Weed mountain

We set off reasonably early from Longwood Junction - at about 0815. The top lock of the Rushall flight was set for us; apart from two where work boats were coming up this was the only lock out of today's 25 which we didn't have to turn.

Passage down the Rushall Canal was slow owing to the large amount of weed, exacerbated by the low pounds.

The Tame Valley Canal wasn't much better, despite an initial increase of speed of 0.5 mph (from 2.8 ish to 3.3 ish). Our bow kept collecting vast rafts of floating weed which I kept having to dislodge with a batten. The next time Jubilee is in dry dock I must get something welded on which will smooth off the bow and remove the tendency for things to collect there.

I was encouraged to see mountains of weed removed from the canal at Perry Barr Top Lock. If it's all here then there can't be any left in the canal. Yes?

Well, no, actually. There was so much of the semi-submerged blanket weed that getting out of locks was a slow process. I had to bow haul out of one; a boat two in front was bow hauling down the entire flight. I expended a considerable amount of energy cycling down and up setting locks and opening gates etc., not just for us but for two boats in front.

At last we got to the bottom of the Perry Barr Locks and came to Salford Junction. Or Spaghetti Junction as motorists know it - or Gravelly Hill to give it its proper name. It's difficult to get a shot which gives a good idea of the complexity of the structure; this is my attempt.

A team was painting the supporting beams.

Why is this necessary? Is it for protection?

We considered mooring on the bollards just before Butler's Bridge, but I saw that the piling the other side of the bridge looked to be a better location. Unfortunately, when we moved the boat there, we discovered that the edge was much too shallow. We continued down the Minworth three locks and tied up past Dicken's Bridge on some handy piling. Our friend Helen was there so we invited her to join us for a meal. We had a very enjoyable evening.

Now I must get some sleep!

What the motorbikes on the towpath did next

Last time I steered along the Tame Valley Canal we encountered motorbikes on the towpath, so I wasn't entirely surprised when a loud noise nearby got even louder and gained the form of two motorbikes joining the towpath in front of us.

This illustrates the antisocial side of what the riders presumably think of as jolly japes. As they approach a pedestrian at speed ...

... she has to get out of the way as the bikes roar through a deep puddle.

At Rushall Junction we turned left onto the Rushall Canal and immediately found ourselves in a much weedier environment. Today I must have been down the weed hatch half a dozen times. I suppose blanket weed makes a change from plastic bags.

The first seven of the nine locks are close together; one pound was very low. I had to steal water from the pound above, and then top up that pound from the next one.

Despite the obvious lack of traffic on this canal the locks were mostly in good condition. One paddle rack has slipped out of position ...

... and this anti-vandal device was inoperable owing to the presence of what looks like a socket someone has lost trying to work it.

The long pound leading to the top two locks shows how little used it is.

We tied up on the 48 hour mooring by the facilities block at Longwood Boat Club, which has the best, cleanest Elsan disposal point I have had the pleasure to use.

After tea we walked to the Manor Arms pub where I had an excellent ale in the unusual bar.

There is no bar as such: drinks are dispensed from one wall of the room where customers are sitting.

David and Penny left us before we set off this morning, David having cycled back to Park Head to get their car yesterday.

Electromagnetic chimney by the Tame Valley Canal

12th September 2013 (yes, I'm jumping around a bit)

Just after emerging from the tangle of flyovers above Salford Junction, heading north west on the Tame Valley Canal, there's an old factory chimney on the left (south side).

What's interesting about this chimney is the electromagnet design on four of its eight sides.

Looking at a road map of the area I see there's an Electric Avenue in about the same location. Long may it remain.

Mystery photo - the answer

KevinTOO got it. It's the aqueduct which carries the Tame Valley Canal over the M5 near its junction with the M6. This is the view from the aqueduct:

As Kew crosses the aqueduct Rushall Junction is just visible in the distance.

What a contrast!

Clearing the prop the "easy way" (and getting very wet)

Being a converted butty, NB Kew has no weed hatch.* In order to clear the propeller the first approach is to put it into astern to try to throw off the rubbish. If that doesn't work then the hooked boat shaft is used to try to pull the obstruction free.

Success! David has removed a mangled jacket which stopped the boat at Perry Barr Top Lock.

Later in the trip, on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, there was more prop clearance to be done.

David attacked the problem from both sides ...

... and even had to lie down on the job.

Sometimes, though - as here - there's nothing for it but to feel what's going on with your hands. Easy enough through a weed hatch, but, for David, a bigger commitment is required.

I wouldn't fancy doing this in the depths of winter!

In the event David cut free a quantity of thin polypropylene rope using, of course, the bread knife.

