Brompton ride: Stratford upon Avon Canal, March 2024

Monday 18th March 2024:

With fine weather forecast, I thought this would be a good day to catch the train to Birmingham, ride down the Worcester & Birmingham Canal towpath, as far as Kings Norton Junction – and then head off down the Stratford upon Avon.

It was a mixed adventure! Initially, the Stratford’s towpath was great and there was plenty to see – including a ‘guillotine’ lock and a ‘fuel boat’ at one point. Lots of ducks too of course. But soon the dreaded mud appeared (I think I complain about it once or twice during the ride), and to make matters worse, I had a problem rejoining the canal after having to go through a village because of the Brandwood Tunnel. I got as far as the Draw Bridge at Shirley, then, after picturing the muddy path back, elected instead to jump on a train for the return to Birmingham.

On seeing the muddy towpath, I somehow managed to avoid saying “Shirley, you can’t be serious!”

The day was made complete when I arrived back at New Street Station, intending to get the 14:50 back to Hereford… but found it was cancelled! So that meant an hour hanging around inside one of the UK’s finest architectural achievements… enough said!

Luckily, the 15:50 ran as usual, and I squeezed my way onto it, alongside what felt like a
football-stadium full of other people. Most of whom seemed to have luggage and got on board at the last minute!

The Stratford is definitely a nice canal for boaters. And I’ll go back there with the bike another day – once (or IF), we ever get some dry weather again!

Hope you enjoy the video,

Jeff

By the way, if you do enjoy the video, then please consider subscribing – it really helps me to grow the channel!

You can see more of my videos, including my journeys along the canals, and of my Brompton bike at:

https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCpU5ERG8MwVJN7vRLVvrHMg/content/playlists

I’m very tempted to turn the handle and see what would happen H I’m really not sure if I’ve taken a wrong Turn look at these two Canada geese they gorgeous hi fellas this ramp is a a welcome addition for uh cyclists much easier to push up and carry the bike across and uh Crossing back now uh across the canal to the other side well my destination for the moment

Is Kings Norton and it’s not very far from here here I am actually I’ve arrived at Kings Norton Junction this is King’s nordon just written down from Birmingham down the canal this of course is the Worcester and Birmingham canal and that is the Strat put upon aen

Canal and you can guess where that goes I think it’s about 25 mil from here to Stratford and uh I’ve come today to have a cycle ride along the canal see how far I get I’ll not get dist strap it that’s for sure but I picked a lovely

Day it’s Monday 18th of March 2024 looking at the forecast this might be the best day of the week so looking forward to this I’ve got the bromton tow path looks very nice so far I can already see the first lock which is a guillotin lock so we’ll got

And take a look at that quite an incline on this bridge as often the case on the tow path there’s quite a lot of people walking which is going to slow my progress a bit I can’t do much about that here’s the guillotine lock take a look at

This this is a guillotin lock my understanding is that it’s always left up there’s another gate at the other end of the lock and as you might expect when it was in operation the door would slide down prevent entry don’t think it’s used anymore but the mechanism is still quite

Visible I’m very tempted to to turn the handle and see what would happen there’s the water level on the Worcester and Birmingham that’s the one that I’ve just cycled along to get here has to be kept 1 in above that of the Stratford uneven Canal it was his job to

Open and close the lock Gates and let the boats throw so that’s how it used to be in 1810 but with the gates open permanently as they are now then of course the water level is the same so that 1 in difference is uh has gone imagine if you were taking your

Boat under this and uh and it gave way and that thing slammed down on the roof of the boat oo that would be really really nasty Okay so these ballards they indicate it was once or more in place for uh a bridge a swim bridge I expect or a lift

Bridge uh which was over there in removed a long time ago by the looks of it yeah it would have been a swing Bridge you can see a spindle there and traffic is would have come across cross the canal I’m going off down there somewhere oh there a boat

Coming it’s a f wheel boat he yeah so a stroke Al lack see in a f boat so that’s a boat that travels around on the canals making his living by selling fuel that’s Diesel and uh gas color gas and wood and coal Etc to uh bo us H love little

