After a most enjoyable stay in Birmingham we left our mooring at 07.50 and winded (turned) above Farmers top lock and then used the services before moving off. It’s not very often you see a roundabout on a canal, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen another one anywhere on our travels. Anyway it’s a left turn for us as we head out of the city and towards The River Severn.
Passing the Mailbox on our way out and Carolyn commented that she had been there and enjoyed shopping in Harvey Nicholls with my credit card……What ???
I must admit I did like the look of this building. It’s called The Cube and was the final part of the Mailbox complex to be built. Just the cladding alone cost 11 million pounds. It contains 135 flats, 111,500 square feet of offices, shops, a hotel and a 'skyline' restaurant. I will make sure that I visit it on our next trip to Birmingham.
Heading out of Birmingham on The Worcester and Birmingham canal and we noticed that several of the bridges had these small red doors in them . I know that when we went down the Hanwell flight into Brentford on The Grand Union Canal that the hospital next to the locks had similar doors built into the perimeter wall . They were installed there in case of a fire in the hospital so that firemen could knock out the door and put their fire hose through to draw water from the canal. I was just wondering if anyone knows if these are for the same reason.
Passing through Bourneville and guess who wanted to stop here at Cadbury World?. Unfortunately all the moorings were full so we had to keep going, what a shame Carolyn !
A few miles on and how about this for a bit of a Harry Tate boat. You have to take your hat off to who ever designed and built this. I would just love to see it running and I wonder how the drive works off that engine.
We see plenty of Scarecrows in fields as we cruise through the countryside but this is the first time we have seen one in a boat . We think he was there to scare away the Cormorants from eating all the Fish in this reservoir.
Passing through Tardibigge tunnel and it makes a change to go through a tunnel that has no brick or concrete liner but is just carved out of the rock. The tunell is for two way traffic although it doesen’t look like it. It’s said that this tunnel is haunted with a secret passage way running below the water to a cavern, although we saw no Ghosts or Bogart’s as we passed through.
After a great days cruise we picked up this mooring above the top lock of The Tardebigge flight of locks. The flight consists of 30 locks and then below that are the 6 locks of The Stoke flight . It is our intention to get up early in the morning and nail all 36 locks in one go.
Happy Days
yes I enjoyed the blog looks as though you had a nice mooring there. Shame Carolyn did nt go shopping x
ReplyDeleteIt was a good cruise and I think Carolyn has had more than enough of shopping !! Although no doubt she will disagree .
DeleteYou need to go to the Queens Arms at the bottom. Fabulous pub a little expensive, but not too bad with food to die for and a good selection of beer. There is also a full size wigwam in the gardens if you want to do it alfresco! George
ReplyDeleteHi George and Carol , A couple of days behind with the blog , and now Unfortunattly passed it . But it certainly seemed very popular and we have written a note next to it in our guide book which says ...Visit next time,recommended by George ... Thanks mate
ReplyDeleteThe roundabout you refer to in Birmingham is infact the airshaft for the railway that runs below the canal. Graham of N.B. Autumn Years not a blogger but a regular reader of your blog which I enjoy
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Graham , Very interesting . I must say we wondered why there would have been a round about as it would probably been more of a hindrance than a help ..
ReplyDeleteThe red doors in bridges, which are found throughout Brum, from what I see, are indeed for EWS, emergency water supply. There for deployment during the war, possible. Good blogs as usual.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that bit of info Jack , let's just hope they never need to be used ...
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