Cheshire, eventually: Day 7

Adrian had a call at 9 this morning, so we were in no rush to go anywhere.  While he did that, I went for a walk, and found that from the little garden near our mooring, there’s a bridge over the Stour leading to an area of parkland crossed with footpaths.  It explains why the towpath here is busy with dog walkers.

We got under way soon after 9.30, and Kinver Lock was empty and waiting for us.  Above it, we went round the corner to the water point.

We filled the tank and got the washing machine going, then I walked up to Hyde Lock, surely one of the prettiest on the system.

Dunsley Tunnel, which is tiny, is all rock from this end.  As we were going in, I could see a boat approaching from the other side.

Stewpony Lock was empty too.  There’s a nice collection of wharf buildings above.

Normally we would have carried straight on at Stourton Junction, but with the Cana, closed at Dimmingsdale Bridge after having been hit by a vehicle, we are going the longer way round.  It means the 13 miles and 18 locks between Stourton Junction and Autherley Junction will instead be 23 miles and 53 locks!  I walked on to the junction to get the bottom Stourton Lock ready, but found a boat just turning in from the other direction.  It meant Adrian had to wait while they went up.

There was a boat coming down the third lock, so we could swap with them, and a boat had arrived behind us to come up.  All in all, the four locks didn’t seem like too much trouble.

We carried on looking for somewhere to moor, but we also wanted to be quite close to the bottom of the Stourbridge Locks for tomorrow.  We ended up on the rings right before the junction.  After lunch, we walked up the canal to the Stourbridge Glass Museum, which wasn’t here last time we came this way.  As well as plenty on the history of Stourbridge glass-making, there’s a gallery of more contemporary pieces, and an exhibition on at the moment featuring work by Elliot Walker, who won the second series of Blown Away on Netflix.

A few more pieces by other people that I liked.

Across the road is the Red House Cone, where we also had a look round their exhibition and went inside the cone.  They also have studios, one of which is where Elliot Walker works, and we watched him starting a new piece.

4 miles, 7 locks.  (50 miles, 57 locks)