We chose to moor last night on the basis of access to a church for this morning. The road from Hill's Bridge looked quite straightforward and a quick glance last night indicated a walk of around 16 minutes. However, this morning on looking at the routes more carefully they seemed a bit strange as they all would take us along the towpath to the next footbridge. Mike went to check and it seems that there is no official exit from the towpath at Hill's Bridge! However, there is a set of steps, almost hidden, an a very short way across a piece of scrub land, to get to the main road.
The walk did indeed take us the 14 minutes that was estimated from the bridge (once we had found the way up!) The first part is through a former industrial area although much of it looks as if it has ceased operation. Definitely not the tidiest area but one wonders why it has not been re-developed. Seeing brown field land like this makes one question the supposed lack of land for meeting the housing demand. is it just because developers will not take on the extra challenge and prefer to fight legal battles to be allowed to build on green sites?
The second part took us through an area of mid 20C sprawl - later we discovered that the village of Coseley really developed only in the 40 years after 1920 when local councils built or encourage the building of acres of suburban housing.
However, Christ Church where we were heading was an 1830 development, presumably built as were so many in cities at that time, to provide for the spiritual well being of the new industrial work force (in other words to keep them from be revolutionaries!) Whether it ever regularly attracted a congregation to fill the church , with its spacious gallery as well, would be interesting to know. Sometimes the provision of such churches represented ambitions that were never likely to be met. Today, it is well maintained and much lighter than the photo on their web site suggested.
There were around 60 people in the congregation, mostly making us look youthful. A new vicar, who arrived last year, is obviously trying to make a difference but it will be a long haul before it is certain that the church will not die of natural causes in 15 years time. The service was conventional and competently led. Why is it that some organists/pianists manage to play the first verse of each hymn at a good pace but then gradually get slower and slower?
However, there was little attempt to ask who we were and we emerged at the end without having had a single conversation.
Back then to the boat, re-tracing our steps. It was too early for lunch so we set off to go through the fairly short Coseley Tunnel and then down the three Factory Locks.
Alongside the top lock was a site with a number of narrowboat shells - none of them seemed to be very advanced in their completion to a usable boat!
We moored below the flight for lunch - a considerable number of walkers passed along the towpath on a 26 mile bank holiday special! Not sure whether the design of the small bridge below the bottom lock was originally so that it could swing or whether the gap at one side was to let a tow rope pass underneath.
Off again and we continued along the Main Line. At Watery Lane a boatyard occupies a short arm under a typical bridge. The plaque explains that a now lost canal used to cross the main line at this point - hence the roving bridge across the main canal.
A railway line follows the canal closely here but was strangely quiet today - the indicator board at Dudley Port station showed no trains were due. A strike! Back to the Seventies . . .
At Bromford Junction where we ascended the three Spon Lane Locks. Slightly to our surprise, a boat was just coming down the bottom lock! Indeed we saw another couple of boats along this often boat-free section ahead of us.
The top lock is right in the shadow of an elevated motorway with its many 'legs' striding across the landscape.
Let's hope that no-one uses the signpost to decide which way to go as someone has turned it so that the fingers point in the wrong directions!
The Summit Tunnel is preceded by a road and a rail bridge - the closer almost joins onto the tunnel but a small gap shows that it is actually separate.
We came this way as we planned to go down the Engine Arm Branch as being the nearest place with a sani station. In the end we opted to moor at the junction - hopefully with a tv signal and about an hour and a half top go tomorrow into the centre of Birmingham. We are booked into Sherbourne Wharf from Tuesday morning.
6.7 Miles - 6 Locks
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