Today we had an effort free day – no locks! Resuming from Waring’s Green the canal carries on through a peaceful and well wooded landscape, seemingly untouched by the C21st. A line of moored boats announces the headquarters of the Earlwood Motor Yacht Club which has also appropriated a short length of the canal feeder from Earlwood Lakes as additional moorings.



The "brick face"

The quiet interlude continues for some time and you find yourself with little to do but swing the tiller to and fro and ponder life’s intractable questions – such as whether I have Bovril or Marmite sandwiches for lunch and the like.

Suddenly, and I mean suddenly, rural tranquillity is shattered by the sight of the tall, sheer brick face of a building. Is it a power station, or some immense global conglomerate’s Warwickshire factory for making widgets?

No, it’s some berserk planner’s idea of what is euphemistically called “an urban village” tacked onto the sleepy rural hamlet of Dicken’s Green.



The "Roman Temple & Cascade"

Immense blocks of apartments, separated by a stepped water cascade falling from what looks like a Roman Temple rise up towering over the tiny (by comparison) canal. The sheep grazing in the adjacent fields must wonder what else humankind can possibly get wrong.

The ground floors of the blocks were to have commercial units in them, but none are taken. I wonder why.

Put somewhere like Brindley Place in Birmingham, or on the Paddington Arm in West London; indeed in any city centre redevelopment it would look  more in keeping with other such hideous monstrosities. But here, in rural Warwickshire it looks ridiculous.

No. I don’t like it.

Fortunately you soon pass it by and are confronted by distinctly upmarket executive housing. A family were just climbing into the Range Rover Evoque (the new very expensive one) whilst the wife’s top of the range BMW stood on the drive.

Envious? Moi?

Under a lovely C18th brick bridge the canal soon resumes its passage through green fields and trees. However, it’s not to last, as, passing under a rail bridge we enter the Solihull suburbs and more particularly Shirley, a place that always reminds me of that wonderful wrestler from the good, old days Shirley Crabtree aka Big Daddy.

Shirley Drawbridge

The only notable feature of Shirley is its lift bridge. Electrically operated (therefore my job, not Elaine’s) it has flashing lights and barriers and it caused us our first eyebrow-raising moment of the day.

I had crossed the road it carries to get to the control panel noting as I did so that there were no cars coming. By the time I had inserted my key and started the opening procedure (flashing lights, barriers lowered and bridge raised) the sound of a car at speed could be heard.

As the barriers started to lower, a black, souped up Volkswagen Golf or something similar driven by a young man roared under the first barrier, across the bridge and under the next barrier just seconds before it would have taken his windscreen out. Stupid sod. More money than sense.

Sanity restored, we now moved across an embankment over the River Colne and entered the built up area proper passing through the thoroughly uninspiring back gardens of Warstock. It is always interesting to see which householders ignore their canal frontage, but keep it tidy, those who make it a feature of their garden (especially where the Ground Force wooden decking team have been at work) and those who couldn’t give a damn about their garden at all and chuck all their rubbish into it. Inevitably some lands up in the canal, but we could have done without the workmen in one garden who were shovelling some soil or some such into the canal rather than take it to the skip in the front of the house. It was turning into one of those days!

Shakespeare's bust on Brandwood Tunnel

After nearly three dreary miles, a long cutting leads to Brandwood Tunnel. At just 352 yards it isn’t a biggie, but it is high, wide and not particularly handsome. A rendering of Shakespeare’s head is shown on the western portal as if to emphasise where the canal is heading for. I believe he would be far happier on the eastern portal as at least he would be looking in the right direction!

Pylon in the front garden

Much new development has taken place since Shirley and some new houses and flats have a particularly unenviable situation with a massive full height electricity pylon outside their bedroom windows. So much for the health fears of high voltage electricity cables being near to houses. You could almost shake hands with it from the bedroom window.

Approaching the site of Tunnel Lane Swing Bridge

In the early days of the Inland Waterways Association, an early success was scored as we near King’s Norton. As we approach Tunnel Lane, the site of a derelict swing bridge hints at an earlier notoriety. The canal was owned at this time by the Great Western Railway – never a supporter of canals and the bridge gave access to a major factory. After an accident with a lorry (why didn’t they use the by now typically derelict GWR owned canal), the GWR clamped it shut.

Realising that a statutory right of navigation still existed (this would prove crucial in the ultimate fight to save the canal), the IWA asked the GWR for an assurance that they would lift the bridge if a boat needed access.

Little realising what they were letting themselves in for, the GWR agreed. The IWA then proceeded to organise campaign cruises through the affected section and the GWR soon gave up and unclamped the bridge. It wasn’t until after nationalisation of the canals however that a replacement swing bridge was installed. Now, as the factory is long closed that the bridge has been dismantled and boats can just sail straight through.



