Finding our way to the Fens.

 It rained right through the night but had more or less stopped by the time we emerged to walk up to Brierley Hill High Street for the Sunday paper and milk etc.

As we passed the Merry Hill site we could see the old monorail station on top of M&S. It is the black oval that had a platform on each side. It was added during the last phase of the construction of the shopping centre, 1988/89. However it did not open for another 18  months for safety reasons. It had four stations but was never extended and closed for good in 1996. The lot was sold to a shopping centre in Queensland, Australia, and is still going strong. There are plans to bring the tram to the centre around 2023.

This was how stoppages were promulgated before the age of the mobile phone.

The old stables on the Delph flight are used as a maintenance depot for volunteers now.

The lower 7 locks are nice and close together so are easy to work and keep things going. The water was roaring over the overflows without adding to it so getting the water into your next lock helps save a little.

The original locks were opened in 1779, built by Thomas Dadford, but in 1858 the middle 7 of the locks were replaced with the new weir overflow locks in use today. The old route can be seen to the right of the hedge and next to the houses.

At first I thought that the little arm to the right of the lock was another old lock, but it is too wide, so must have been a wharf. The locks were constructed before the Stourbridge Canal connected with it and so this must have been the terminal basin. The otherside of the bottom lock is the end on junction with the Stourbridge Canal.

The waterfall overflows are spectacular when there is plenty of water running down.

Brownlow William Blades of Tipton was making blue bricks by the 1870's but there are several of these to be found on the flight.

At the bottom of the locks the nearer arm was into a brickworks. The one seen just over the bow appears to have been just over what is called a cistern!

Where Delph Marine wharf is was the site of a bottle works and some of the kilns look as though they are still there.

I spotted this as we passed but don't seem to be able to find anything out about it. It looks like the houses were built on an old cement works.

At Leys Junction we finally started on some new ground and turned right up the Fens Branch. This was a navigable canal that was really the feeder for the Stourbridge Locks from Grove Pool and later Middle and Fens Pool. Once the connection with the Dudley Canal was made water coming down the Delph Locks supplemented this. It is still very much in water and appears to be deep and uncluttered.

After a short distance you come to Brokmoor Junction and turning under the roving bridge you come to this arm. This was the Stourbridge Extension Canal that was opened in 1840 to exploit the coal iron and other minerals mined extensively in the area. It went for about 2 miles and also had about 5 arms off the main line, some over half a mile long.

On the offside C&RT have provided mooring rings and a 'secure' fence. There appears to be no gate, but somebody has kindly removed enough of the railings to get through so you don't feel locked in and trapped. It feels secure enough for us to spend the night though