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Birmingham canals


artleknock

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Get a map the heron ones are good, as the guides Nickelson Pearson are great for the detail but you don't get the overall view. If you have time to down the new mainline to the black country museum,  you can usually moor inside the museum, well worth a visit then next day return to the city centre via the old mainline. Spend some time in the jewellery quarter, the museum is interesting as is the pen museum. You need to hurry the wife past all the diamond shops though or it will be an expensive holiday.

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Referring back to the OPs original comment, The Warwick ring barely touches Birmingham as you come in on the Birmingham and Fazeley and go straight out again up Camp Hill on The Grand Union. If you have a fortnight I would strongly recommend using the North Stratford and the top end of the Worcester and Birmingham as your route into / out of Birmingham rather than The Grand Union via Camp Hill. That way you get to see Gas Street Basin and Farmers Bridge Locks which alt least give a bit more flavour of what Birmingham is like.

If you have time to spare you could do a day out and back from Gas Street to explore the Old main line and back via the new main line plus one or two loops if you want!

Whatever you do, have a great trip and if you have a Nicholson or Pearson guide you won't get lost!

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12 hours ago, DRP said:

Joke.  Right?

If not, why not take advantage of the opportunity to let the little woman build up her confidence steering the boat in and out of the titchy locks, while you do all the running about?

My wife will only steer the boat on the straight easy bits at low speed, but she is happy doing the locks (exept the wheel locks on the nene) says it stop her from getting bored. She is the same with the car in France, will only drive on the autoroutes, though in England she will drive all day.

There is no way I would dare to call her 'The little woman':argue:

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10 minutes ago, Detling said:

Get a map the heron ones are good, as the guides Nickelson Pearson are great for the detail but you don't get the overall view. If you have time to down the new mainline to the black country museum,  you can usually moor inside the museum, well worth a visit then next day return to the city centre via the old mainline. Spend some time in the jewellery quarter, the museum is interesting as is the pen museum. You need to hurry the wife past all the diamond shops though or it will be an expensive holiday.

I downloaded the Waterway Routes map in PDF. It is hard to find the page you want on a tablet, the pages are not numbered, but it is easy on the desktop because that has thumbnails down the left hand side. Anyone know of a PDF reader android app that makes it easier?

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28 minutes ago, NickF said:

Referring back to the OPs original comment, The Warwick ring barely touches Birmingham as you come in on the Birmingham and Fazeley and go straight out again up Camp Hill on The Grand Union. If you have a fortnight I would strongly recommend using the North Stratford and the top end of the Worcester and Birmingham as your route into / out of Birmingham rather than The Grand Union via Camp Hill. That way you get to see Gas Street Basin and Farmers Bridge Locks which alt least give a bit more flavour of what Birmingham is like.

I agree that the North Stratford is a nicer way to get to Brum.

Once you've managed to raise and lower THAT lift bridge, the first one after Lapworth top Lock, that is.

And you also have the added fun of sometimes catching a car on Shirley Drawbridge as it goes up.

(But Farmers's Bridge is on the GU, Camp Hill, Ashted route into Brum)

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1 hour ago, Victor Vectis said:

I take it from this remark you won't be an entrant in the BCN Challenge any time soon then?

 

But do these places have anything to compare with the Wellington, the Post Office Vaults, the Great Western or Batham's beer?

I personally feel the PO vaults is a bit over-rated, and they don't take dogs, but then again I really like the Flapper. Prince of Wales is good but going thru a bad patch right now, and for a day out Ma Pardoes can be done there and back in a long day, including an extensive lunch time session.

..............Dave

2 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

I agree that the North Stratford is a nicer way to get to Brum.

Once you've managed to raise and lower THAT lift bridge, the first one after Lapworth top Lock, that is.

And you also have the added fun of sometimes catching a car on Shirley Drawbridge as it goes up.

(But Farmers's Bridge is on the GU, Camp Hill, Ashted route into Brum)

They've fixed it, another bit of canal folklore and history destroyed. :D

We caught that car a couple of weeks ago car, was yours driven by a silly young lady?

.............Dave

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14 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

 

(But Farmers's Bridge is on the GU, Camp Hill, Ashted route into Brum)

Sorry perhaps I wasn't clear I was meaning you get to do Farmers Bridge when traveling between the B and F and Gas Street which you would need to do to complete The Warwick Ring when using the North Stratford.

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There's more to do in the Birmingham area than just eat and drink:-

  • The Jewellery quarter and museum in Vyse Street
  • Pen museum
  • Library
  • Black country museum - a bit further out
  • the "back to backs"
  • and probably a lot more
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I've never done the BCN and would like to have a run through before my boating days are done.  How about suggestions for the easiest route for an aged singlehander with a dodgy back who likes short days driving and lots of sitting about reading, with suitable stopping places?  You can probably guess from that description of me why I've never done it so far.  The overall time it takes is not a problem.

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32 minutes ago, dmr said:

We caught that car a couple of weeks ago car, was yours driven by a silly young lady?

Well, no.

We've caught a vehicle on the bridge on three seperate occasions, two cars and a Sky TV van.