Western side of guillotine former stop lock

The canal has one more delight for us as the ‘proper’ top lock appears. You may recall we reached the top lock yesterday after climbing up the Lapworth flight. But that top lock was actually lock number 2. Lock number 1 was the original stop lock insisted on by the slightly older Worcester & Birmingham Canal as the price of letting the upstart Stratford Canal join it at King’s Norton Junction. Much later levels were equalised and the lock taken out of use, but the unique guillotine gates and mechanism survive and have just been the subject of a clean and brush up by volunteers from the Warwickshire Branch of the IWA.

We were about to say how wonderful it looks now (and it does by comparison to how it did look) but the little darlings, well Ryan to be precise, has been out with his gold coloured spray paint again, defacing one side. Ryan, if by chance you read this (always assuming you CAN read), run along and paint the gate black again…….



King's Norton Junction and former Junction House

At the junction, presided over by the rather majestic canal junction house, we turned sharp right and headed along the aforesaid Worcester & Birmingham Canal towards Lifford, Bourneville, Selly Oak, Edgbaston and the city centre.

It’s about 5 miles to the city centre, much of it is straight, much is tree-lined and there is quite a bit of interest.

A two-arch railway viaduct introduces a row of factory units that now sit on the trackbed of a former railway branch that used the second arch of the viaduct. Moorings announce the immense Cadbury’s factory at Bourneville - home of all things chocolatty and naughty. Sadly another British institution is now in the hands of a lying American company (Kraft) that promised to keep Cadbury’s Somerset factory open and save jobs and proceeded to do the opposite.

The Birmingham to Bristol railway line runs immediately alongside and parallel to the canal all the way to the city centre and a variety of trains flash by. At Selly Oak, the railway makes two very skew crossings of the canal which passes under long and very narrow viaducts. At the first we were met by a veritable onslaught of boats coming in the opposite direction. We slowed down to let the first two through but the second took so long to emerge that the following boats had caught them up and without waiting for us carried straight on. We had to get across to the towpath side and hold the boat in on a centre rope which wasn’t easy as the canal was so shallow the boat was a couple of feet out.

After the next two boats made it through, we managed to edge our way out and into the viaduct, the first of the next two pulling in to let us by.

Also at Selly Oak is the former junction of the Dudley No.2 Canal which met the W&B here. The Dudley No.2 Canal has long been disused but a very action restoration society is working hard towards reopening it. To that end, initial plans for a new Sainsbury’s superstore in a large new redevelopment scheme included reinstating the junction and restoring the first 100 yards or so of the old canal.

Now the final plans have been published, lo and behold there is no mention of the promised line. So much for big business – Kraft and Sainsbury’s just don’t get it, do they?

The canal now enters a pleasant section as it divides the huge campuses of Birmingham University (with its distinctive and towering Italianate clock tower) from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, massively extended in recent years.

As the canal passes into Edgbaston, the residential surroundings move decidedly upmarket. The canal passes through a brightly lit tunnel (the towpath is very popular with runners, cyclists and walkers) with the railway passing through its own adjacent tunnel, emerging into a cutting where one side is held up by an enormous blue brick retaining wall.

After passing under Fiveways Bridge, the skyscrapers of the city centre finally reveal themselves. This was formerly a heavily industrialised area featuring the much lamented Davenport’s Brewery but has now been transformed into an upmarket residential area.



Approaching Gas Street Basin

Passing through Granville Street Bridge we arrived at Holiday Street Wharf where we stopped briefly to empty the loo before continuing, turning sharp left adjacent to the Mailbox development and heading for the hub of the city centre canals.

For some years in the 1990’s an Inland Boat Show with a heavy canal presence was held at the National Indoor Arena. We visited the show each year it was held to look round the show boats and get ideas of what we liked, to dismiss what we didn’t like and to look at the workmanship of the boatbuilders exhibiting.

Each year we had a walk round the intricate network of canals telling ourselves that one day we would come here in our own boat. Each time we have cruised through here on ‘Patience’ we still get an adrenaline buzz as we do so.

Apart from canalside buildings adjoining Gas Street Basin (there’s a lyrical name for you) all is new – and distinctive. Brindley Place with its eateries, the International Convention Centre opposite which includes the wonderful Symphony Hall, the Sea Life Centre and the National Indoor Arena all rub shoulders with the mid C18th canal with its individualistic cast iron and black and white painted bridges. It is unique and wonderful.

We love coming here. We like Birmingham enormously. It has worked wonders to try and eradicate the dreadful mistakes of the crass 1960’s redevelopment when it thought car was king and the City Centre is now a pedestrianised delight. Its Victorian municipal buildings can now be seen for what they are – masterpieces – and there is always something new to see.

We always tie up on the 14 day moorings some way beyond the main 48 hour mooring area by the NIA. It’s quieter and we’re far enough away from the bars and eateries of Brindley Place that we are not bothered by noise, We shall stay here for a few days – we’re meeting friends on Saturday who are picking us up to go to a Western Front Association Conference on the archaeology of the First World War battlefields, and hopefully get in a couple of visits (Cadbury World sounds good, and we would like to visit the Birmingham back to backs restored by the National Trust). When we do start off again next week it will be for all points north and then west to Llangollen!

Mooring at Ladyewood Junction