Best route from Birmingham to Wolverhampton

The more mainstream option is to do the 3 loops off the new mainline then go up smethwick locks and follow the old mainline to Wolverhampton. This is a more pleasant and interesting route than just taking the new mainline to Tipton. The Black Country living museum may be worth a visit if it's your sort of thing. Bit expensive though IMO. On the way you could go up the oldbury locks aka "the crow", a well maintained flight with the BCN society's HQ at the pump house at the top. It's a dead end so you'd have to go back the same way, but worth the detour.

Being more adventurous, from the city centre you could either go down to Salford Jn and up Perry Barr - which is a lot of locks but they are slick and I particularly enjoy Farmer's Bridge, or even turn right then left at Lapworth onto the Grand Union route into Birmingham, and get to Salford Jn via Camp hill and Garrison (many fewer locks. Perry Barr locks are very pleasant nearer the top. You can then turn right onto the Rushall and do the big northern BCN Wyreley and Essington route. It is pleasant all the way to just past Pelsall with rural detours to Anglesey Basin and the Cannock extension. A night spent at Anglesey basin at the foot of the dam of Chaswater is a night to remember! After Pelsall you probably just want to scuttle to Wolverhampton as it's a bit grotty post industrial mess much of the way. But the W&E is deeper than you might expect and it doesn't take too long. Only thing is that spending the night at Wolverhampton top lock area is not the best idea, there are some secure offside moorings just before the last bridge but very noisy as you're just under the inner ring road. You could risk the basin/gardens but there has on occasion been trouble from drunks etc.
If you are competent and mob handed you can do the 21 in under 3 hours and you can moor either about 2 locks from the bottom in the longer pound, or near Autherley Jn or Compton lock (depending on which way you're going). Aldersley Jn gives the impression you are way out in the country, but a quick look at satellite view tells you you are still in a very urban area.

Or you could go down Ryder's Green from the mainline, turn right at Ocker hill onto the tame valley and then pick up the W&E big loop from that way. Watch out for supermarket trolleys by the Asda near the bottom of Ryder's Green! The Tame Valley is straight and dull, apart from the bit where it crosses over the M5 near the junction with the M6. Always fun to wave at the stationary cars stuck in traffic jams!

My least favourite option would be the Walsall beyond Ocker Hill. It gets very shallow and junk strewn, grotty and not particularly interesting except perhaps Walsall town arm. The natives at Walsall locks are known to be cannibals (or nearly so!).

Anyway, there are so many choices that I think it is up to you to decide how much time you have and how many locks you want to do, propose a route and get feedback. With the lesser used parts of the BCN you do need to plan where you are going to stop for the night as boats are a rarity and thus attract attention.

Thanks and yes new to Thunderboat John. I've been a reader on the other forum for a while, then found this one.



We've been doing narrowboat trips for a while now, we sort of got the bug a little while back. My wife and I (she's from the UK I'm Australian, hence the name), did a weekend hire many years ago. When we came back to the UK about 4 years ago with kids we decided that it wouldn't cost a whole lot more to hire a boat than to hire a campervan for 4 and stay in caravan parks, or hire a car and do B&B's. So we hired and did the Trent and Mersey and the Llangollen. Loved it.



Probably a mistake really as now we want to keep it up. Hopefully in a year or 2 we can buy once the kids are off our hands and do a few months rather than a few weeks. Sadly only 3 weeks this year, 4 weeks last year from Willington down to Worcester, through Birmingham, down the GU and back through Coventry. Loved it.



And thanks Telemachus, long detailed description which I'll have to put some time into studying. But I know from last year that some parts of the BCN can be a bit of a problem so some time spent studying will be well spent I think.



Cheers

You can certainly do central Birmingham to the bottom of the 21 in one day, but it's quite a long day. If you want to break the journey you could do so at the Black Country living museum or, if the moorings there are full, on or opposite the "John the lock" moorings just the other side of Tipton Green / just beyond the Fountain (?) pub. There isn't really anywhere between there and central Wolverhampton that I'd want to stop at, and the moorings just before Wolverhampton top lock are pretty grotty and noisy IMO. There is a long-ish pound 3 locks up from the bottomed the 21 you can moor on pins at, always seems pretty quiet but I think you'd be safer near Autherley Jn opposite Oxley Marine.

If you can get onto the moorings at the museum, they are safe and secure. But in the summer they tend to be full early. We've stoppped a few times at Tipton and it's always been very quiet. I agree it's not the best area but the area is "used" to boats and I think that's what makes the difference - ie if you stop somewhere where no-one ever stops, you become an oddity and attract attention. But if you are just another boat, nobody notices you. There is an annual canal festival at Tipton and quite a bit of local involvement.

The other option would be to go through netherton tunnel and stop at Windmill End, but of course you'd have to go back through the tunnel the next morning. Well unless you carried on down the Stourbridge canal and joined the Staffs and Worcs at Stourton junction. This is a nicer route IMO and the S&W between Stourton and Wolverhampton is very pleasant, but it will add a day or two to your trip.

Surely being on the cut makes you an industrial archaeologist? Or are you one of those who simply doesn't "get" why the canals exist in the first place.