Supermarket trolleys in the canal getting rarer?

Is it me, or is this an increasingly rare sight these days?

As far as I can recall this was the only supermarket trolley I saw in the cut on my recent trip to the Black Country. This was just past Hempole Bridge on the Walsall Canal. The supermarkets must be getting better at looking after their trolleys.

Date in Roman numerals on Hempole Bridge

13th September 2013

On the Walsall canal, between Ocker hill and the Ryders Green Locks is Hempole Bridge.

This is unusual in having a date cast in an iron plate - and doubly unusual in that the date is in Roman numerals.

MDCCCXXV is 1825.

My 2003 (or MMIII) Nicholson's (Guide 2) calls this bridge Hempole Lane Bridge.

Weed island blocks bridge hole

13th September 2013

As we paused for lunch at Tame Valley (or Doe Bank) Junction I noticed that the Walsall canal behind us was completely blocked by a mass of weed.

What causes these plants to float free and then coalesce? Is it a natural phenomenon, the means by which the plants propagate? Or have they been cut loose some distance upstream as part of a weed management programme, and left in the cut to get twisted round propellers and caught in bridge holes?

The Walsall Canal was not very busy. I expect the weed island stayed blocking Doe Bank Bridge for a while.

Timelapse: Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch to Wolverhampton

The sixth day of our April 2011 cruise took us on more canals which seem to be rarely used. We passed only one moving boat all day (10 hours cruising time)!

This 6'49" timelapse film shows us turning right out of the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch onto the Walsall Canal; then winding in a shallow winding hole (shaft needed); turning into the Walsall Town Arm and tying up just before the basin (I didn't know I could have pushed the yellow boom out of the way to moor in the basin itself); ascending the Walsall Locks; turning left onto the Wyrley and Essington Canal towards Wolverhampton. You'll see we stopped a few times for prop clearance.



The next timelapse film should show the continuation of this day, where Captain Ahab joins us for the descent of the Wolverhampton 21.

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.

Curly Wyrley

7th April 2011
After ascending the eight Walsall Locks we came to Birchills Junction where we joined the Wyrley and Essington Canal.


We were now back on waters we had travelled before, but long enough ago for me to have forgotten it. I hadn't forgotten that rubbish lurks not far below the surface, and we had to clear the prop at Brick Kiln Bridge.

At Sneyd Junction we didn't, unfortunately, have time to explore the remains of the Wyrley Branch with its infilled lock.


Just round the sharp left bend at the junction I spotted a bird of prey overhead. Sparrow hawk?


We were on a mission to make it down the Wolverhampton 21 before nightfall - and we were due to meet up with Captain Ahab at the locks (already blogged here) - so I passed on the opportunity to nose into Holly Bank Basin. One for another time.

Walsall Locks

This seems like such a long time ago now! It's about time I caught up with our April cruise on the BCN - our own mini BCN challenge - so here is where I got up to. Walsall Locks, 7th April 2011.


After doing battle with the shirt round the prop after reversing back down the Walsall Town Arm we immediately started up the Walsall flight.


At the top we talked to a couple of students, one of whom told us we were the first boat she'd seen in the locks.

Walsall Basin, the unfriendly boom and the art gallery

Two months before the BCN Challengers finished up there, we were at Walsall Basin, at the end of the Walsall Town Arm. Or, rather, we were almost there. As I wrote at the time, in our way was a yellow plastic boom across the entrance to the basin, keeping a lot of floating rubbish at bay.


There was nothing there to say what boaters should do, so we tied up just before the boom and walked to the art gallery. There had been no sign at the beginning of the arm to say that the basin was closed off.

I know now that visiting boats are meant to simply push the boom out of the way and tie up in the basin.


the approach to Walsall


new building on the Walsall Town Arm


Work No. 264, Two Protrusions from a Wall by Martin Creed in the art gallery


Shadow tied up just outside the basin - view from the art gallery

After an hour and a half of looking round the art gallery and doing a small amount of shopping - there's a useful Poundworld nearby - we reversed the quarter of a mile to the junction. Does the prop pick up more rubbish in astern, whereas in ahead the action of the boat cutting through the water pushes semi-submerged items out of the way? We came to a halt with a shirt round the prop, which took me fifteen minutes to free. Here's Jan displaying the offending garment just before throwing it away later.

