Woolly says – After a couple of days of storms, rain, sleet and all manner of other wetness from the sky we were finally able to get back onto the tow path. Having parked on an industrial estate we started our journey at the Samson and Lion pub in Brockmoor which sits on the Stourbridge Extension Canal, a short canal built to serve a number of mines in the Kingswinford area. Although connected to the Stourbridge Canal, it was independent from it. It opened in 1840 and is best known for its sixteen locks which takes boats either up or down the 145 feet needed to navigate the hills in the area.

As Alfie the wammal raced off along the bank Jo and I paused for a while at the side of our first lock, having consulted my Mammoth Book of Everything before leaving I was looking forward to telling my carer my fact of the day, I took a deep breath ‘did you know that canal locks were first developed in China and only came into Europe in the Middle Ages’ the humans brow furrowed as she processed my information, ‘No Woolly I didn’t I had assumed, incorrectly by the sounds of it, that the locks had been invented by someone like Thomas Telford, gosh you learn something new every day’.

We continued onwards passing an old Hanson’s off license known as The Dock where navvies and families on the water could have once bought the supplies they needed for a jolly night on the water, now closed it looked lovely with its hanging baskets.

Passing under low bridges and down past more of the locks it was proving to be a very peaceful place given we were so close to the main roads, as we rounded a corner, we could see the famous cone of Stourbridge, the Red Cone one of the only surviving glass cones in the world now and one that we had visited many years ago, it made a fabulous picture against the slightly greying clouds.

The area had been reinvented with the old factory units and mills now providing canalside apartments, a lovely place to live if you could ignore the amount of graffiti which seemed to cover every bridge and wall possible. Like the levels of rubbish this is something that local groups like the Razza Rats (https://www.facebook.com/razzarats) are constantly dealing with, a sad reflection of our times.

Reaching the junction that would take us onwards to Wolverhampton or Stourbridge itself we turned and started our walk back just as the slightly grey clouds became dark and menacing, the race was on, could we make it back to the car without a soaking or would we have a soggy dog and mammoth to deal with!

Woolly says – Our final look at the canal had to wait for a few days for the latest weather to abate and for it to be dry enough for the human not to moan about,  something that she is very good at.

This took us to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal which links the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywood Junction by Great Haywood. The Act of Parliament authorising the canal was passed on 14th May 1766 and was completed in 1771.  

The Stourbridge Canal, which descends through the Stour valley to Stourton and joins onto the Staff and Worcs as the locals call it. Having parked the car and taken our lives in our paws in crossing the busy main road I was extremely pleased to arrive at the Stewponey Lock No 13 in one piece.  

This is a section of the cut that I know very well as our boat was once moored here, looking along the towpath it appeared that many still use it as permanent moorings although the shop that had once sat behind the lock selling all things boat had long gone.

Woolly says – The small quaint Stewponey tollhouse was however still there, a brick structure of irregular octagonal plan which is painted white. The original Georgian brick bridge was added to in the 20th century to create a bridge that could withstand the heavy traffic usage. Having walked round the small building twice we set off along the footpath waving to the water dwellers as we passed.

It was a very pretty part of the canal network and once we had passed the moored vessels all I could hear was the running water of the River Seven on my left as I admired the bends in the canal on the right.

Having passed a number of weirs which looked like huge brick bowls with no plug in we arrived at Stourton Junction the point at which the Stourbridge Canal terminates by descending through locks to join the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. This historically important junction on the West Midlands canal network was long disused, but the restoration and reopening of the Stourbridge Canal, from the 1970s onwards, has reasserted its importance.

I remember the restoration and have a newspaper clipping somewhere of myself, my Dad and my Step Mother clearing the canal so that it was navigable once more, although the overriding memory is of the dead cow that we found which gave me nightmares for months.

Passing areas of sandstone rocks, you could see small inlets where loads would have been removed and boats would have passed each other. A small doorway peeked out from behind greenery, was it a smugglers cave? A secret passage for escaping? My imagination started to run wild as to its possibilities until Jo pointed out that it had probably led to one of the large houses high up on the bank and would have allowed their coal to be delivered, she really has no sense of fun.

With paws tiring and tummies rumbling we turned tail and headed back towards the car and the promise of a late lunch at one of the many pubs that serve the canal system, a wonderful way to finish our journey along the waterways of the Black Country.