The Stourport Ring
The Stourport
Ring is one of the most popular circular routes and provides a one week
holiday of great variety combining canal and river cruising through the
very heart of England. The three hour voyage along the River Severn from
Worcester to Stourport is one of the scenic highlights of this trip, and
it will come as a pleasant surprise to find the locks automated and operated
for you by friendly and informative chaps in neat lockside cabins. Stourport
Basin with its canal wharves and clock tower is probably the finest example
of an inland port on the British waterways.
Kidderminster, famous for it’s carpet production is soon reached. One
of the more imposing carpet works has been demolished and replaced with
a giant supermarket. Handy for replenishing stores and a convenient mooring
point to go and take a trip on the steam locomotives of the Severn Valley
Railway.
Kinver is a pretty, much visited port of call. Once upon a time it was
linked to the Black Country by electric tramway and advertised as the
‘Switzerland of the Midlands’. Few canals are as picturesque as this one,
and apart from the famous most photographed trio at the Bratch, the locks
come at lonely intervals and are not too demanding on you muscles.
There are two routes through Birmingham, Brindley’s original canal of
1772 or Telford’s 1829 successor. The former tends to twist and turn with
the contours, the latter goes boldly where, quite literally, no man -
or engineer, at least - had gone before. Don’t miss the opportunity to
visit the Black Country museum, a reconstruction of Victorian houses and
shops, workshops, collieries, foundries and boat yards. An old time fairground
proves irresistible to children and a working tramway provides instant
nostalgia.
The circuit is completed following the Worcester-Birmingham canal back
to the Severn. At Tardebigge read the plaque commemorating the historic
meeting between Tom Roult and Robert Aickman at this spot in 1945, without
which the canals might not have enjoyed their second coming as a leisure
amenity with few rivals. Encounters with villages are few and far between.
The ancient salt town of Droitwich keeps it’s distance, but there are
many canal side pubs at which to slake your thirst.
Worcester finally hoves into view and what better place to moor than under
the great west window of the cathedral.
