Tuesday 30th
April, 2013
Stourbridge Canal to Merryhill shopping centre, Dudley No 1 canal.
Within 10 minutes of leaving our quiet, rural spot, we arrived at the bottom of the Stourbridge locks, and were
into the outskirts of Stourbridge, with its associated litter in the canal. Most of the locks were against us
unfortunately, but close enough for locking ahead so we made good progress.
We passed the derelict
Stuart Crystal factory near the bottom of the flight; a passer-by told us that
it is a listed building owned by the council, and he reckoned they were waiting
for vandals to burn it down! Next to it
is a restored bottle kiln, housing the museum.
In spite of the urban surroundings, there are attractive side ponds, where we saw two small coot families, a moorhen on her nest and some Canada
Geese with 3 goslings on the side ponds.
One pair of locks is only a few feet apart but is not a staircase – just
like Bratch locks.
Our lunch stop was shortly after Leys junction at the top of
the locks. There are very few suitable mooring
spots round here. We found an area with enough grass
for the dog’s needs, and to get the mooring stakes in, but with two burnt-out
benches nearby we would not have wanted to stay overnight.
After lunch we tackled the attractive Delph locks at the
start of Dudley No 1 canal. It is a
flight of 8, all close together, and now a conservation area. The gates are not all in the best of
condition, but they have been painted and apart from the ubiquitous graffiti
are very attractive. The locks are deep
and the overflows are built as waterfalls, making an impressive sight looking upwards from the
top of the first lock.
Locking ahead was easy as they were so close together, so we were up quite quickly. This is the view downhill from just above the restored stables at lock 3.
From the top of the locks it was a short cruise to our
mooring for the night at Merryhill shopping centre. We have never been through this way before
and were surprised (and pleased) to see that the shopping centre itself is much
lower than the canal and a fair distance away, so there is a very open aspect and with plenty of grass the mooring was very
pleasant in the evening sunshine.
We strolled up to look at The Waterfront area but we are not really into trendy pubs and were not very impressed. Neither do we go for huge shopping centres! though we did do some shopping in the Sainsbury's below the mooring.
24 locks today.