*Update to add that I've had a message from Mary to say that Kew does indeed have a weedhatch; it's just that David often finds it easier to get into the water than undo and redo all the bolts!

Timelapse: Holloway Bank Bridge to Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch

This is really the last little bit of yesterday's timelapse, covering the westernmost mile of the Tame Valley Canal, a tiny bit of the Walsall Canal, and our exploration of the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch. We went to the ends of the two sub-branches before tying up on the fenced-in visitor mooring. Well, we hadn't planned to go anywhere that night!



The actual cruise was on 6th April 2011 and my contemporaneous account is here.

Canals at 200 mph; and Timelapse: Curdworth to Holloway Bank Bridge

This timelapse film is 6' 49" duration and took too long to upload last night for me to post it here last night. So here it is now, showing us ascending the Minworth Locks, passing under the building at Erdington and under Spaghetti Junction, going up the Perry Barr flight and over the M5/M6 interchange. The pink splodge coming out of the sky in the last bit is the sun. When it's shining directly into the lens the camera's CCD chip can't cope.



I somehow managed to record both the time of our leaving the mooring at Curdworth and our passing Holloway Bank Bridge exactly nine hours later. This means I can calculate that the amount by which the film is effectively speeded up is about 80 times. So our usual 2.5 mph cruising speed here looks more like 200 mph!

Remember when you were young?*

Still no contact from BT about our dead phone line, so I'm having to regurgitate some old photos. Here's another one from last year's hot April.


Despite a wide-brimmed hat I got a sunburned neck cruising along the Tame Valley Canal.

According to BT's fault reporting website I should be contacted within three working days of reporting the incident. So what's a working day? For me, every day can be a working day. I'm working this weekend, so will BT count Saturday and Sunday as working days? I somehow doubt it. BT's first deadline, then, to address the problem of my dead line, is 0943 on Tuesday.

*Who will be the first to supply the five words following on from the title of this post, appropriate to the photo?

Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch

Argh! I'm getting behind with my blog posts, not helped by being unable to upload photos last night. Blogger was slow, or my broadband connection was slow, or my computer was slow. Or I was slow.

I've nowhere finished writing up our April two week cruise, and now there's the just-completed four day trip with my brother to talk about. At least I have plenty of photos to share.


Back to 6th April 2011, then, and my personal BCN challenge. We have just come off the Tame Valley Canal and tied up by the facilities at the junction with the Walsall Canal. Wanting to explore the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch I walked across to talk to the residential moorers there to sound out the possibility of going to the ends of the arms.

Come on in, they said, but mind the low bridge (this one, at the entrance to the branch, wasn't it - it was the next one along).


So we squeezed past the moored boats, squeezed under the low bridge, and squeezed as much silt out of the way under the bows as we could before reversing back. This is as far as we got. I was disappointed not to see any evidence of a tunnel mouth, but I suppose it's been many decades since it was last in use.


To turn the boat we reversed into the other arm, and then tied up at what we were told was a visitor mooring just before the main line.


Curiously this was completely cut off from the towpath. Even the facilities were the other side of the branch. At least it was safe, not that we suffered any form of banditry anywhere on the BCN.

I've just reread what I wrote at the time. It's interesting how I've forgotten lots of detail in just two months:

Our destination was Ocker Hill. I didn't know what I'd find there. Nicholson's suggested there'd be some sort of services, and also maps the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch, just a few yards south of Doe Bank or Tame Valley Junction. I walked over the towpath bridge over the entrance to the arm, and, by leaning over the bridge, could read a BW sign "Welcome to Ocker Hill residential moorings". Nothing saying "Private moorings: Keep Out", so I was hopeful that I might be able to explore. I accessed the moorings (still by foot) with a BW key and asked a residential boater if there were visitor moorings there. He said yes, by the entrance. Excellent! I reversed Shadow to the junction and went in, all the way to the end of the longer of the two "fingers", then reversed and winded to come back to tie up where indicated, right by a water point. Very convenient (for water, not so convenient for the facilities block!)

That shows me how important it is either to write up as soon as possible after the event, or to make extensive notes. I can't trust my memory!

M5 aqueduct

Aqueducts are always exciting. I suppose it's the unnaturalness of a body of water in the air, and being able to cruise right over other things. An aqueduct over a road is good; an aqueduct over a motorway is even better.


The Tame Valley Canal is carried over the M5 just south of its junction with the M6.

Motorbikes on the towpath

On the last stretch of the Tame Valley Canal, between Rushall Junction and Tame Valley (or Doe Bank) Junction we began to see motorbikes being illegally ridden along the towpath.


And we heard them during the night, when we were moored in the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch.

