Dudley Black Country Museum

Sunday, 7th June we visited the Dudley Black Country Museum on the edge of the canal.  The collections of the Black Country Living Museum represent the single largest record of material in Britain which exemplifies the particular contribution of the Black Country to the Industrial Revolution.  The region was uniquely rich in coal, ironstone, limestone and clay including  the Staffordshire "Thick Coal". a seam of 30 feet thick which was the richest in Britain and in some areas outcropped at the surface.  Together steam power and canals helped create the Black Country and established it as the greatest iron producing district in Britain and one of the greatest in the world.  The term Black Country is described "as smoky and black by day and red at night from the fires of blast furnaces, forges and kilns" and dates to the 1830's.  The last colliery was closed in 1968 and then manufacturing dwindled and the canals became deserted.

View of some of the buildings and the canal and old canal bridge.

A view over the industrial part of the museum and the canal.

The site of the Museum, about 26 acres on the edge of an old coal mine and next to the canal was opened in 1978 and has grown slowly from that time.  Beside the original features some 150 items and buildings including large industrial and public buildings, shops, houses, outbuildings and backyards workshops and many items of street and canal related furniture which have been brought and shifted to the site to recreate an authentic Black Country landscape.

View of the Mine entrance.

Notice about the first steam engine.

Sue standing beside the steam engine.

It is a living Museum with traditional crafts such as nail making, chain making and brass founding being displayed.

There was also this steam engine on display, used to pump water out of the deep coal mine.  It was the world's first steam engine and built in 1712.  It was fired by a large coal burner underneath it.  It was not working the day we were there.

We also watched a link of a chain being made, it took 7 minutes but a good craftsman in his day could do 40 chain links in an hour.

Chain making

We visited many of the cottages which were all brought to the site and rebuilt as exactly as they could and many included the garden, flower and vegetable as they would have done years ago and people cooking meals on the coal rages etc.  Unfortunately were unable to buy the bread made in the bakery.  I have a book about it and the activities and buildings we visited are too many to mention all, but we were there until about 5 pm.

The vegetable garden of one of the cottages.

That night was the first night it was warm enough to enjoy "Pimms"  on the side of the canal before we went off for a meal.  We went to a nearby famous pie factory called Mad O'Rourkes and I had a Queen Victoria Pie which was beef and vegetables with their special gravy with mashed potato on top and chips, really yummy.

The boats moored on the side of the canal and people getting ready to walk to our restaurant.

The inside of Mad O'Rourkes Pie Factory.

Birmingham Canal Navagation System and the Canals

It was up early on Saturday, June 6th to start exploring the Birmingham Canal Navigation or BCN as it is called.

Birmingham is known as the hub of industry in England and the canals were built to assist with transporting supplies around industrial Birmingham and to the rest of England.  Coal, ironsand, lime and clay were all mined around Birmingham from the 1700's and the first canal was completed in 1769 when they used horses to tow the boats and barges up and down the canals.  Canals continued to be built all over Birmingham and England from this time until in 1865 the BCN comprised over 160 miles of canals in and around Birmingham alone.  Today, 100 miles of the canal system is still able to be navigated by a narrow boat and much has been done in recent years to tidy them up.  At the end of the 19th century, 8 and a half million tons of trade was carried on the canals and continued until about 1950 when it was down to just over a million tons when the coal trade ended.

The canals are mainly used for recreation now, rowing, canoeing, fishing and narrow boating.  The water is dirty in places and on the main canal a lot of rubbish, yet we hardly saw any boats on a lot of the canals we went on.  The countryside is a mixture of flash housing, residential, industrial and a lot of derelict sites and land.

Fishermen on the side of the Canal.

On the morning of the 6th June we set out from the Cambrian Wharf in Birmingham and down the BCN Mina line but diverting off it on side canals to do the Icknield and Winston Green loops until the Dudley Port Junction where we turned off into the Netherton Tunnel Branch on our way to the Coombeswood Canal where we were staying the night.  We went through 2 tunnels in the boat, the first was the Netherton Tunnel which was 3017 yards long, two way with ventilation and a towpath.  It took 35 mins and came out at the Windmill End Junction where we had lunch and a walk around the nature reserve. 

The entrance to the Netherton Tunnel.

View of the Windmill End Junction from a bridge.

The second tunnel was the Gosty Tunnel, 557 yards long, very low, had to take the bike off the roof of the boat, no towpath and narrow.  You wouldn't have wanted to breakdown in it.

A boat at the entrance to Gosty Tunnel on the Coombeswood Canal.

It was then on to the Hawne Basin for mooring for the night.  We went to the local Boating Club rooms for a drink that night.  We had travelled a total of 12 and a half miles in the day with no locks !!!

The mooring at Hawne Basin.

Left early next morning going back to the BCN Main Line via the tunnels and Windmill End Junction and then down a small distance to the Dudley Canal, through 3 locks and moored up again on the side of it for the day.

