Back to the Droitwich canals

Tuesday 8^th September; above Stourport to Mildenhall Lock, Droitwich Barge canal

Last night we had just turned the light out when the dog set up a furious barking.  There was a bright light on the towpath – a walker had stopped just outside.  He had a head-torch and was doing something on his phone as he wandered off, just someone going home from the pub we supposed.  It rained again overnight but it had dried up by breakfast. 

There is a large berry crop round here

With the anchor firmly attached and the lifejackets ready we set off around 9.30 with the sky still overcast, and made our way to York lock above Stourport Basins.  It’s a very deep lock – 12’ – and you need to cross the busy road and then use a BW key to get past a padlocked gate to the lock landing below.  A boat was just entering at the bottom so it was a long time before we were finally down.  Dave pulled in on the chandlery wharf for some diesel – 127p base price.  He always calculates how much fuel he thinks will be needed, based on engine hours – he reckoned it would be 93 litres.  It took 95.  While he was doing that I went up to town to look for a paper, unsuccessfully – I would have had to walk back to the Lidl or an Esso garage back near bridge 5a, so we did without.  Then we went over to the services to dispose of recycling and food waste.

Knitted bunting and a closed toilet

There was more bunting adorning the railings along the two staircases at the far end of the basins.

Someone’s not impressed.

It’s sensible to wait in the bottom lock of the first staircase for the top lock of the bottom staircase to be fully prepared before you start crossing the pound.  Then you can take the boat straight in, well not straight exactly as the locks are not in a straight line!  However calm the wind, the currents caused from a strong outflow not far away will move the boat unpredictably, and it’s really not wise to try and wait in the pound.

Dave negotiates the tricky crossing

Life jackets on now, and Jess on the lead as I closed up at the bottom, and Dave picked us up from the pontoon on the river below.  We were soon passing the last of the red cliffs for this trip on the way to the first lock, Lincomb.

Although there has been a reasonable amount of rain and a big downpour a couple of days ago in the catchment of the Severn, the lockie said the river had only risen about 2”.  There is still about an 8’ drop to the locks but we couldn’t see the weirs.

Attached

It was lunchtime when we left the lock, so I went below to put the kettle on and make the sandwiches, and we ate on the move.  It’s 4 or 5 miles to Holt lock.  Jess isn’t a big fan of the Severn – she spends the whole time hooked up to one of the stern doors.  It’s either that or be shut inside, which is much worse. 

At least she can sit on the locker and see where we’re going

So far we had seen just one narrowboat on its way upstream, and as we got closer to Holt Fleet there was a rowing eight coming our way.  They were coxed, so we didn’t need to toot them.

Grey cox and crew, pulling strongly

There had been very little bird life either - a few cormorants, the odd heron or mallard, a single buzzard and no egrets.  After Holt lock we did see a few sand martins.

Sand martins at the lock nest site have done well this year – 160 young were fledged

Eventually we reached Hawford junction, to find a boat on the landing stage below it. 

Bless her, the crew went back to open the gates for us – they are really heavy and I certainly appreciated it!

Ollie Owl sets off for Stourport

As we rose up the second lock we could see that there was a boat right in the middle of the moorings above.  There was room for us, just, but as it was only about 3 o’clock, the nearby A-road was very noisy and the sun was shining too, we decided to go a little further.  There isn’t much mooring on the Droitwich canals, but Waterway Routes shows a few ‘small m’ not-very-good moorings, so we expected to use pins.  The reeds had encroached on the first and the remaining bit of bank was far too short for us.  There is more marked past the next lock, Mildenhall.  We went up to discover a new mooring above the lock, right opposite the lock landing.  The perfect size for us and with Armco and nice short grass to boot.  Just as we went inside a walker with windlass arrived – they had heard about this mooring by word of mouth - but were 5 minutes too late!  At least we could tell them there was room further down.  We can still hear the busy road, but it is much quieter here.

11¼ miles, 10 locks (the 2 on the Severn with lockies); Staffs and Worcester canal, River Severn, Droitwich Barge canal; A449 tunnel.