Into Walsall

Travelling along the curly Wyrley

The day started with a meeting with a local councillor who gave a brief talk and some photos were taken for the local press. There followed a briefing by the cruise leader after which all 16 boats set off in line along the curly Wyrley.  Progress was slow initially as the distance between each boat was increased but after 15 minutes settled down to a moderate pace.  The canal meanders through he suburbs of Wolverhampton but these are frequently hidden by the rampant vegetation.  The canal is shallow with a fair amount of litter, mainly plastic bottles as the plastic bag ban seems to have helped considerably.

About half way into the journey several of the boats stopped to take on water but we had sufficient to last a few more days.Soon afterwards we found one of our boats stopped, partially obstructing a bridge hole.  They had picked up a large amount of tarpaulin around their propellor and were having some difficulty removing it.  We moored and I went round to help and was able to remove the last few pieces.  We were then both able to go on our way, leaving the curley Wyrley at Birchills Junction to travel down the Walsall Canal.

Descending the Walsall flight

Moored at Walsall Town Basin

 A short cruise brought us to the top of the 8 lock Walsall flight which took us down into the town.  We were helped by the same group of BCNS members who had assisted with the passage through Tipton Locks on Sunday.  At the bottom of the locks a sharp left turn took us onto the Walsall Town Arm terminating at the modern basin near the main shopping streets.All bar one of our boats are now moored there filling it completely.

We went for a walk into Walsall town centre which has useful supermarkets and the normal shops found in any town centre but little else of interest. Sadly the Leather Museum is closed on Mondays.

Statistics - 7.76 miles, 8 locks, 5 hours 15 minutes