To the Edge

This week we have done …. Merry Hill Birmingham; down the 8 Delph locks onto Stourbridge Canal; down the 16 Stourbridge locks to Stourbridge Junction; turned left onto the Staffs and Worcs canal; Kinver; Kidderminster and now moored at Stourport-on-Severn. Only 16 miles this week as we spent 2 days at Kinver and 2 days at Stourport-on-Severn.

Had a lot of glorious weather again this week - sunny and hot most of the time.

Moored at Kinver Friday afternoon and stayed the weekend, leaving on Monday morning. Lovely place where the village seems to be in duplicate - 2 butchers (and most of the time we never see even one!); 2 little supermarkets (Co-op and a Spar); 2 chippies and then there was a greengrocer, PO, the inevitable hairdressers, teashops, Indian takeaway, chemist, couple of gift shops and (I think) 4 pubs. The reason apparently it is a bit of a tourist place is because of Kinver Edge (National Trust) and the rock houses at Holy Austin Rock. We took a walk up to the Edge through woods and over heathland and were rewarded with tremendous views of the Cotswold and Malvern Hills, then we walked round to Holy Austin Rock where the NT has restored one of the rock houses but it is only open at certain times and not when we were there. The rock houses hewn out of the sandstone Holy Austin Rock, Kinver Edge were occupied from the 1600s through to the 1960s. At one time up to 11 families occupied a warren of rooms over three levels. The lower rock house has been painstakingly restored by the National Trust with a recreated 1900's bedroom and parlour. The houses were very comfortable, being cool in summer and warm in winter. Take a look at some photos on the site link below
http://www.qlhs.org.uk/past-events/visits/kinver/kinver.htm

Glyn (Dai’s brother) and his wife Linda joined us in Kinver for a meal at The Vine. Good beer, fantastic food but the service was very iffy … but we weren’t in a rush so that didn’t really matter.

We got to Stourport-on-Severn yesterday afternoon - what a funny town! As its name implies it is on the River Severn and seems like a seaside town without the sand and sea! There is a permanent funfair; a beautifully kept kiddies paddling pool; playgrounds and even crazy golf ! The High Street is quite quaint - not because of its buildings but rather because there are lots of individual type shops and this time, 4 butchers - yes, four ! I think it is a really nice place.

This morning we went a long walk by the River and managed to find two places where Foxxie could get down to have a dip - lucky her! It was so hot I would have loved to have plunged in but the Severn is notorious for its deep currents. We were a bit cautious at first letting Foxxie go in but she was fine as we kept calling her back once she was actually swimming rather than paddling.

We plan to start moving on tomorrow back up the Staffs and Worcs, making our way next to the Shropshire Union Canal.

Since last blog we have done … 16 miles and 37 locks.
This makes total since Setting Off ….. 538 miles and 600 locks.

The Toll House at Stewponey Lock on the Staffs and Worcs Canal just before Kinver