One of the car drivers was adamant that it was my fault. I could see he was on the bridge so why did I lift it, he shouted!

Pointing out that he had just driven through a red light and under a dropping barrier and that the sequence is automatic, the operater just pressing a button, did cut much ice with him.

His mate in the car behind said his team had just lost a football match so he wasn't in the best of moods.

Don't we have fun when we're out in our boats.

:D

 

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48 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've never done the BCN and would like to have a run through before my boating days are done.  How about suggestions for the easiest route for an aged singlehander with a dodgy back who likes short days driving and lots of sitting about reading, with suitable stopping places?  You can probably guess from that description of me why I've never done it so far.  The overall time it takes is not a problem.

Go and play on the northern bits, lots of stopping places where no-one will bother you

BCN locks are generally easy to use too

Richard

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've never done the BCN and would like to have a run through before my boating days are done.  How about suggestions for the easiest route for an aged singlehander with a dodgy back who likes short days driving and lots of sitting about reading, with suitable stopping places?  You can probably guess from that description of me why I've never done it so far.  The overall time it takes is not a problem.

As I said a little earlier, I suggest Birmingham to Wolverhampton on the new main line, a night in Wolverhampton with a visit to the Great Western, then returning to Brum on the old main line, with a visit to the Black Country museum (and overnight stop). 6 locks in total. Also do the Icneild port and Winson Green loops. Anything else will involve a lot of locks (but yes, they are easy) and some less scenic bits (plus many surprisingly pleasant bits).

...............Dave

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1 hour ago, Victor Vectis said:

Well, no.

We've caught a vehicle on the bridge on three seperate occasions, two cars and a Sky TV van.

One of the car drivers was adamant that it was my fault. I could see he was on the bridge so why did I lift it, he shouted!

Pointing out that he had just driven through a red light and under a dropping barrier and that the sequence is automatic, the operater just pressing a button, did cut much ice with him.

His mate in the car behind said his team had just lost a football match so he wasn't in the best of moods.

Don't we have fun when we're out in our boats.

:D

 

We have only caught one, a young woman, who started gobbing off until I pointed out the she had run a red light and would she like me to call the police (I know they would not be in the least bit interested, but she didn't).  She then decided to change her story in that she had not seen the light because of the sun.    As this was just before 9am, she caused quite a hold up of the traffic.

 

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I've never done the BCN and would like to have a run through before my boating days are done.  How about suggestions for the easiest route for an aged singlehander with a dodgy back who likes short days driving and lots of sitting about reading, with suitable stopping places?  You can probably guess from that description of me why I've never done it so far.  The overall time it takes is not a problem.

You can't avoid the locks getting there of course, the North Stratford is probably the easiest way to get onto the Birmingham level, 19 locks at Lapworth from the GU, but you can if you want split that up into 3 groups and stop overnight or longer in between.  Once at the top of Lapworth, you have something like 70 miles of canal available, on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton levels, with just 3 locks between the 2 levels.

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1 hour ago, john6767 said:

You can't avoid the locks getting there of course, the North Stratford is probably the easiest way to get onto the Birmingham level, 19 locks at Lapworth from the GU, but you can if you want split that up into 3 groups and stop overnight or longer in between.  Once at the top of Lapworth, you have something like 70 miles of canal available, on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton levels, with just 3 locks between the 2 levels.

Not sure Lapworth will be Arthur's easiest option if he is coming from Macclesfield! Fewest locks from the north is via the Wolverhampton 21 and then tootle around the Wolverhampton level and when seen enough of that drop down three locks onto the Birmingham level. Go home via Stourbridge maybe.

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
  • Greenie 1
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35 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Not sure Lapworth will be his easiest option if he is coming from Macclesfield! Fewest locks from the north is via the Wolverhampton 21 and then tootle around the Wolverhampton level and when seen enough of that drop down three locks onto the Birmingham level. Go home via Stourbridge maybe.

JP

The OP said he was hiring a boat to do the Warwickshire Ring,  and according to his profile comes from Peterborough.

So I would expect he would hire from somewhere on the Warwickshire Ring, like Braunston, Stockton,  Warwick, Nuneaton, Brinkley, etc, rather than hiring from Macclesfield :)

Edited by cuthound
To unmangle the effects of autocorrect.
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14 minutes ago, cuthound said:

The OP said he was hiring a boat to do the Warwickshire Ring,  and according to his profile comes from Peterborough.

So I would expect he would hire from somewhere on the Warwickshire Ring, like Braunston, Stockton,  Warwick, Nuneaton, Brinkley, etc, rather than hiring from Macclesfield :)

He's talking about Arthur Marshall,not the OP.

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31 minutes ago, cuthound said:

The OP said he was hiring a boat to do the Warwickshire Ring,  and according to his profile comes from Peterborough.

So I would expect he would hire from somewhere on the Warwickshire Ring, like Braunston, Stockton,  Warwick, Nuneaton, Brinkley, etc, rather than hiring from Macclesfield :)

My comment was in relation to the quoted post, not the OP.  Given the OP would probably do the ring  clockwise it would still apply to them though.  In relation to Arthur, it does of course depend which way he is coming.

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