...via Worcester? Well, you know us by now, we can't do anything straight forward. We haven't been down this end for about six years, so we thought we'd make a bit of a detour and do the Stourport ring. Just see if anything had changed.
We set off Saturday morning in no great rush to get to Penkridge for the night. It was a bit of a bland day, nothing much happened. To quote young Albert "there were no ship wrecks and nobody drowned, in fact nothing to laugh at all".
Sunday, got up nice and early thanks to GMT. On the way up through Gailey the trees are now taking on that rusty iron look, at lot more pleasing than green.
After Gailey, we're on the summit pound and the twists and turns, like at Coven, are no problem now we're on Achilles, it handles like a toy compared with Dove, so if you do have a senior moment or a brain fart, call it what you will, you're soon back on track and not up the bank.
While travelling this section there seams to be a lot of maggot downers, is it the start of the fishing season? I've never seen so many happy smiling faces.
On the down hill side, the canal seams to have a different flavour, as in lock bits, like the little foot bridges. The one pictured below is of cast iron section and one single span and unusually with no gap for the tow line to slot through. Most of the others have the slot or the remnants of.
Passing through Bratch and Wombourn and the very deep Botterham staircase and stopping at the top side of Hinksford lock.
Waking next morning and it's November. And looking out of the hatch it certainly is, Trees covered in browns and yellows wrapped in a fog, damp and cold, in the distance a lock, ghostly and gray. After a pot of tea things start to look a little better and we set off. Soon passing Greens Forge and into the quiet of the woods, you could be anywhere, turn the corner to Gothersley lock and you're reminded by the bloody graffiti that you're not far from the Stourbridge brainless brats. This part of the canal must have been the hardest to build due to the solid rock it has to go through. The canal in parts, is a stone trough carved in the hillside and must have been sole destroying for the men on the ground.
Arriving at Kidderminster and looking at picture below, you'd think what a wonderful place to stop...This is where a friend of ours was arrased by a group of fourteen year old brats at 4:00am and then attacked. On passing through I did notice a lack of boats tied up.
Back on the foot bridge theme, here's the one at Kidderminster lock complete with slot and line guards. It's been modernised some what but the main bits are still there.
Passing through Kidderminster I was glad to see this old mill building still standing and being used. I was going to take another photo of the other side but, I was gob smacked to see Debenhams had stuck a glass carbuncle on the front, are these architects blind or just daft.
Yet another bridge, sorry. But I really like this one
The last bridge of the day, shame there's no steam loco on it.
We're now tied up at Stourport, River Severn tomorrow.
You can see clearly the duplicated locks at Smethwick. After hunting round I found quite a few canals that are no longer here, such as, the Toll End, the canal that extended out from the Cambrian Wharf and lots of arms now filled in.
We finished the night off in you know where... and drank them dry.
and this...
oh! and this
Crossing the main line and into Icknield port loop, bringing back memories of my pipefitting days with the steam and condensate mains on the wall complete with expansion loops, wonderful stuff.
Passing the reservoir and the BW yard and then passed all the dereliction and back onto the main line then just a short way to Gas Street.
This is looking down from the Engine Arm.
Looking at what industries were round here at one time you wouldn't want to fall in here. There is one thing, weed and reeds can't grow here.
This link is full of all sorts of stuff about the area, it's a bit hard to follow. There are 8 sections on the industrial canals.
The thing about the BCN, is all the now unused bits that makes you wonder what it was like in 1925, when Dove was brand new and doing it's first runs through Birmingham to Preston Brook.
When all the arms busy with boats and Bridges busy with rail traffic even if it was the GWR 
Canals passing over canals and toll islands at every junction
Going up Factory locks where the bottom gates are single and the cast iron foot bridge has the tow line gap at the side.
The water is black with shiny bits in it, the buildings are well used and full of history. They have bits of ironmongery bolted on the walls that used to serve some purpose at some time, but now redundant and rusting away, leaving you guessing as to their use.
There are Bridges made wider using riveted iron section supporting blue brick work to accommodate the industrial growth of the day.
We're now tied up opposite this building, which is still working by the way.
As far as I'm concerned, this is real boating, not poncing about on the posh bits, this is where it all started, the industrial heart of England, moving manufactured goods and raw materials by boat.
In this picture you can see where the cotton tow line has cut it's way through the cast iron. This explains why some of the cantilever brackets on other bridges have disappeared, the cotton line has cut right through.
As we motored on to the bottom of Stourbridge locks we past a little boat yard and sat on the side was Helen, a Leonard Leigh tug. The shape and depth of hull really caught my eye and would love to have a closer look one day. Sorry rivet counting.
On the way up Stourbridge I'm pleased to see this building still standing. However, not to my surprise it has been on fire and looks ready for demolition. Funny how many buildings go through this phase so developers can build new houses instead of renovating a perfectly good building.
Going up passed Dadfords yard, I like this clever piece of engineering. The locks look like a staircase but there is a pound between them, it's behind the house and tunneled into the gap between the gates
On reaching the Delph, a friend of ours joined us to do a bit of locking. At the top the weather turned a bit damp, rain coats back on for the last bit.
The funny thing about our friend, his boat is called Hector, who wasn't that friendly with Achilles. All we need now is a boat called Paris, then we better watch our heel.
Achilles and Hector laying side by side at Merryhill, we've never stopped here before, nice spot.
Plan "B". We'll go up Stourbridge and the Delph spend some time at the Black Contry Museum. So today we just re-traced our steps and had an early stop at Kinver.
When they cut through the rock why did they leave the little lump on the right?
After Gailey, we're on the summit pound and the twists and turns, like at Coven, are no problem now we're on Achilles, it handles like a toy compared with Dove, so if you do have a senior moment or a brain fart, call it what you will, you're soon back on track and not up the bank.
Passing through Bratch and Wombourn and the very deep Botterham staircase and stopping at the top side of Hinksford lock.
Back on the foot bridge theme, here's the one at Kidderminster lock complete with slot and line guards. It's been modernised some what but the main bits are still there.
Passing through Kidderminster I was glad to see this old mill building still standing and being used. I was going to take another photo of the other side but, I was gob smacked to see Debenhams had stuck a glass carbuncle on the front, are these architects blind or just daft.
Yet another bridge, sorry. But I really like this one
The last bridge of the day, shame there's no steam loco on it.
We're now tied up at Stourport, River Severn tomorrow.
