Wet Worcester

I was having so much fun posting the pictures of the old BBC kit yesterday that I neglected to say much about our trip from Droitwich to Worcester. The first thing to say is that there is a huge amount of reed growth on the Droitwich Barge Canal.

It was not a problem, but it did get a little boring after a while. We met four or five boats, mostly at locks. One was coming up as we left this pretty scene. The balance beams are cranked as there is a bridge immediately below the lock.

The restored (newly built?) circular overspill weir is in the style of some on the Staffs and Worcs.

All too soon we were at the bottom of the Barge Canal and at the junction with the River Severn. We had very much enjoyed the Droitwich Canals, especially as they were new to us.

The Severn was wide but not very fast flowing. At my usual 1100 rpm, which propels the boat at about 3.0 to 3.2 mph on a canal, we made 4.5 - 4.8 mph.

Soon Worcester Cathedral appeared beyond the road bridge. Jan got a good shot of it framed by the arch but she hasn't sent it to me yet.

We turned in the river to come alongside the lock landing pontoon behind another narrowboat; we came up the two locks into Diglis Basin together and then tied up as soon as we could.

Today I cycled back to Droitwich to get the car (National Cycle Route 45 - very good and well signed); we had lunch and then walked into the city centre. Jan witnessed the official opening of the Cathedral Square shopping centre, meanwhile there had evidently been another unveiling in the Cathedral Close. The blue plaque remembers the composer Thomas Tomkins (1572 - 1656).

We had visitors this evening: my former big boss in Norwich, David, who is an even bigger boss now, came with his wife, Deborah.

It was great to see you again, David, and to meet you, Deborah.

The 'wet' of the title? It was raining when we arrived yesterday, and it started raining again just as our visitors were leaving on their bikes today. I hope your journey back wasn't too awful. At about 8 pm we walked to a Wetherspoon's for a meal and were very glad of our waterproofs.

Tomorrow we hit the river again and will aim for Tewkesbury.

Droitwich calling

We looked round the small museum in Droitwich this morning. I found the salt aspect of this disappointing - the Lion Salt Works museum on the Trent and Mersey Canal, with its large scale reconstruction of a working salt works, is much better.

But what Droitwich is really famous for - for me, anyway - is the BBC transmitting station which for many years radiated on 1500m long wave. (These days it's actually 1515m as the frequency was changed to 198kHz so that all AM broadcast transmissions were on frequencies a whole multiple of 9kHz (this happened in 1978, I believe)).

Down a corridor by the salty exhibits (mostly skulls and skeletons, by the way) is the more interesting part of the museum. An area dedicated to the old days of the BBC, when the BBC ran its own transmitters, studios and production. This being Droitwich, the exhibits were mainly connected with the transmitting station. On the left below is an early version of the main control desk.

There's an assortment of other paraphernalia, including an AXBT microphone (remember the tiller pin on Savoy Hill?)

This is an interesting former incarnation of the BBC logo. It looks like it's on a flower planter.

And here's some outside broadcast kit, the OBA 8 (outside broadcast amplifier 8). It's essentially a mixing desk for microphone inputs and was used inter alia to get regional stations set up as the second world war threatened.

All this equipment was obsolete by the time I joined the Corporation as an engineer in 1980 - but I do remember we had a Ferrograph tape deck in the videotape area. Not as old as this, probably.

Well, that's enough of that. We left Netherwich Basin at 1300 and continued down the Droitwich Barge Canal. This was bordered by vast reed banks for much of the way to the Severn, but a handful of locks added interest. Once on the Severn we passed through Bevere Lock and made our way downstream to Worcester, where we ascended the two locks into Diglis Basin and tied up on the canal just before the facilities. Photos tomorrow.

p'doyng, p'doyng, Droitwich!

We're on the move again. We spent ten days away from the boat seeing family and mowing the lawn etc. But now we have entered waters new: the Droitwich Canals.

How did we get here? From the Stratford Canal we had turned left at King's Norton Junction and overnighted at Hopwood on 12th July. The next day we went through Tardebigge Tunnel, made use of the facilities at the wharf and dropped down the top lock. We left the boat in this long pound while we were away. Returning on Tuesday 25th July we set off down the rest of the Tardebigge flight at about 1600 after I'd taken the car to Stoke Prior. When we saw a length of piling above Lock 33 we stopped for the night. En route we'd passed Gerty No. 30. We'd met Robert and Wendy at Etruria and in Milton Keynes, this time we did little more than exchange greetings as we passed between locks.