Birmingham and the Canals

Arrived in Birmingham up the Worcester / Birmingham Canal on Friday, 5th June to meet up with the other 8 boats who were in the Cotswolds Narrow Boat Cruising club which Martin and Sue belong to and who were exploring part of the Birmingham canal system for the next week.

It was only 5 miles from where we left the Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal and was completely different from that canal.  We went through mainly residential and industrial countryside, a lot of cleared and derelict land.  The canal had become quite dirty with a lot of rubbish in it.  Some of the landmarks included Bournville where the Cadbury factory is, the huge university of Birmingham and Edgbaston where the cricket is played.

 

Boats coming into Cambrian Wharf in Birmingham City (I am in the second boat).  We had a meal in The Malthouse, the old pub above the boats, at the top of the photo.

View of canal from one of the many footbridges over the canal in the centre of Birmingham.

We moored at the Cambrian Wharf, right in central Birmingham.  The canal coming into this part of Birmingham had bars and old restored buildings along it combined with modern buildings and apartments.  After mooring we went for a walk around the city centre.  They have a large covered indoor arena at the ICC Convention Centre where indoor athletics often take place plus concerts and other sports right beside the canal, a huge new cultural centre with a Symphony Hall, the City Hall and Museum and the Gas Street Basin where a lot of narrow boats are moored plus a lot more.  The city was very busy with people especially young teenage girls that were going to the "5 seconds of Summer" concert in the Arena the night (an Aussie band I had never heard of, I must be getting old !!  There were thousands of them.).  We had a typical pub meal at The Malthouse that night, just along from the mooring. 

 

The Birmingham City Hall

It was off again on the boat early next morning after a noisy night in the middle of Birmingham

 

Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal.

It took us nearly 3 days with 2 nights on the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal to get to Birmingham, leaving Stratford-Upon-Avon on the afternoon of the 3rd June and getting to Birmingham on the evening of the 5th June.  The canal was much narrower than the rivers we had been on up until this stage and had a lot of locks in places to get us up the canal as the land got higher. It was 25 and a half miles in length from Stratford-Upon-Avon to the Birmingham Canal and a total of 40 locks !!

Sue with boat entering the Lapworth locks, 14 of them in a row or flight on the canal.

Martin driving the boat into a top lock of the Lapworth Locks.

Moored at night in the middle of the Lapworth locks

The canal was very picturesque in places, some of the bridges very interesting.  The canal had a towpath along one side which the horses used to use go on once upon a time to tow the boats and barges up and down the canal. This is now well used by people walking or biking up and down it and sometimes fishing from it.  The canal was low so you couldn't see a lot of the countryside from it as the trees were high along either side in most places.

One of the bridges on this canal, unique to this canal.  They had a one inch gap between the white railings that the tow rope from the horses to the boats and barges went through to save having to unhook the ropes at every bridge.  This scene with these reflections was common.

More reflections and a boat on the canal with the towpath beside the canal.

The countryside was varied, went through small villages and residential areas and then countryside.

The pretty village of Wilmcote on the canal in the distance.

A lot of wildlife at times, including ducks, swans, Canadian geese again, moorhens and coots.  These swans with their babies got caught up in the lock at the front of the boat.

2 swans and their 5 cygnets got caught in the lock when we went to fill it.  They were trapped and had nowhere to go.

After the lock had filled they wasted no time in swimming out of the lock once the gate was opened.

We went over the Edstone Aqueduct at one stage, 200 yards in length and very high up at about 30 metres on piers made of bricks, it was uncanny.  It is made of cast iron and will be 200 years old next year.  We moored next to it for the night, it was very peaceful.

The boat going over the Edstone Aqueduct, 200 yards long.  It was uncanny and a very tight fit with the water only  few inches from the top of it. 

As we turned into the Birmingham Canal there was a Stop or Guillotine lock, no longer used.  These locks were used as a toll gates in the days of the private canal companies, they were common at junctions of the canals as one canal company sought to protect its water supply from any newcomer.  This one was unusual as it had 2 wooden guillotine gates mounted in iron frames and balanced by chains an counterweights.

The Guillotine or Stop Lock at Kings Norton Junction at the entrance to Birmingham Canal.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

June 3rd, we had spent the night of the 2nd June in the marina at the Bancroft Gardens in the middle of Stratford-Upon-Avon and spent the morning exploring around the very picturesque town and learning more about Shakespeare.

Stratford-Upon-Avon coming into it on the River Avon

2 bridges, the Tramway and the Clopton, as you come into the town.  We did not go under theses bridges.  Note the Canadian Geese in the foreground, they are a nuisance in England as well and are everywhere up and down the canals and rivers.



We spent 3 hours walking around Stratford-Upon-Avon, initially over the bridges and down through a large park up the side of the river and then across on a footbridge and up to the Holy Trinity Church on the banks of the river where Shakespeare is buried along with most of his family.  He was also baptised and married there.  He was born on 23rd April 1564, baptised three days later on 26th April, married at 18 years to Anne Hathaway in 1582, had 3 children and died on 23rd April 1616 at the age of 52.   Although his children did have children, they all died or did not have any further children so there are no direct descendants from Shakespeare.

