Tardebigge
As I commented on my previous canal photo, not every day is a perfect summer’s day. In fact I generally preferred to go boating out of season; the rivers and canals are less busy. This is in fact October 1982, and we are at the top of the Tardebigge Flight on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. We have a challenging morning ahead of us. The Tardebigge flight of locks is the longest flight of locks in the UK, comprising 30 narrow locks on a two-and-a-quarter-mile (3.6 km) stretch. It raises the waterway 220 feet (67 m), and lies between the Tardebigge tunnel (580 yards or 530 metres long) to the North and the Stoke Prior flight of six narrow locks to the South.
There are a number of water supplies for the canal including a reservoir about 50 feet (15 m) below the level of the top pound. There is an old engine house near the top which was built to pump water up from the reservoir.
Despite the daunting prospect of a flight of 30 locks, navigating through them is not too bad. The top lock has a rise of eleven feet, unusually high for a single lock, but generally they are easy to handle [being single locks as opposed to double, or wide locks], especially with a crew to share the work. Mind you, by the time you have reached the bottom [or the top, depending on which way you’re heading] you know you have been working!
By the time we reached the bottom of the flight the sun was shining. There is an inn with a riverside garden not far along from there and we had hoped for lunch there to restore our energy, but sadly they told us that we were a few minutes too late to order food. But they still had beer, so not all was lost…..
Tardebigge
As I commented on my previous canal photo, not every day is a perfect summer’s day. In fact I generally preferred to go boating out of season; the rivers and canals are less busy. This is in fact October 1982, and we are at the top of the Tardebigge Flight on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. We have a challenging morning ahead of us. The Tardebigge flight of locks is the longest flight of locks in the UK, comprising 30 narrow locks on a two-and-a-quarter-mile (3.6 km) stretch. It raises the waterway 220 feet (67 m), and lies between the Tardebigge tunnel (580 yards or 530 metres long) to the North and the Stoke Prior flight of six narrow locks to the South.
There are a number of water supplies for the canal including a reservoir about 50 feet (15 m) below the level of the top pound. There is an old engine house near the top which was built to pump water up from the reservoir.
Despite the daunting prospect of a flight of 30 locks, navigating through them is not too bad. The top lock has a rise of eleven feet, unusually high for a single lock, but generally they are easy to handle [being single locks as opposed to double, or wide locks], especially with a crew to share the work. Mind you, by the time you have reached the bottom [or the top, depending on which way you’re heading] you know you have been working!
By the time we reached the bottom of the flight the sun was shining. There is an inn with a riverside garden not far along from there and we had hoped for lunch there to restore our energy, but sadly they told us that we were a few minutes too late to order food. But they still had beer, so not all was lost…..