On the straight and narrow

It wasn't just the Romans who built communication links in straight lines! Here's Jan steering along the Tame Valley Canal on 6th April 2011. I'm using flash to light her face against the bright background.

Shoring up the sandstone on the Tame Valley Canal

I wonder when it was decided to insert columns of brick to prevent the natural sandstone sides of the cutting from collapsing.


Some today news now: We're joining my brother for a few days on Shadow, joining the boat at Crick on Monday. If anyone's still at the Crick Show on Monday afternoon we might see you there...

Perry Barr Gauging Weir House

I always try to use the showers provided at certain places on the canal system, and I did so at the facilities at Perry Barr Top Lock.


I see I've managed to include the Gauging Weir House in the photo. I wonder if this is connected to the Grid House at the bottom of the flight.


I did enjoy this flight of locks, partly, I think, because we had it to ourselves. Oh, there were a few dog walkers, but no other boats. And all the locks were in our favour!

Perry Barr Locks and Grid House

We were now on new waters, as we hadn't done the Tame Valley Canal before. In less than two miles from Salford Junction we arrived at the bottom of the Perry Barr lock flight. Here was a curious roofless brick building bearing the name Grid House (on the left in the top photo). Any ideas as to what it was for?


Photographer Keith Berry doesn't know either, and he appears to doubt its existence.

DC Michael Swindells

Just past Salford Junction on the Tame Valley Canal is a memorial on the towpath to an officer of the West Midlands Police. The inscription reads "Here fell DC Michael Swindells 21 May 2004". The name was vaguely familiar, but I had to look it up. The Police Roll of Honour Trust website has some photos from the unveiling ceremony in 2008 and a brief explanation: he was stabbed to death attempting to arrest a violent suspect armed with a knife.

Salford Junction

We approached Salford Junction along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal from the east. It looks as though the canal continues straight on, with two other canals joining from the south, but if we had wanted to stay on the B&F we'd have had to turn left at the second canal. As it was, we needed to take the Tame Valley Canal, so we kept straight on.


This junction is famously under the M6 and its Spaghetti Junction. Despite the concrete jungle in the sky there is a surprising amount of greenery down here. Just before the junction were these two fishermen. Did they come here for a bit of peace and quiet?


The first canal on the left (at Salford Junction South) is the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, aka the Grand Union.


The contrast between the cast iron towpath bridge and the precast concrete slab carrying the motorway is stark. It must have been an interesting problem for the motorway builders to preserve the canal and, presumably, not hinder traffic on it. Now the later bridge provides a canopy for the graffiti mongers as they carry out their clandestine spraying.

Between Salford Junction South and Salford Junction North is a signpost. It appears that some misguided person had the distances cast in kilometres. Now numbers have been stuck over the top, covering the "k" (in most instances), to make the sign read in miles.


Then comes the B&F (Digbeth Branch), with the site of Nechells Shallow Lock just the other side of the bridge.

Extremes of the Tame Valley Canal

This morning we left Curdworth and continued up the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal towards Birmingham. The last time I did this canal was something like 25 years ago, so it was like cruising fresh territory.


I couldn't remember the huge building straddling the canal by Erdington Hall Bridge, but it must have been there on that earlier trip. It was there, incidentally, that we met the only other moving boat of the day!


The B&F joins the Tame Valley Canal at Salford Junction. It's a strange and noisy place under Spaghetti Junction. The M6 follows the Tame Valley Canal for more than half its length, criss-crossing at Perry Barr locks, and returning at Rushall Junction before sweeping away on stilts as the TVC crosses the M5 on an aqueduct. It's a surreal feeling looking down on the rushing traffic while steadily motoring on to our own destination.


Our destination was Ocker Hill. I didn't know what I'd find there. Nicholson's suggested there'd be some sort of services, and also maps the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch, just a few yards south of Doe Bank or Tame Valley Junction. I walked over the towpath bridge over the entrance to the arm, and, by leaning over the bridge, could read a BW sign "Welcome to Ocker Hill residential moorings". Nothing saying "Private moorings: Keep Out", so I was hopeful that I might be able to explore. I accessed the moorings (still by foot) with a BW key and asked a residential boater if there were visitor moorings there. He said yes, by the entrance. Excellent! I reversed Shadow to the junction and went in, all the way to the end of the longer of the two "fingers", then reversed and winded to come back to tie up where indicated, right by a water point. Very convenient (for water, not so convenient for the facilities block!)


the end of Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch

The extremes of the Tame Valley Canal?

Extremely straight
Extremely free of boating traffic
An extremely high bridge - is there a bridge anywhere on the system higher than this?


Chimney Bridge, Tame Valley Canal

The sun beat down ...


... and I got a sunburned neck!