Tunnel time.

Before we set of this morning we decided to have a walk up to the church in Tardebigge. By the way the name Tardebigge is thought to come from the Saxon 'tyrde' Bicgan' which means 'big tower' or 'big tower on a hill' so could have referred to a previous church. The current St Bartholomew's was built around 1777. The new church was built entirely in Worcestershire but previously the nave had been in Warwickshire and the rest of the church in Worcstershire.

The very elaborate memorial to Lady Mary Crookes and her husband Sir Thomas, raised by Sir Thomas on the death of his wife in 1693. It was moved to this position when a side chapel was demolished. There is a story that Lady Mary kept her husband alive when in prison by suckling him. This may have come from the fact that her breast is uncovered as was the fashion on memorials for some reason. There is also a story that Sir Thomas killed his butler with a knife. The coat of arms at the top bears an arm holding a dagger. Was this why he was in prison??

There was a service due at 1100 and we were lucky enough to have the organist practicing his pieces, and excellent it was too. It had a lovelly church and the graveyard was well used too and there were several Earl's of Plymouth laying there as the local landlords

The church looked well kept and well used and had a school next to it we met the lady vicar as she arrived for the service too.

The church is on a high point in the area and commands a good view similar to Braunston. The view is to the north.

We set off after getting back and as I passed under the bridge before the top lock I noticed these insulators below the arch. I wondered if it was an electric line for a tug as I couldn't see why a telegraph line would be run under the bridge and not on poles down the towpath?

The top lock was originally a boat lift that wasn't reliable and didn't last long before being replaced with this 12' lock.

The first tunnel of the day is the Tardebigge tunnel and at 580 yards is the shortest.

Next came the Shortwood Tunnel all but hidden in the above photo. It is 613 yards long.

The west entrance to the Shortwood Tunnel

On a lovely day like today the countryside round here is pleasure to trundle along through. There are plenty of hire boats on the move and we have had the stag and hen parties pass, separately of course, and not the same couple either.

 We stopped at Alvechurch to go and find milk and a paper. It wasn't until we set off and walked towards the church that we realised that we had been here before for the same reason, but neither of us could remember when. Is that a sign of age or just that we have too many good memories to store? We stopped and had lunch before setting off again.

When we passed the Lower Bittell reservoir another memory came to me. When we passed it was blowing a gale and there was a boat pinned to the side. We were going sideways down the cut at a fair lick to try and avoid the same fate and couldn't stop to assist in any way. I think we were on a hire boat with our kids and my younger brother's family so it would have been a 70' boat too.

The third tunnel of the day was the Wast Hill Tunnel that at 2726 yards is the 6th longest still in use and is still just a little under half the length of the Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield! As we passed through there were three heading north and we passed three heading south. We haven't passed a boat in a tunnel for ages it seems.

We were soon through and had decided to moor up before the King's Norton Junction. There was a spot with a bit of sun and there we plonked ourselves in it after a nice steady day of recovery for us after our exertions yesterday.

I almost forgot that Hull are not only the UK City of Culture but we have a Premiership football team again. Well done to Hull City on Saturday. It was a shame it was another Yorkshire team that had to lose out. Hull FC are top of the table in the Rugby League at the moment too.