intrepid pony: the wrong church

Kinver Church

Toll House at Stewpony Lock

Looking down on Kinver from the church

Where's our boat?

We set off after ten o’ clock as the Captain had some things to fiddle with in the engine bay. As he cast off a hire boat went past and we followed them very slowly to the first lock of the day. The Captain decided to fill with water at the lock but the water point wasn’t working.

Thankfully the hire boat got through quickly as a boat left the lock leaving the gates open for them. I don’t mind these little delays - this is supposed to be a working visit and we are cruising.

Free range porker

It was a lovely morning although the canal had steep rocky cliffs casting us in deep cold shade for a lot of the time. The sandstone is lovely but unfortunately the huge overhang that boats used to squeeze under has been removed for safety reasons lessoning the impact. However it is still impressive with mature trees clinging to the rock face. It must have been exhausting labour for the canal builders working back in 1770 as they had no diggers or modern machinery.

The only thing disturbing the peace was the vast number of cyclists. They swarmed by in groups varying from two to twenty and kept coming, shouting to each other as they whizzed past.

They were fine when we were cruising but Lottie Lurcher hated them speeding by centimetres from her while we worked the locks, especially as she had to stay on the lead. One cyclist swerved round the balance beam and nearly knocked her sideways. Poor hound!

Lottie looking out for cyclists

We arrived at Kinver Services and stopped to fill with water. As we prepared to pump out the toilet holding tank using the self service station another boat arrived and filled the remaining space. Two more boats arrived within a minute.

Houses built on top of the tunnel

“Are you nearly finished?” a lady asked. “We’ve run out of water.” I explained the Captain was about to pump out and they decided to wait alongside us. We tied them on front and rear and the other boat eventually tied up to the one in front of us narrowing the canal greatly.

Fabulous reflections

Round the corner came a hire boat with new crew on board. After panicking and throwing the boat into the bushes opposite they managed to push off, regain control and pass. And we hadn’t seen anything moving until we reached Kinver!

Debdale Lock

The Captain finished the pump-out then we faced our next dilemma – how would we untie the boat alongside and get out when we were hemmed in tight between the boat filling with water and a moored boat. The skipper of the boat tied to us took his rope onto the towpath and we pushed off. He let his rope go loose so we could get past the moored boat and pulled his boat over when we were out of his way.

It only took a few minutes to descend through Kinver lock and tie up at the Visitor moorings. We set off for a pleasant walk up the hill to Kinver church expecting to find the remains of rock dwellings nearby as recalled from a previous trip. It wasn’t the same church.

The view was lovely but the canal and our boat was hidden far below. When we looked over the church wall we came face to face with mottled sheep and a giant porker. the Captain reached for his camera but Lottie Lurcher barked and the sow trotted behind a large bush.

Into the dark

The trek down the twisting path took ages but at last after a cool drink we cast off . We travelled on still overtaken by speeding cyclists, obviously making the most of the weekend and the good weather. There also seemed to be more boats about which often met us on a tight corner or at a bridge hole.

After a couple of locks we entered a short tunnel (with houses perched precariously above it).

The following lock had a narrow doorway leading to a square man-made cave. Lottie Lurcher was fascinated by this and went in and out several times while we worked the lock.