Fradley Junction



Sophie and Yanos left us on Thursday morning and we had a bit of a planning session.  We are going down to Stratford as my youngest brother’s wife, Liz, is performing in a play on Sunday week and a large family contingent will be present.  We have given ourselves a week to get there as most of the family will be arriving on the Friday.

We will go back up the Trent & Mersey to Fradley Junction and from the junction we will head down the Birmingham & Fazeley canal to Birmingham – the last stretch from Fazeley to Erdington will be new to us.  We will then follow the Grand Union to its junction with the Stratford canal, both of which we went down in the winter.  The Stratford canal will take us down to our destination - about 55 miles and 70 locks away. 

There are very few safe places to moor on the East side of Birmingham and, as it’s summertime, we are assuming they will be taken.  This means a long day on Friday to get us down to the M6 Toll where it is still a bit rural around Curdworth.  Saturday will be another long day as we travel down the east side of Birmingham and out to Solihull where we know we can find places to moor safely.

 
We set out for Fradley junction fairly late on Thursday – it was only a couple of miles and five locks.  All the visitors’ moorings were taken when we got there so we headed south a little way on the Birmingham & Fazeley and found somewhere quiet to moor for the night.


2 comments:

Wendy Jones said...

Hi Neil - I'm still following your travels with interest - particularly now that I have a broken leg and am stuck at home for a while - no boating for the foreseeable future :( I see you are heading down my way again - just to let you know that we had a lovely night's stop last year between locks 5 and 6 on the Curdworth flight - the motorway wasn't too far over the hedge but we could hardly hear it. Was going to post a pic of the mooring but there isn't a photo button. From there we carried on the next day right through to Catherine de Barnes (stopping at Camp Hill top lock for lunch). Other than that ~Curdworth moorings are safe near the tunnel, although a little gloomy. Happy travels! Wendy Jones

Neil & Karen Payne said...

Hi Wendy - lovely to hear from you and sorry to hear about your leg. We hope you are up and about and can get on your travels again soon. Thanks for the mooring advice - we have now moored above Curdworth top lock which is nice and quiet and before Curdworth. Looking forward to another long day tomorrow to Catherine de Barnes Do keep in touch.