Previous Year : 1998 The Bona Boater's Trips Following Year : 2000

1999 - Bimbling about the BCN

Crew : John & Chris, Ernie & Jennifer, Pete, Dave, Colin, Stan.

Boat : Sandringham

From : Anglowelsh, Great Haywood.

Route : No one can remember the exact route. We are fairly certain that we didn't go to Fradley so we must have got to The BCN via Penkridge, and The Staffs & Worcester, so from Aldersley Junction we could have either :-

a) Come up The Wolverhampton 21 and through Netherton down to Stourbridge then back up to Birmingham

b) Continued on down the Staffs & Worcester, down The Bratch to Stourton Junction then up to Stourbridge and on up to Birmingham.

The only photos we have show us ascending The Stourbridge 16, and one showing us stopped for water at The Samson & Lion at Worsley. Based on the photo of us ascending the Stourbidge 16, I'm assuming the route was as given below..

Great Haywood > Autherley Jn > The Bratch > Stourton Junction > Stourbridge > Wordsley > Netherton > Walsall (broke down) > Cannock Extension > Wolverhampton > Penkridge > Great Haywood.

Coverage : Unsure, but using the route given it would be 126 Locks and 116 Miles.

Notes : We aimed to do some of the lesser cruised parts of the BCN including The Cannock extension and Titford Pools. The boat broke down quite seriously in the Walsall Flight leaving us stuck overinght in a lock waiting for spare part. We picked up a serious amount of crap on the prop on the curly-wurly whilst trying to escape from 'bomb alley' as the locals call it.

Saturday 22nd May

Lunch : Great Haywood.

Evening : Penkridge. We ate in The Boat Inn. We can recall being sat around a single large table near the bar. We may have gone to The Star afterwards.

Sunday 23rd May

Lunch : No one can remember - Somewhere near Autherley Junction or Aldersley Junction maybe ?

Evening : No one can remember - Somewhere near Swindon, Greensford or Stourton Junction maybe ?

Monday 24th May

Lunch : Stourbridge Town Arm. Possiblt The Royal Exchange but no one can remember.

Afternoon : Wordsley. We stopped at The Samson & Lion to take on water and have a pint or two.. but no sadly, no Enville Ale this time.

The Samson and Lion, Wordsley.

The crew takes on beer and the boat takes on water

Evening : Brierley Hill. A bit of a disappointment in the food department. We moored at the bottom of Delph Locks and walked up the hill to The Black Horse, but found that they were not doing food. We next went to The Bull & Bladder, but they weren't doing food either. Next, we went across the roundabout to the big Chef & Brewer pub called The Corn Exchange. It had loud TV screens, some showing sport and others showing music videos, but all in the same room at the same time. It had no proper beer and no food, so we left there mumbling and walked down the hill toward the centre of Brierley Hill where we found a chippy. We ate our fish & chips on the street on the way back up to The Bull & Bladder where we eventually got some beer.

Approaching Windmill End Junction.

Tuesday 25th May

Lunch : The Black Country Museum. Despite paying to go in, we spent the whole lunchtime in The Bottle and Glass, then left The Museum without actually seeing anything else.

Evening : Titford Pools. We moored up by a pub called The New Navigation but seem to recall that it was not very good for some reason.

Climbing Oldbury Locks to Titford Pools.

Wednesday 26th May

Lunch : Walsall. We moored on the Town Arm and had a quick look round the town. We went to The Hamer Maker's Arms for a few pints, though Pete did also manage a quick extra pint in the new posh pub opposite the Town Arm wharf on the way back to the boat.

Afternoon : Disaster. The boat broke down leaving Walsall. The red battery warning light came on during the turn out of the Town Arm toward the first lock. On investigation, we discovered that the crankshaft pulley had come off the crankshaft, so no fan belt and so no alternator [hence red warning light] and no water pump to cool the engine, so the engine quickly overheated and stopped. We phoned the boatyard who said they'd send someone but couldn't say when he'd get there. We waited for him by a pub on Wolverhampton Road called The Orange Tree, but we didn't go in as it had no real ale.

When " Narrowboatrepairman" eventually arrived, he bounded seemingly effortlessly over a wall to reach the cut, much to the appreciation of both Chris and Jennifer. He proceeded to dismantle the engine, then went off to find some spares, while we spent the remainder of the afternoon stuck in the lock.

Evening : Still stuck in the lock in The Walsall Flight. Narrowboatrepairman contacted us at about 17:00 to say he would not be back that day so we left the boat in the lock and went into Walsall for a curry, and then returned to The Hamer Maker's Arms for some more Banks's Mild.

What a place to break down - in a lock !

Luckily, Colin phoned the boatyard...

The engineer arrived and proceeded to dismantle the engine. He then told us that he couldn't fix it until he'd had a new part delivered the next day.

Thursday 27th May

Morning : Still stuck in the lock. Narrowboatrepairman returned and eventually fixed the boat, so we set off for the Cannock Extension. On our arrival there we were unable to wind in the proper winding hole at the end as there was a boat moored across it, so we had to reverse a couple of hundred yards and wind in a side arm. We returned to The Curly Wurly and moored up near Pelsall Junction and walked across a field to a pub, but it was shut. We continued along the Curly Wurley in need of beer, where we eventually came across an estate-type pub almost canalside with Banks's Mild on. They said that they rarely got any boaters in. The landlord advised us to be sure to clear "bomb alley" as he called it, by 16:00 before the kids come out of school. We set off about 15:30 and almost immediately picked up a carpet on the prop. It took us another hour to get it off, but at least we had no trouble with kids. The few we did see found it quite amusing, but they caused no trouble.

Evening : Wolverhampton. We moored up and arranged all the stuff we'd collected on the prop on the bank for a photo call. We then decided we'd go for a curry. Graham (?) an acquaintance of ours, formerly from The Acorn in York had recently taken over at The Tap & Spile in Wolverhampton, so we went there to see him and had a few pints. We then went for a curry then back to The Great Western for more beer.

What all the best dressed props are wearing this season !

Friday 28th May

Lunch : Penkridge. We set off down the Wolverhampton 21 to Penkridge for lunch.

Evening : Can't remember. Probably Great Haywood.

Saturday 29th May

Morning: We unloaded the boat and went home for another year.

Previous Year : 1998 The Bona Boater's Trips Following Year : 2000