Yesterday we waited for the rain to stop before moving, then we finished off the Tardebigge Locks, then the Stoke Locks, then the Astwood Locks. We stopped at Hanbury Wharf, hoping for a cheap meal in the Eagle and Sun. This, we found, had gone upmarket so we saved our pennies and ate on board.

Today we set off just as it started to drizzle, and turned right into the Droitwich Junction Canal. This was the first time we have been able to do this - the last time we were here, on Shadow, the restoration had still to be completed.

This was our view of the first lock, one of three close together.

These have working side ponds, which I was looking forward to operating, but the locks were manned by a volunteer lockie who hardly gave me the chance to do anything. Next time I'll have to make sure we come "out of hours"!

These three locks are deep.

From memory, this bridge carries the access road to Droitwich Spa Marina. It's quite a tight squeeze, and to prevent any embarrassing scrapes it has floats tethered along the sides so you can't hit it.

The narrow locks are delightful, none more so than this two-rise staircase. We arrived at the same time as a boat coming up, who asked if they could use it first as the bottom lock was set for them. The crew seemed slightly concerned that I started filling the top lock, so I had to explain that it needed to be full in order to empty into the bottom lock to get them over the cill. Had the locks been wide we could have passed in the middle, as at Bascote or Bunbury.

Here is Jan taking Jubilee into the lower chamber.

Then came the low tunnel/culvert under the M5. We'd taken the can off the roof and lowered the pile of logs, and were relieved when we passed under the height gauge with perhaps three inches to spare.

The height gauge proved an accurate guide. I found it difficult to take a photo while crouching to steer - this is the best I could do.

The radio aerial was going "p'doyng, p'doyng" on the underside of the concrete sections, so too was my elbow once or twice. But then we were out, and soon at the Barge Lock marking the start of the Droitwich Barge Canal. We had already joined the River Salwarp, we shall be making its acquaintance again on the way to the Severn tomorrow.

After three manually operated swingbridges (BW key to release padlock) we tied up at 1300 to a pontoon at Netherwich Basin, Vines Park. After lunch we explored the town a little. There's more to see tomorrow: I'm looking forward to the display of BBC transmitter stuff in the museum.

Droitwich Junction Canal

No-one has yet suggested where yesterday's photo (from 2008) was taken. Ray Butler has correctly identified the photo as the Droitwich Junction Canal. The locks were Hanbury Locks.

(I was writing the above at the same time as Ray was commenting on yesterday's post).


This is from Hanbury Lock no. 3. It's exciting to think that now boats can once again travel along here, and that one day I might too.

More excitement: Sarah has written another blog post! I hope she returns to more frequent blogging - she always does it well.

A week's cruise from Worcester: day 7

Thursday 28th August 2008

Stoke Prior to Lowesmoor Wharf, Worcester

The final push to Worcester. Still plenty of locks to do. I love narrow locks, and these are among the best on the system. Really quick fillers and emptiers. quiet surroundings ... perfect. Fergus steered competently in and out (I think we helped with the throttle). Here he is steering away from the bottom lock of the Astwood flight.


We tied up opposite the junction with the Droitwich Canal at Hanbury Wharf and investigated the three restored locks.


At the moment they are padlocked as the canal below is a reedy swamp.


Work is progressing nearer Droitwich itself, so this canal should soon be open for business.

Shortly after Hanbury Wharf, near Coffin Bridge, was this gruesome warning to anyone going too fast past Old Flame's mooring.


The caption reads "I was a boat speeder!"


At 1730 we arrived back at Shadow's mooring at Viking Afloat. We tied up alongside the floating dry dock and started unloading and cleaning. We had a barbecue in the marina's gazebo-covered smoking area, putting a couple of disposable BBQs in an oil drum BBQ which was already there. It worked well. Tomorrow we would finish the cleaning and go, having had about the best weather of the summer for our week. Such a difference from our two weeks on Willow in July: then we had only one day without rain; this time we had only one day when we had any rain.