Pendeford

Today's Canals - BCN Main Line, Staffs and Worcester, Shropshire Union

It was a better day, weather-wise, to start although cloud gradually covered everywhere and the temperature became chillier.

Even though a boat had come up a few minutes earlier, by the time we went to set the first lock it had dropped to almost half empty.

Dunstall Park Bridge, below Lock 19, is about the only one on this flight to retain a rural, pre-railway and road eras that otherwise dominate the landscape around the flight. This marks a transition away from the largely urban and industrial, sometimes post-industrial, context of the past few days.

Lock 20 is in a quite different style from the rest of the flight having a single bottom gate rather than a pair. This follows the preferred style on most of the BCN. It was not built along with the rest originally, but the bottom lock was exceptionally deep and took a long time to pass through, Hence this new lock was added to help speed up travel. We have not yet discovered when this happened but it is shown on the earliest OS maps available from the second half of the 19C.

And so, we some slight relief, we arrived at Lock 21, the bottom lock, and turned right at Aldersley Junction on the Staffs and Worcs Canal.

Immediately we saw the very distinctive style of bridge name plates on this canal, where most of the bridges were identified by name rather than number. 

We called at Oxley Marine to fill up with diesel (it is always a good price here) We have had several reasons to use their sefrv oces over the years, especially in Take Five and Orph and Phil in particular, Phil had had gone out to find lunch for the team but Orph was installed in front of his office computer! Although, like many of us, now looking his age, he was  chatty and knowledgeable. Good to see him still in charge! One of the 'characters' of the canals.

Soon we arrived at Autherley Junction (just over half a mile rom Aldersley) where no sooner had we made a perfect turn under the junction bridge when we realised that there was a single hander and a cruiser just about to come through the stop lock. So we had to back out - it took him a bit longer as he was reluctant to lift his fenders and he had difficulty passing the bottom gate which would  not open fully. We also struggled a bit when we came through, much to the annoyance of a couple followi ng on down who did not immediately appreciate the issue! Another boat arrived as we were leaving, seemingly intent on pushing his way into the lock ahead of the waiting boat . . . 

The scenery was now rural as we began the long, largely level, Shroppie. We only went a short distance before pulling in to the first official mooring (although it was missing and signage) and re-discovered the delights of the Shroppie Shelf. (The housing on the skyline is  Bilbrook, barely detached from the rest of the Wolverhampton conurbation) We had the rest of the afternoon off!

Between Bridge 4 and our mooring are the remains of a now derelict pair of stop gates. We have still to find out why they were constructed as they appear to be relatively recent. Nothing is indicated on older OS maps and, although there is some indication of a narrows on the CaRT system map, they do not identify any asset here. Further on, stop gates are common as they were deemed important to protect long, often high, embankments but there does not seem such a need at this point. 

2.5 Miles - 6 Locks