Stourport to Droitwich

Wed 5th Sep  Stourport to Hawford

Water Art

It was bright and sunny this morning. We had some errands to do first. James took a cassette for a trundle up to the facilities block and Hazel disposed of rubbish and went to a shop for some milk.

Stourport Basins

Moored on the Severn

Back on the boat, James was starting to put down the hood, when a fisherman hailed him and asked if he had a landing net. We do have one, originally bought when Hugo was a kitten in case he fell in. James grabbed it and went round to the quayside in front of the Angel pub, where the man had caught a bream. Our net has had various uses: rescuing a squirrel on one occasion, and a ladies purse on another, but this was the first time in fourteen years that it has been used for its proper purpose.

The fisherman without a landing net

We saw a kingfisher before we departed, and later there were two more further down the river.

We passed the uninspiring mouth of the River Stour, followed on the other side by the rather more spectacular Redstone Rock.

The mouth of the Stour

Redstone Rock

Lincomb Weir

The first lock was Lincomb Lock, which was set for us, with a traffic light on green. There was a lot of scaffolding around where they are presumably renovating the control room.

Lincomb Lock

We cruised gently down with the flow for four miles, passing The Hamstall Inn at Astley Burf, and the Lenchford Inn at Shrawley, both of which we have visited in the past.

Astley Burf

Out on the open river

As we approached Holt Lock, we met a large hotel boat, Edward Elgar. We once saw this boat at the Saul Junction festival, with Prunella Scales and Timothy West on board.

Edward Elgar

Holt Lock

The lock keeper at Holt Lock said we should beware of a dredger working further downstream. We never saw it, but we did see another narrowboat coming upstream.

Holt Fleet Bridge built by Telford in 1828

We passed the sand martin nests, but no birds were in sight. They may have already returned.  We did see some swallows further down.  James also spotted a mouse on a dead tree, disappearing into a hole.

The mouth of the River Salwarpe

As we turned into the Droitwich Canal, there was a hire boat coming out. They opened both gates and left both sets of paddles up, and then moored on the lock bollards to phone up the next lock. We therefore had to go into the lock, and James had to climb the ladder as there was nowhere left for him to get off.

As he was closing the gates another boat came in sight coming up the Severn from Worcester, so we waited for them to join us.  This was the first lock we have shared since Chester. We have been on narrow locks ever since.

Waiting our turn for the Droitwich Canal

Lock 1

We shared the first two locks with this hire boat, before we stopped for the day just above lock 2, where there are mooring rings. We will leave the other six broad locks until tomorrow.

Moored above lock 2

Sunset at Hawford

New wire netting had been installed alongside the towpath since last time we were here. It prevented Hugo from going through to the field. However he still managed to find a small mouse from somewhere.

4 locks, 9 miles, 1 mouse

Thu 6th Sep  Hawford to Droitwich

A few boats went down the locks before we were ready to depart.  As we took down the hood and were about to leave, another boat appeared, rising in the lock below us. We established that they were going through to Droitwich, and we agreed to share the six locks with them.

The Droitwich barge canal is a broad gauge canal linking Droitwich with the River Severn. James Brindley acted as the consultant engineer through- out its construction and it was completed in 1771. It was built to provide a reliable transport system for the salt industry and was worked by specially developed "wich" barges. It was abandoned in 1939, and then, after many years of hard work by mainly volunteers, it was re-opened in 2011.

We set off, going under the A449 through a new bridge built during the canal restoration.

Under the main road

Linacre Bridge was built in 1771 by James Brindley. It was handmade brick in English bond with sandstone dressings. This is the only structure on the canal that remains untouched since its completion.

Linacre Bridge

An avenue of reeds

Mildenham Mill Lock 3

We had some help from a Canal and River Trust man in a van who knew the elderly couple on Bewdley Jester.

At Salwarpe there is a sharp bend before the very substantial bridge, and thankfully we were ready for it. The bridge is massive, considering it only leads to a church and about three houses. It was another one built in 1771 by James Brindley.

Salwarpe Bridge

Half an hour later we arrived in Droitwich, passing the Railway Inn, where we performed one of our pub gigs in 2013 during the BCF mission here.  We filled up with water using a very short pontoon, before mooring a little further on in Vines Park.

The Railway Inn

Short pontoons

Autumn leaves in Vines Park

We went for a wander round Droitwich in the rain which had just started. We had discovered that there was to be the Salt Festival this weekend. We obtained a programme from the Tourist Office and visited the Salt Museum in the same building.  We returned to the boat via a fish and chip shop.

6 locks, 6 miles

Next: a weekend in Droitwich before attempting the 36 locks of the Stoke and Tardebigge flights next week.