Day 39 - lots of locks and a new canal - the Stourbridge.

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24 locks, 225 in total.







Our longest and hardest day yet – we have extra to do because of the Wolverhampton closure and we still want to get to Market Drayton in Shropshire to visit my aunt and uncle before they fly off to Malta. (Pause whilst my eyes glaze over at the thought of sunshine, warmth and blue water....) We set off at 9am and finished at 5.45pm with about 2 hours for lunch and a museum visit.







We started with the 8 locks at Delph, which was also where the Dudley 1,under the auspices of the Birmingham Canal Network, became the Stourbridge Canal, which isn't. Generally the locks today were looking their age. The Delph locks were straightforward and close together so one of us could go ahead to set the next lock. We then motored through a very boring and frankly ugly section – backs of garage blocks and industrial units – so bad I decided cleaning the boat was a better use of my time – I know, that bad!







Then came the Stourbridge or Wordsley flight of 24 locks. As all the locks today were narrow locks and all going downhill, we had expected to whizz through everything by lunchtime but all locks bar one were set against us so they had to be filled before we could enter them and then emptied with us inside the lock. Filling was relatively quick but the emptying wasn't and many of the gates were tough to move. There were many anti-vandal locks on the paddle mechanisms – it's a quick procedure but we only have one key so ended up throwing this across the water to each other and hoping it didn't bounce the wrong way.







Frustratingly, the penultimate lock held us up. I'd gone ahead to fill the lock but the downhill gates were still open. I closed one gate but before I could leap across the gap to close the other gate the first one swung open. I tried again – same result. Opened a top paddle just a little so that the flow of water would help the gate to stay closed – didn't work and I was wasting water this way. (Ha ha – it rained much of the day anyway!) So walked back to tell John to moor up and come and help. We stationed ourselves on the bottom gates, closed them and John sprinted for the upper gate paddle as this was a stronger flow – he'd only got halfway to the upper paddle before his gate swung open. And where are all the walkers, cyclists and spectators when you need them – the towpath was deserted. Last hope – we did as before but John opened the top ground paddle this time and presumably the water coming in at a different angle made all the difference and the gate swung slowly shut.

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Photos

Old stables midway down the Delph flight.
This is a listed building.

Bottom of Delph flight, looking back up.
The overflows are the original locks and when the canal was restored new ones were dug.

Stourbridge Canal lock gate....
.... skinny!

Rope marks ....
.... on the brickwork as you exit a lock - from the horses' towing ropes.

Rope marks on the incline of the towpath.
In many places an iron bar was attached to the brickwork to take the rope friction.

Stourbridge flight....
.... looking agead to Dadford's Shed and the Redhouse Glass Cone.

Anyone know what this is?
Hitching a Shetland pony or a dog?

Dadford's Shed and boatyard
Dadford was the engineer in charge of building the Stourbridge Canal. The shed is a 19th century timber and slate structure, formerly a transhipment warehouse but now used by canal craftsmen.

Shop/off-licence by a lock.
Looks as though it used to be a pub.

The anti-vandal lock
A simple device but effective. The right-hand metal bar goes through the mechanism and jams into the teeth of the paddle-raising cogs. By turning the key in the left-hand bar, a spring is released and the jamming bar pops outwards (as in the picture). When you leave the lock you only need to push the jammer back in till it locks - easy peasy.

The Redhouse Glass Cone, now a museum.
There used to be many of these in this area as Stourbridge was renowned for its crystal - Stuart, Royal Brierley, Webb, etc. Huguenots fled here from France in the 17th century and brought their skills with them. These brick cones were the perfect shape to raise the furnace temperature high enough to produce molten glass.

Plan of the Glass Cone
Barges would deliver raw materials straight into the site - coal for the furnaces plus lead oxide, silica and local sand for the glass. Also any unwanted glass would be added to the mix. The furnaces were underground and the mixture would be shovelled in at ground level. The inner circle was a series of work stations for the craftsmen who would ladle the molten glass out and start working it.

Inside the cone....
... the overall effect was spoilt by adaptations for visitors like this wheelchair lift.

The cooling off area.
Better crystal was produced by a long slow cooling process.

One of the inner work stations for a craftsman.
Apparently the heat was so intense that close to the furnace that young boys would be acclimatised over many years to withstand the heat. An adult could not adapt sufficiently.

Rain on the canal....
...we'd only just returned from the museum. It got us again later though!

Comments

[amanda]

Good morning!
Well, you certainly are going through it, well done for some excellent entries and well done for gaining your photography level 1 award! Nothing much going on here except grey skies and rain, David is going mad at the moment as the sky signal is being interrupted by the trees in full leaf......can you imagine especially at the Lions Rugby is on :) x Thinking of getting the quiz team together for this Thursday, will miss our leader ! Have a super day and look forward to reading more on the 'The Kingswooders' Adventurers' love Amanda

[Dunlin]

Your news...
Sounds like David will just have to go to the pub to watch the rugby! Have a good quiz evening if you go - you can be the new leader as you wished me into that position! Please let me know how it goes. All the best, Helen