Holy Trinity Church, from the River Avon.

Shakespeare's grave in the nave of the Holy Trinity Church with his family's beside him.

The nave of the Holy Trinity Church with the Shakespeare graves in the front and the monument to Shakespeare on the wall at the left just below the stained glass windows.  There were many stained glass windows and were amazing. 

The next stop was the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on the banks of the river also.  I am going to see the live production of "Othello" performed here on 1st July.

 

The Royal Shakespearean Theatre from the river.

From here we walked around the town, up and down the narrow streets lined with old buildings and with all the different shops, inns, pubs, churches etc.  It was delightful and eventually arrived at Shakespeare's birthplace, totally preserved as much as can be dating back to 1564.  It was very interesting including the back garden which was planted with flowers as it would have had in it then.

 

The frontage of Shakespeare's Birthplace.

The back garden of the Birthplace.

The bedroom that Shakespeare was born in, the bed and the cot.

It was then back on the boat after a very interesting morning and starting up the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal to Birmingham.

The Boat and River Severn and Avon

Saturday 27th May set off from Gloucester in Sue and Martin's narrow canal boat (58 feet long and about 7 feet wide) for Tewkesbury up the Severn River, 15 miles and then the River Avon to Stratford-on-Avon, another 25 miles.  The Severn is quite wide for canal boats and can be dangerous if windy but it was fine the day we travelled on it.


River Severn, this is probably the widest and is 15 miles long.  It has a swift current.

 We turned at Tewkesbury into the River Avon.

 

Approach at Tewkesbury into the lock and then into the River Avon.

Eckington Historic bridge, built in 1400's.

Boat moored at Comberton Quay

We moored the night at Comberton Quay, the only boat there, very peaceful.  Went for a walk around the nearby town of Great Comberton, a lot of old black and white houses with thatched roof's.  Very quiet for a Saturday night. 

Visited Sunday morning by these 2 white swans with 6 cynets on their backs !!!   There are white swans everywhere up the rivers or canals, they are protected.

White swans with  6 cynets on their backs.

Sunday continued up the River Avon passing through 4 locks, one at Fladbury, a very picturesque place with a mill at the lock.

The Mill, lock, weir and lock and Fladbury.  Every lock has a weir where the surplus river water goes over.

From Fladbury we continued up the river to Pershore where we went under 2 historic bridges before we got to the lock.

View of one Pershore historic bridge from under the other one.

Typical notice at each lock up the River Avon.  The river and the locks are maintained by the Avon Navigational trust and it costs them half a million pounds a year to do so.  There is a fee to use the river and the locks and this goes towards it.  The river and the locks were restored 40 years ago and this is ongoing.

Sue on the boat at the Pershore lock, the lock has filled.

At each lock it involves one person steering the boat in and out of the lock, the other person or persons have to close and open the gates and wind up and down the paddles to allow the locks to fill or empty.  The boat goes into the lock, the gates are closed behind it, the paddles at the front are opened to allow the lock to fill and the gates opened when it is fill.  It can be quite exhausting and hard to open and shut the big heavy gates but also fun !!!

When then stopped at Pershore for lunch, a roast pork lunch at the Miller's Arms and had a look around the town including a look through the Abbey, now the Parish Church.

The Pershore Abbey.

We went onto Evesham for the next 2 nights, spent the day there on Monday while Martin went back to Gloucester to attend a funeral.

 

Cotswolds and Cheltenham

Thursday, 28th May, was spent exploring the towns and villages in the Cotswolds, driving down narrow roads, up and down hills and valleys with lots of lovely English trees with varying colours of green for this time of the year. Through beautiful countryside, mixed farming with grain, sheep and beef, a lot of crops of wheat and barley where we went.  We went on the country roads, some very narrow and through lots of little villages and passed huge Manor houses.

First we went to Cheltenham, a regency town built 200 years ago with lots of gardens and tree lined streets, not unlike Christchurch in ways except for the houses and buildings.  We had lunch on the lawn in front of the Pump House and then looked through it.

Regency Houses in Cheltenham



Pittville Pump House in Cheltenham used for functions and finished in 1830 and restored after the WW2 in 1960.  Spectacular inside with decorated dome etc and gallery around it.

Next stop was Stow-on-the-Wold, a very picturesque village with all buildings old some dating back to 1473.  Then it was to Bourton-on-the Water which had a stream with narrow bridges over it and a lot of tourists.  We wandered up and down the village there also.

Market Square in Stow-on-the-Wold

Martin and Sue on a bridge in Bourton-on-the-Water.

The final 2 villages were Lower and Upper Slaughter, both with different features, but still having buildings made of the Cotswold yellow stone and picturesque.

Stream and houses in Lower Slaughter

It was a great day, the only problem was the time it took us to get back to Gloucester due to peak hour traffic on the motorway !!