A good tally at Shirley drawbridge

Tuesday 21^st April; King’s Norton Junction to Hockley Heath

Another cold but sunny morning.  I took Jess past the old toll house on our early walk and along the start of the North Stratford.  The toll house was left empty for some years and in 2019 became the victim of an arson attack.  It was renovated and security measures taken, and is now rented out as a private house owned by CRT.  If you’d like to see pictures of the inside look here.  It is an annoying local site which is full of irritating ads so you may choose not to bother.  I now have to run a cookie-deleter to get rid of their cookies as I didn’t want to subscribe.

Bonjour moored near the Toll House

We stopped at Lyons’ boatyard for some coal and kindling and decided to have a pump-out too as it was so convenient.  A wise move as the tank was fuller than we thought!   We were soon on our way again.

This heron was so focused it didn’t fly off as we passed

We would have stopped to top up the water at the fast tap between Lyons’ and Shirley, but there were boats moored in front of it, looking very unlikely to move, so that will have to be done tomorrow.  Since the control box at Shirley drawbridge was replaced it has been very easy to use, except that today it didn’t like one of our BW keys.  The other one worked so we weren’t held up.

Starting to lift, with two cars already waiting

Passing through

By the time I had closed the bridge again we had caught 13 cars, plus one more which turned round and drove off, a motorbike and a pedestrian.  We cruised on past the pub and the railway bridge and out into the countryside at last, where we soon stopped for lunch.  We had beans on toast as it had been such cold cruising.  When we got going again Dave and Jess walked for a while.

One option for overnight mooring was Spookytown (the new settlement built on the village of Dickens Heath, offically called Forshaw I think).  When we first visited it was extremely tidy, everthing paved with little greenery and it was almost devoid of life, not even a cat, weird and artificial.  To my surprise the peculiar water feature was in operation – it is normally dry and forlorn.  But we wanted to get closer to the Lapworth locks for tomorrow.

Odd, isn't it?

Dave and Jess got back on the boat before Lady Lane and Warings Green which have long lines of moored boats on the offside.  Before we got to Hockley Heath, we passed a house with huge grounds on the offside whose resident dog runs back and forth barking furiously and wagging its tail every time we pass.  Jess just looks at it.

We like to moor before we get to Hockley Heath itself as it is quieter, but you have to pick your spot as it can be very shallow along here.

Bonjour in the distance so I could get the bluebells in!

I find the frequent little patches of English bluebells very cheering and there was a good bit near our mooring.

9¾ miles, Brandwood tunnel, Shirley drawbridge, 15 vehicles caught.