Stourbridge

Here I am Rune

Distance 4.7 miles

Total 842 Locks 40 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1250.2miles

After yesterdays ‘training session’ today we had the main event, 17 locks from Delph to Stourbridge. The mileage wasn’t great but the locks made it a long day’s work. In a similar fashion to the Delph flight however, once we got into a rhythm it seemed to go pretty well. We did  fall victim to disregarding the first law of narrow-boating, never listen to a gongoozler no matter how knowledgeable they sound. Locks 9 & 10 on the Stourbridge canal are a bit odd in that they incorporate a ‘half lock’ in them. It looks as though it should have been a staircase lock but wasn’t and we haven’t come across anything similar before, a situation not helped by the absence of any instructions. My first reaction was to treat it in the same way as we’d do any locks, into the top lock, drain it and go into the next lock, so that is what we started to do. When you drain the first lock however it is not clear where the water is going because it isn’t going into the second lock. Once we’d drained the first lock the ‘helpful’ gongoozler piped up (in a strong Brummie accent), “You’ve got no water to fill the next lock now have you?” Taking this on board we refilled the top lock to start the process again. What I hadn’t realised (because I couldn’t see it from where we were) was that the lock had a huge side pound which was where the ‘missing’ water had gone. It was only when we drained the top lock for the second time that I saw the side pound and realised that to fill the bottom lock to continue down, you have to draw the water in from there, which is what we did! The only other lock that caused any issues was on with very badly balanced bottom gates that would not remain shut. Tried a couple of times to shut them and sprint to open the top paddles but failed because the gates opened too quickly. Solved the problem by tying the gates together with a mooring line until we could get the paddles open.

The plan for tomorrow (weather permitting) is to carry on to the end of the Stourbridge canal at Stourton Junction and then back here to Stourbridge.