A walk down the Bradley Canal

Bradley Canal

Route of Bradley Canal - note the "steps" indicating the locks

We left Walsall Town Basin at 9:30 and arrived at Moorcroft Junction at 12:00 after a slow but lock free journey.  Here the now closed Bentley Canal joined the Walsall Canal.  After a quick bite to eat we set off on the organised walk up the line of the Bentley Canal.  Part of it is in water but heavily overgrown but the remainder just exists as a footpath.  However the locations of the presumably buried locks can clearly be seen from the topography.

Bradley Workshop

Plastic paddle

Next on our itinerary was the CRT Bradley workshop, one of two in the country devoted to making lock gates.  Each lock gate is unique, being built to exact measurements made on location and is the responsibility of one carpenter. One of the people showing us around said that after working there for 23 years he had started to build replacements for gates he had built in his youth.  It was interesting to compare an 18th century plan for a gate with those used now - there was virtually no difference.  The design was the same even down to the shape of the paddle operating gear.  There is one technical difference - the lock paddles are now often made out of plastic rather than the traditional elm.  This makes them lighter and easier to operate as well as lasting longer.  We returned at 5 pm after a short diversion to a local pub - after several hours out in the sunshine we were all getting very thirsty.

Statistics 4.99 miles, 0 locks,2 hours 35 mins

The convoy moored at Moorcroft Junction

RCR engineer in the canal

The tyre is removed

On the way down the canal one of the boats had managed to get a tyre firmly stuck on her propellor and had to be towed into the moorings.  Despite efforts by other boaters the tyre had proved impossible to remove.  RCR (the RAC/AA of the waterways) were called out and one of their staff arrived soon after we got back to our boat.  He put on a wet suit, went into the canal and after perhaps 15 minutes energed triumphant with the badly damaged tyre.