1995 - The Second John Hughes Trip.
Crew : John Hughes, Pete W, Stan, Geoff, Iain, Colin, Dick Perry
Boat : Sandringham
From : Anglowelsh , Great Haywood.
Notes : Can't remember the exact route, but the first thing we had to do was to pick up Dick Perry in Burton-on-Trent. I do recall these stops :
Fradley (Sat night) - Burton-on-Trent (Sun Lunch) - Minworth (a lunchtime probably Mon) - Birmingham (an evening probably Mon) - Stourbridge town - Brierley Hill (a lunchtime) - Walsall (an evening, probably Wed) - Wolverhampton (probably Thursday evening). I also have a vague hazy memory of mooring somewhere on The BCN Main line near Smethwick, and going to a pub, possibly The Ivy Bush, but this doesn't fit in with any other timings . The problem is trying to put them in the right order, and I don't have any photos of this trip to jog the memory.
Saturday
Lunch : Great Haywood. We set off from the boatyard towards Fradley & Burton in order to pick up Dick Perry, who would be arriving there by train on Sunday.
Evening : Fradley Junction. We stopped at Fradley Junction and went to The Swan for a meal and beer.
Sunday
Lunch : Burton-on-Trent. We met up with Dick in The Cooper's Tavern , and after a few beers, we set off back towards Fradley.
Evening : Not sure - We did not stop for the evening at Fradley, although we may have popped in for a pint on the way past. We stopped for the night a bit further on - possibly Huddlesford or Whittington. There was no food in the pub, so Colin rang up a local Chinese take-away, which as it turned out closed at 10:30pm so we had to leave the pub on time and couldn't have had lates - even if there were any to be had ! Colin went to collect the food, but it leaked grease onto his coat and he spent most of the rest of the week trying to scrub the grease out using a nailbrush and soap..
Monday
Lunch : Minworth. We stopped at The Boat Inn at Minworth. I recall much talk about the barmaid "Phillippa II" and "Boris the spider" - an enormous dead spider inside one of the light fittings and of course, copius quantities of Ansell's Mild.
Evening : Birmingham. We didn't go to the Prince of Wales. Instead, we turned the other way on Cambridge Street, and went to a different pub. Can't recall the name. We then got taxis to Sparkbrook for a curry. The curryhouse didn't seem to have anything that we'd ordered, and in the end, we saw the chap go next door to get some stuff to cook. Don't remember where we went after that - back to The Prince of Wales maybe ?
Tuesday
Lunch : Brierley Hill. Did we do The Loops and The Engine Arm in the morning ? - can't recall exactly. We went through Netherton Tunnel, where we stopped in the middle and had a ceremoinal pyre. With the aid of some newspaper and some fat out of the grill pan, we set fire to Stan's worn out trainer, and launched it into the canal inside the tunnel. We continued on to Brierley Hill and went to The Vine (Bull & Bladder). It was here that John H became a bit 'concerned' that the boat was spending too much time moored up while we boozed, and not enough time actually cruising. We therefore went back to the boat after a very short lunchtime session, but we did take some beer with us.
Evening : Stourbridge. We set off for Stourbridge fairly early in the afternoon, so we got there fairly early in the evening. We picked up a re-enforcing rod on the prop on the way down the town arm. It took us some time and effort to get it off the prop. When we did finally get it off, it was a half-inch thick rod knotted like a bit of string, so we kept it as a souvenir. At Stourbridge, we took the train to Stourbridge Junction and went in The Seven Stars. Can't recall where we ate, or if we went anywhere else.This could have been when Dick suggested that we needed a very early start next morning. He suggested 05:30 but no one believed him. At 05:29, the engine started !
Wednesday
Lunch : With the very early start at 05:30 we should have made it to The Engine Arm by lunchtime, and had an afternoon snifter somewhere in Smethwick. I seem to recall mooring on the Main Line and going to a pub by crossing a railway line near to a station.
Evening : Walsall. We moored below the locks and went to The Hamer Maker's Arms - now sadly gone. I recall someone (not me - possibly Colin..) forgetting to pass the Token on, and myself & Dick downing pints of Banks's mild in one go just to invoke the token rule whereby if the token is not passed on before glasses are empty, then the round is considered not complete and those glasses should be refilled.. Don't think it worked though..
Thursday
Morning : A problem on the Walsall Flight. We left Walsall but found that we could not close one of the gates on one of the locks on The Walsall Flight. There was something heavy and large between the gate and the cill. After much attempting to get it off, we decided to drain the pound to see if we could do anything ourselves. We had already realised that if we had to call BW out, they'd probably have to drain it off anyway. We moved the boat back to into the lock below this one and opened all the paddles. Unfortunately, as the bywashes were partially blocked, this caused a bit of a flood over the towpath. With the pound drained, we could still not see anything so we called BW. When the BW man finally arrived some time later, he poked about with his keb and confirmed our suspicion that there was something on the cill, and it was so heavy that he couldn't shift it. He had no alternative but to get his waders on and wade into the pound. After much heaving, he removed a lump of concrete about the size of a milk-crate - it's no wonder we couldn't shift it ! As it was already late morning, and he said that it would take him a couple of hours to run enough water down to refill the pound, we decided to go back to The Hamer Makers Arms for a bit of a lunchtime session.
Evening : Wolverhampton. Due to leaving Walsall so late, we got to Wolverhampton quite late. It was nearly dark, and Stan was hanging over the front of the boat with a torch directing us. We eventually moored in in Wolverhampton and went to The Great Western where most of the crew had the warm pork sandwiches, which subsequently laid several of us low. Dick & Iain decided to walk into Wolverhampton for a late curry, so didn't have the pork sandwiches and weren't affected, and Pete's indestructible cast-iron stomach wasn't affected either.
Friday
Morning : Down the Wolverhampton 21. We now had a somewhat depleted crew. John Hughes had decided to go home, and left in the early morning. Colin & Geoff were suffering with potential "trouser crises" interspersed with bouts of "shouting at Hughie & Ralph down the great white telephone". They blamed last night's pork sandwiches.
Lunch : Penkridge - probably, but don't recall exactly.
Evening : Great Haywood - I think we ate at The Clifford Arms - I'm fairly sure we didn't eat at the pub near the boatyard.