TARDEBIGGE LOCKS, HOW MANY??!!!!!

 

Second Week: Brum to The Queens Head Tardebigge, a journey of 16½ miles, 30 locks and 2¼ miles in tunnels.

The Captain had a wonderful birthday, my sister Di and husband Mick came to visit on his actual birthday (Friday), and his daughter Hannah came on the Saturday.

But firstly on Thursday we met up with Steve and Yvonne on NB Precious Jet, they are our neighbours back at Swan Lane, don’t live aboard but were out for a couple of weeks cruising. We met in the Craven Arms and they invited us to go to a Sri Lankan restaurant, but unfortunately I had already planned a special birthday meal for the Captain of Steak with all the trimmings, and lemon merengue with evaporated milk for pud.

They are on a more restricted timescale so left next next morning. Steve does a vlog, and on a live feed as he glided past us, he loudly serenaded the Captain with Happy Birthday.

https://www.facebook.com/Defender90Tyrrell/videos/776927860679761 (jump to 5.30 for the serenade)

The itinerary for the family visits were just about the same, starting off with the Hall of Memory, a tribute to the men and women of Birmingham who gave their lives in conflicts over the years,

https://hallofmemory.co.uk/

Followed by a visit to the Bedsprings, or to give it its proper name Birmingham Central Library, a fascinating building, were you can travel up the escalators to view the thousands of books housed there. There are 2 sensory gardens, and a viewing platform right at the top were you can see for miles. Also on the top is the Shakespeare memorial room.

https://visitbirmingham.com/things-to-see-and-do/the-library-of-birmingham-p1321551

We had a great time with Di and Mick, although we didn’t go out for a meal with them, we did enjoy a few pints in the Craven Arms.

Hannah, we took to Ming Moon, a great All you can Eat Chinese buffet in the centre of China Town. It was great, plenty of choice and very tasty. But not for a pint as she came with the wonderful news that she is expecting her second child in November, so no beer for her.

https://www.mingmoon.co.uk/birmingham

Sunday we chilled out.

Monday and it was time to set off again, and on to a new canal for us, the Birmingham and Worcester. Building started in 1792 but it was slow progress, and the full canal did not open until 1815. It connects Birmingham with the River Severn at Worcester and was mainly used to carry chocolate from the Bournville factories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_and_Birmingham_Canal

Tunnels were the thing of the day with 3 in total to navigate. Firstly Wast Hill tunnel at 2726yrds, it is one of the longest on the system. It was very wet and took us about 45mins. It was made more interesting by the 2 boats that joined us for the trip, the one in front set off very tentatively, and the Captain thought it would take a couple of hours to get through at their speed, but they soon got going and pulled away from us. The boat behind was a day hire boat which managed to hit the wall as they entered the tunnel, and there was a lot of shouting, screaming and general noise coming from it as they tried to get away from the side. This continued when the never ending drips from the roof hit them unexpectedly. It was fun.

Just a fun fact, in the tunnel were old telegraph insulators which were used to transport the telegraph wires through the tunnel in olden days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wast_Hills_Tunnel

The second tunnel was Shortwood tunnel at 614yrds, so it was quite a bit shorter and not so entertaining.

The last for the day was Tardebigge tunnel at 580yrds. This one proved to be the most interesting, as it appeared it be hewn out of solid rock, with only a few places which were the usual brickwork of other tunnels, our light lit up the strange and wonderful shapes of the rock formations. Absolutely fascinating.

We made it to the top of the Tardebigge flight, but little did we know what was in store for us next day.

There are 30 narrow locks over 2¼ miles, it is the longest flight in England, and one of the longest in Europe. It raises (or drops as we were going down) the canal 220ft, and once you start you cant stop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardebigge_Locks

Unfortunately for us we had a hire boat going down in front, and no boats were coming up. This meant we had to reset every lock. To explain, the lock would be empty so we had to fill it using the top paddles, some of which were very stiff. The boat would then come in and shut the single top gate. I would walk to the other end of the lock and let the water out using the bottom gate paddles, then open both gates, which meant walking round the lock using the top gate to cross onto the off side to open the off side gate, let the boat out. Shut the paddles and the gates and on to the next, and repeat for 30 locks. We reckon I walked around 4miles.

The Captain tried to help the best he could, but we found that a lot of the pounds (the bits of water between the locks) had no rings or bollards were he could secure the boat to get off and help me.

It took us 5hrs 40mins, I was knackered as you can imagine, so the thought of cooking tea after this marathon of a day went out the window.

Luckily for us there is a pub after the last lock, The Queens Head, and they do food. So we moored up, had showers and set off for the pub. It is a lovely pub, and the pizza’s we had we some of the best I have ever tasted. Even better, they have an offer on Monday to Thursday 5pm until 6.30pm, 2-4-1 on pizzas and a £1 off on draught ale, cider or lager. A brilliant finish to an exhausting day

https://www.queensheadbromsgrove.co.uk/

I doubt we will do this route again, which is a shame because I would love another of the Queens Head pizza’s, but never say never as the saying goes.