Cat ah running away from me I’ve always got his eye on go on that’s it so I have reached the brandwood tunnel which is uh I think that says 322 M long takes 16 minutes to trust to travel through that’s 2 m hour well my job now

Is to find a way above the tunnel which I hope will be reasonably well signposted there are a closer view of the tunnel entrance so just made a quick uh stop and taken a jersey off and uh gloves actually quite warm now so the path continues the other side of the

Road in that direction I imagine but I have noticed over there not only is there a cafe there’s also a fish and chip shop and a one stop so uh it may well be that I’ll stop here on the way back can you guess which of those three

Options I’m most likely to opt for H now one reason why I hate tunnels I mean it’s okay on a boat but if you’re walking or cycling and you can’t go through the tunnel you have to find your way around it and sometimes it’s very clearly marked and sometimes it

Isn’t and this time it wasn’t and I’m really not sure if I’ve taken a wrong turn I did see a cyclist who told me it was a bit muddy uh he was coming the other way so this could mean I’m on the right track oh dear I think I’m going to carry

It over this I had high hopes that I’d avoid all this nonsense on this ride and have a nice good tow path all the way but clearly I hopes were misplaced what I am hoping now is I’m going to find the canal again very soon so I just checked on Google Maps

And amazingly I am on the right track thought I’d gone wrong but um according to Google Maps I should rejoin the canal just after that jet garriage up ahead on the left so yeah I did think I was lost yep I was right so off we go again oh I do hate these

Things wonder if by any chance it’s open no okay these are a real pain in the ass these thans yeah a lot of boats you know I got the bike so muddy on that gluster and sharp Nest Canal ride um even though I carried it for a

Lot of it it still ended up getting plasted in mud and I had hoped to avoid that today it’s not quite the tall half I had expected but uh obviously it could be a lot worse than it may yet look at the rubbish on the canal there I have to say I’m so

Surprised that this canal Strat for Upon A Canal which started off so so good at uh Kings Norton Junction uh has turned into do a rubbish dump with very muddy toor path I am somewhat disappointed and not saying the very least this is Bridge number

Seven and at least the canal looks a bit cleaner after this not sure what the toe path is going to be like from what I can see at the moment it looks like it’s getting better I think I need to stop and change my battery though before I go any

Further right that’s a new battery in and uh couple of ducks just came to sell off there’s crack on I think I’m not sure that ladder looks terribly safe do you it’s like a boat coming up that looks to me like an ABC H boat I think I recognize the

Colors I could be wrong well that nice bit of top after didn’t last long back to the mud I know I keep going on about the mud but it is such a nuisance it slows me down I can’t uh I can’t just ride straight through it I’ll get

Splattered you know I’ve got to sit on a train afterwards with uh clean people uh but more than that I get the bik splattered which is I find very irritating because it takes so long to clean it and also it’s quite dangerous you can

Easily skid on some of the mud and if I go off to the right then I’ve uh I’m in for the early bath as they say oh wow what we got here this is interesting it’s a swim bridge but looks of it can’t avoid getting my feet we going

Through this one I don’t think so let’s have a look it’s a lift bridge and uh it’s electrically operated so that bridge was uh Bridge number eight which is the Shirley draw bridge I change my battery of bridge number seven there another Bridge coming up very

Shortly think I might just go down to that one number nine and then I’ll think about what route I’m going to use to get back I’m quite attempted to go on the main road to King’s Norton because of all this mud which is a huge disappointment they don’t relish the

Fort going on the main road and once again I’m back at uh the architectural Masterpiece which is Birmingham New Street Station hope you’ve enjoyed this video uh it’s been a rather disappointing for me I expected uh I expected a bit more from the uh statford upon Haven but I

Suppose with all the rain we’ve had the uh the muddy tour path was uh almost in evitable I’ll come back here one day perhaps while once to dried out it’s certainly a canal I’d like to do on Gladis and Aro I can see that the train I was

Aiming to get which is the 10 to three has been cancelled they are usually 1 an hour so it means I’m going to have to hang around until 10 to 4: I’m not a happy person we are now approaching Herford our final station thank you for traveling with us Today see you that’s one dirty Brompton in need of a wash okay right I’m going Home got something