Rushall Canal and Longwood Boat Club

On the Thame Valley Canal

Last night after dinner on the boat we enjoyed a pleasant canal side get together for everyone on the cruise.  This morning we set off just before 9am and cruised south on the Walsall Canal for about a mile to the Thame Valley Junction at Ocker Hill.  Here we were able to dump our rubbish before turnng left onto the Thame Valley Canal.  Constructed in 1844, this canal provided a route around the congestion of central Birmingham and was one of the last Birmingham Canals to be built.  According to our guide book, the section we travelled between Ocker Hill and Rushall Junction is the dreariest canal on the whole Birmingham network.  Harsh but certainly arguable.  It follows a straight course, apart from a couple of minor adjustments, for 3.5 miles through undistinguished countryside dominated by electricity pylons.  In places it is rather shallow and there is a lot of floating rubbish.

Meeting a boat on the Rushall Canal

Approaching the bottom lock on the Rushall Locks

At Rushall Junction we turned left onto the much more attractive but slightly later Rushall Canal.  A couple of our fellow boaters saw a kingfisher here, sadly we missed out.  The canal is lined with trees and is surprisingly rural passing through an area of what looked like rough pasture fields completely surrounded by Birmingham housing.  On the negative side it is shallow with a lot of water lilies and waterweed which leads to slow progress and the potential for visits down the weed hatch to clear the propellor.  There were 9 locks to ascend before we reached our overnight mooring at Longwood Boat Club.  On most of the locks we were helped yet again my members of the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society.

This afternoon we were treated to tea and cakes provided by the Boat Club and this evening we will be dining together at a fish and chip supper.