemed prosperous with plenty of customers sitting at the tables just a short distance from the lock edge. Today, alas, nothing happening., It seems that, apart from serving the odd mug of coffee, nothing much was happening. Hopefully, the lock down rules will soon be modified to allow them back into business.

The stretch just after the next bridge has been affected by several rock falls - one a couple of years ago led to a short closure and then a period of supervised navigation until the engineers could sort out a repair plan. It seems that nothing has yet been done - perhaps the engineers agreed a plan but no-one has the money to pay for it! An earlier one from a good few years back still only has a 'temporary' repair to the bank whilst there is also now another beginning to develop.

The sky kept changing and was never dull all morning - the background to this photo almost looks like a watercolour.

An increasingly frequent problem seems to be that of vehicle strikes on canal bridges, either by careless drivers taking a bend too fast or perhaps too large for the width of the road. This one looks as if someone re-shaped their bodywork on the parapet on the other side from the photo.

Canalside houses seem to be especially popular at the moment - there is even one estate agent specialising in them - we saw this one on our approach into Kinver. The information given by the agent suggests that this was originally three cottages that were built to re-house people living in caves nearby. Kinver is know for its rock caves and others can be seen along ghe canal including one alongside a lock. The red sandstone would perhaps have been relatively easy to work and also to provide a strong shelter.

By mid day we had reached Kinver. Some times in the past we have divided up - Christine going into the village to visit the bakery whilst whoever is left works up the lock and stops at the following service point. This time, we planned that if there was room to moor at Kinver (necessarily below the lock) then we would both walk into the village. We have never seen Kinver so bereft of boats! There was only one other already moored, so we were able to stop very close to the road.

We moored at Kinver and walked into the village. Christine had queried the named on our Canal Map database for the main road bridge: Kinfare Bridge and wondered if it was a typo (not an infrequent occurrence around here!) As we approached centre of the village we had that name confirmed. From Wikipedia it seems that there have been quite a few names in the past and that Kinfare is a popular hark back to the past!

Although here has been quite a lot of new building in recent times - and some is ongoing - there are plenty of reminders of the long history of what was once an important staging point on a road from Bristol to Chester. In the early part of the 20C, an electric tram system, Kinver Light Railway, brought both passengers and freight from the western edge of the Birmingham conurbation. It helped to develop Kinver as a base for tourism.

There are not that many shops - almost half of the high street seems to have been converted into tea rooms or restaurants. But we did manage to buy a few cakes from the bakery, a courgette from Village Greens and some ice cream and a battery for the smoke detectors from the Co-Op!

We extended our lunch break so that it was 3:30 before we were on the move again, straight into the next lock. The pub here, The Vine, seemed not to be offering anything at all at the moment but a few repairs and alterations were underway, perhaps for a re-opening soon.

By now the rain was persistent for a little while and occasionally quite heavy. We persevered through Hyde Lock - with another of the S.W.C signs but took an overnight mooring just before Stewponey. It was not apparent until we had moored but there is a main road not far away, well hidden by the bank of trees. Soon after we tied up, bright sunshine returned! (For a while)

6.4 Miles - 5 Locks