Two derelict branches of the Walsall Canal

First up is the Gospel Oak Branch, half a mile north of Doe Bank or Tame Valley Junction.


Then, two furlongs further on, was Moorcroft Junction, where the Bradley Branch used to connect the Walsall Canal with the Wednesbury Oak Loop.

Both as viewed as we passed along the Walsall Canal heading north towards Walsall itself. Shortly after passing these remnants of a once thriving canal network we passed a moving boat, Cat Flap, the only one we saw all day (7th April 2011).

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!

Engine overheats and Captain Ahab saves the day

So much to write about, so little time before I have to go to bed! Cap'n Ahab has just left us to return home after assisting our descent of the Wolverhampton 21.

This morning we set off up the Walsall Canal, turning into the Walsall Town Arm to tie up there at 1125. There was a boom across the entrance to the basin preventing us going in.


Presumably Walsall Council doesn't want the rubbish floating in to spoil their nice clean water.


Actually the water only looks nice and clean on the surface. Although it's quite clear, there's a huge amount of muck and rubbish down there, as we found when having to reverse the quarter of a mile to the junction with the main line. A shirt got nicely tangled round the prop. It took about 15 minutes for me to free it.

A mostly trouble-free ascent of the Walsall Locks was followed by a reasonably clear run on the Wyrley and Essington to Horseley Fields Junction and the start of the Wolverhampton 21.

At Walsall Top Lock we talked to two young female students who were "just chillin'". One, who lives locally, said ours was the first boat she'd seen going through the locks! Well, today we had the canals almost entirely to ourselves. We saw just one moving boat, Cat Flap on the Walsall Canal. That's two moving boats in two days!

At Lock 4 of the 21 Andy, aka Captain Ahab, joined us to lend an extra pair of hands as we locked down.


It was really good to meet you, Andy. The captain was invaluable when, a few locks later, Jan mentioned that the exhaust was a lot smokier than normal. I have to admit that at first I thought Jan was imagining it, but then there was a lot of blue smoke. We stopped the engine, lifted the deck boards, and were greeted with clouds of sweet-smelling water vapour.


Oops. The temperature gauge was on the end stop. Ah. Not good. I checked the oil. The funny thing is that, this morning, when I did the usual engine checks, the oil level was on the minimum mark on the dipstick. So, for the first time ever on Shadow, I added some oil. Now when I checked, it wasn't even touching the bottom of the dipstick. After a pause for a cup of tea while things cooled down a bit, Andy noticed little pools of what looked like oil just below the rocker cover. Yup. It was oil. Perhaps the rocker cover wasn't bolted down tightly enough. There was what seemed to be fresh gasket sealant oozing from underneath. Hmm. Interesting. I was able to turn each nut by a few flats before I felt resistance. Had it not been tightened properly recently?

I topped up the oil again, and removed the coolant filler cap. You know how you're supposed to let the engine cool before removing the cap? And put a cloth round it? Well, I had a piece of paper towel to hand, so I used that. I wasn't prepared for what happened next. After turning easily, the cap suddenly shot off. Andy and I jumped back, and the cap landed in the bilge. It could have been a lot worse. I could have got a scalded hand or face. And the cap could have landed in a more inaccessible place.

After that scare I topped up the still-gurgling coolant with 5 litres of hot water. The temp. gauge now showed a much better reading of about 90 degrees, so we started the engine, and all seemed fine.


We had been in the lock the whole time, but were not holding anyone up of course, because we were the only boat moving. Now we had to crack on, as the light was fading. There were no more problems, and we tied up at Aldersley Junction at 2055. The last couple of locks were done as much by feel as sight!



During all this, as well as doing most of the steering through the locks, Jan had somehow managed to cook up a sausage, bacon, onions and mashed potato feast which the three of us devoured as soon as we'd tied up.

An hour later, after a great chat with Andy, Andy left to walk back to his car, and I started to write this. And I managed to publish some of this prematurely too. Sorry.

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!