A lovely drop down the locks.

What a lovely nights sleep we had at a nice mooring, but the time had come to go and there wasn't very far to go to the first lock of the day.

Today is Helen's birthday and as we are going down hill as well Helen was driving. Dimmingsdale Lock was done and we are off on the 12 locks of the day.

I love these Midland locks as they have all the little steps and stuff. It was interesting that this canal also has the split bridges at the foot of the lock like the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. This one had a scaffolding hand rail so I wonder if there had been an accident associated with it.

We were soon at the top of Bratch Locks. There was a boat coming up so we only had about 15mins to wait. The lock cottage has obviously been extended but is a lovely spot. These locks used to be a staircase when originally built by Brindley. They were 'opened' out by having a short pound put in between each lock. to save time and water

The toll house is a real feature of the flight. It isn't in the picture but the St. George's Cross was at half mast and I had to ask if somebody had died! Fortunately not so they should hoist it fully to the fly. You can see the blue paddles at the head of the lock. These open the lock up to the side pound that saves water. They have to be open before you start lowering the lock above.

The side pounds are terraced around the hillside that the canal is dropping down.

With the two voluntary lock keepers it doesn't take long. They were saying that it has been a very quiet season so far, and this agrees with what we have seen, both on the Shropshire Union and the Staffs and Worcester.

At the foot of the Bratch Locks is the Bratch Pumping station. It makes you feel that you are in Bavaria or similar with the Gothic castle style. The brick detail is also beautiful. It was built in 1895 to pump water up from a deep bore hole by Bilston Corporation, to a reservoir near Wolverhampton. It was powered by two triple expansion steam engines named 'Victoria' and 'Alexandria'. They were replaced by electric pumps in 1960 and they fell into disrepair until 1991 when Severn Trent had 'Victoria' restored over five years. It is run under steam a few times a year. 

Bumblehole Lock was next and although this is not one of the classic circular weirs I am full of admiration for the folk that designed and built these as getting the levels right to ensure that there is an even flow all round the weir is great. In fact the water management on the canal is fantastic when you think of the surveying tools they had.

Also today we passed through the Botterham Staircase Locks with no trouble.

The land around here looks rural with a bit of housing and industrial estate so you can be forgiven in thinking that the canal was dug to provide a through route from Birmingham to the Severn, and onwards. In fact the route down the Stour valley was selected as it passed through an industrial area of it's own. This valley rang to forges and iron works that demanded raw material and provided finished products to added to the canal companies coffers.

You wouldn't know it now but where the houses are was once and iron and steel works. It started life as a fulling and corn mill as far back as 1600's. It started as a finery forge around the 1620's, and has continued on through several companies and eventually the British Steel Corporation, until closing 1976. The tow path crosses banks between the locks to avoid passing through the works.

At the foot of Hinksford Lock is another pumping station. Not quite at ornate as that at Bratch and was built a bit later, sometime after the South Staffordshire Water were given permission to build it, and others, in 1901.

The canal is dropping down the valley and the sides are starting to draw in so that the line of the canal actually had to be cut through the sandstone, leaving lovely little bare formations that have ferns and trees taking hold after all these years. We stopped just before the services at the top of Greensforge Lock. As you may have guessed by the name there was another forge in the area, but the area was used for Roman Forts from the earliest days of the Roman Occupation with two large forts close to the east. They were sited to take advantage of the defensive features of the rivers in the valley. The forge dating from the early 1600's progressed to be a blade mill by the 1680's, and later still altered to a corn mill in the 19th Century. It has recently been converted to apartments.