Best mooring ever ❤️ Bumble Hole Nature Reserve, where Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal meets Dudley No. 2 Canal. Dudley canal continued under the bridge to the right to join the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak, though it only reaches Hawne Basin now. #boatlife #ukcanals #FundBritainsWaterways

From colliery and steelworks to modern office/retail/leisure estate, and an old, old story playing out on a mooring at Merry Hill on the Dudley No. 1 Canal. Thar be locks ahead, millions of 'em. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Netherton Tunnel, opened 1858, the last canal tunnel to be built, watched over by the ruin of Cobbs Engine House, which between c.1831 and 1928 pumped water from mines into the canal. #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Always love the bustling life at Gas Street Basin, but not at all a fan of the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line out. 📷 Dudley Port Junction, where the Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal meets the BCN main line. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

NB Scorpio, built 1935 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company on the London to Birmingham route, passing a junction with the Birmingham Canal Old Line (which became Oozells Street Loop). #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

The Roundhouse next to the canal in Birmingham, built 1874 on the site of a canal wharf as stables for the Corporation of Birmingham. Acquired by British Waterways 2001, restored in partnership with the National Trust 2021. #heritage #ukcanals #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

On this day in 1580, Queen Elizabeth I granted Gloucester port status. The port facility then was a quay on the River Severn, today a river wall watched over by the 326-year-old former customs house, to which boats cling if Gloucester Lock is not ready (I speak from bitter experience 😨). #ukcanals

Whilst I'm in a bit of a boatlife hiatus, here's a snippet from another of my passions, the history and #heritage of #Gloucester Ruins of St. Oswald's Priory, where Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, was buried after her death 12 June 918. gloucester500.co.uk/st-oswalds.h...

Gloucester 500 | St. Oswald's Priory

The golden minster of a Saxon queen in the shadow of a Norman conqueror

gloucester500.co.uk

University accommodation on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak. To the right is where the Dudley No. 2 Canal once joined the W&B; to the left is where a restored Dudley No. 2 Canal will one day join the W&B. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

That's a wrap on my 4th year as a boat owner. Relatively sedate year, just 193 miles travelled (2nd least) and 124 locks negotiated (least), but I was immobilised by engine failure for nearly a quarter of the year. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

As a year-round continuous cruiser I get to experience #boatlife in all the weather the British climate throws at us, and extreme heat is by far the worst. There's no escape 🥵 North Stratford Canal in, believe it or not, the suburbs of Birmingham. #ukcanals #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Echoes of a bygone age at a small arm off the north Stratford at Hockley Wharf. Ten miles and over two years from the first cut at King's Norton on the Worcester & Birmingham, this was as far as the canal had reached by 1796. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

One of those #canal vignettes that seem to have more in common with some Tolkienesque fantasy world than the 21st century. Lapworth locks done 🥵 Just a few pesky lift bridges – the sole purpose of which is to torment solo boaters – to go 🤬 #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #FundBritainsWaterways

🧵1/x Lock 21 at the utterly charming Kingswood Junction, Lapworth, where Stratford Canal meets Grand Union via a short link canal. This was as far as the Stratford got when funds ran out in 1802, at which time this lock did not exist. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #heritage #FundBritainsWaterways

🧵1/4 When I expressed concerns about CRT funding to my MP, he cited the National Trust as something the CRT should learn from, which is of course utter tosh. The NT was persuaded to take on the south Stratford Canal in 1960... #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Ghosts 👻 Inaugural trip, Devizes to Gloucester the long, estuary-free way 3+ years ago, at the end of an 8-hour cruise, just turned off the Grand Union with its wide, fender-unfussy locks and promptly got wedged in this look 🫣 #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Joys of boating at the bottom end of the market – an account of the first day of a very nervous journey up the Severn from Gloucester published in Cotswold Life magazine a while back. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/co...

Travelling on a narrowboat along the River Severn

The mighty River Severn proves to be a challenging mistress as plucky little narrowboat Jimbo ventures upriver from Gloucester

greatbritishlife.co.uk

The rather monumental locks at Knowle, the remnants of the original Warwick & Birmingham Canal narrow locks sitting alongside wide locks built 1930s, just after the canal amalgamated with others to form the Grand Union. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

A rather grand morning on the Grand Union #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Catherine de Barnes, a name of early Norman origin for a village that didn't become really established until the Warwick & Birmingham Canal arrived late 18th century. Soundtrack here is birdsong and jet engine 🛥️🐦‍⬛🛫 (B'ham airport 3km away) #boatlife #ukcanals #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Tied up just as the rain started on a heavy, 11-lock day on the Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal and the former Warwick & Birmingham Canal (now the Birmingham end of the Grand Union). I swear #boatlife was easier a couple of year ago 👴 #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal, one of the later canals not completed until 1844, long after canal mania had subsided and just as railway mania was beginning to get up a head of steam. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Pleasant place to moor near Curdworth tunnel on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal at the end of a sunny day of eight difficult locks made bearable by having superstar vlockies at three of them. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, Curdworth Lock 9, Cheatles Farm Bridge and the Dog and Doublet, all dating back to the late 18th century (the canal was completed 1789, just before canal mania swept the British landscape). #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

The most excellent Jules Fuels NB Bargus, which has been an absolute angel over the last four months supplying me with coal, fuel and a tow, at Fazeley Junction on the Coventry Canal. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

#Boatlife day 489 Tree stopped play on the Llangollen two years ago. And today, day 1294, on the feisty edges of Storm Dave, I'm listening to the branches of trees next to my boat clacking together like the bones of skeletons 🫣🌬️🍃🛥️ #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

#boatlife day 527 A spot on the Llangollen that made the news last Christmas when the embankment here failed catastrophically. Interim report on the breach at Whitchurch has been published at canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/docume... #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Saw some ruins peaking mysteriously through the trees lining the Coventry Canal at Alvecote as I puttered past, and on further investigation found the remains of the mid-12th century Alvecote Priory. #boatlife #ukcanals #heritage #HistoricEngland #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, lined on the left by the former Tolson's Mill, a textile factory built 1886, and on the right by a former Methodist Church, built around the same time. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Bridge 77 on the Coventry Canal at Fazeley Junction, originally built late-18th century. You have to travel over 5 miles and under another 17 bridges to get to bridge 78. "Why's that, Shad?" I'm glad you asked – read on 🧵... #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways