The Droitwich Canals and River Severn

We are very lucky small bears who have been enjoying lots of adventures over the last few weeks, but that does mean I am a long way behind with my posts about our canal journey. There are two more episodes to write, then I can tell you about our other adventures, including a Christmas Party in August, a visit to some very special bears and a journey to London.

We start this part of the canal journey at Hanbury Junction, where the Droitwich Junction Canal leaves the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. Our human guardians were quite excited to be here, since the Droitwich Canals had not been restored the last time they were in this part of the Midlands on a boat.

There are three locks just after the junction, which all have clever, water-saving side-pounds, although this did mean Grizzly had to wind twice as many paddles as usual up and down to let the water in and out of the locks, which were narrow ones but quite deep.

Grizzly and Polar took it in turns to work through some more locks as we made our way towards Droitwich. The worst part was a horrible low tunnel under the M5 motorway, which had been built when the canal was disused and seemed unlikely to be re-opened. Polar and Grizzly both had to duck down very low and we bears were definitely not allowed on the roof!

Eventually, we joined a short river section before locking up into a very nice park. There were several swing bridges to get through here, but two of them had been opened by other boats so Polar could steer straight through and let the other crews close them, while Grizzly held his bridges open for them.

At the far end of the park was a super, secure mooring area, with pontoons for lots of boats. There were permanent moorings on one side and visitor moorings on the other.

We were very keen to explore Droitwich, so jumped into the Bear Bag at once when Polar said they were going shopping.

As the park (Vine's Park) wasn't too busy, Polar let us run about an explore. We couldn't find out which Annie Annie's Bridge was named after but recently read this very interesting article about Mr Max Sinclair, who founded the Droitwich Canals Trust.

In the park we also found some interesting exhibits about Droitwich's history as a salt-producing town.

From the IWA talk we went to by Dr Ros Todhunter, we remembered that pumping salt and brine out of the ground can cause problems, and that was certainly true in Droitwich. We thought it was a very handsome old town but some of the buildings were quite crooked and we wondered what the rooms inside must be like!

When we got back to Uppie it was time for tea and then bedtime. Our moorings were very peaceful with a nice view of the sunset.

The next part of our journey took us onto the Droitwich Barge Canal, which was built for wider boats and has double locks. Because she is bigger than Grizzly, Polar said she would work us through these.

The journey took us through some very nice countryside and under a very old bridge which had been designed by the famous canal engineer Mr James Brindley, who was from North Staffordshire and is buried at Newchapel, quite near where we live.

The Barge Canal leads to the mighty River Severn. We were rather anxious small bears, because Polar and Grizzly said we would have to work our way upstream to get to Stourport, and we know Uppie doesn't have a very powerful engine.

There was a notice by the lock telling us to ring the lockkeeper at Holt Fleet to let them know we were on the way, but it turned out to be the wrong number! Luckily, the lockkeepers look out for boats approaching using CCTV.

As you can see, the locks on the Severn are very big. We bears stayed safely down in the saloon and watched out of the windows.

We saw all sorts of other types of boat on the river, including other narrowboats, big fancy fibreglass cruisers, sailing boats and boats that looked like they had once been ferries.

Uppie made quite good progress against the current and, by late afternoon, we were tying up at Stourport. Hanley Bear was very excited because it was almost time for the European Cup football final between England and Italy. We all had our paws and claws crossed for an England win, but unfortunately, they lost on penalties. Hanley Bear was especially sad and had very leaky eyes.

In the morning, we were all due to go home and leave Uppie on some moorings at Stourport. Grizzly steered Uppie from the river into the big locks, as the narrow locks from the river were closed for repairs, and Polar and some volunteers worked the locks.

Grizzly moored Uppie on the chandlery moorings, then we went to explore the basins, which were full of boats and surrounded by interesting old buildings. Hanley cheered up a little bit when he found a Transport Trust sign.

Before we packed up to go home, we found a lovely little cafe for lunch with a pretty patio garden, which Endon enjoyed exploring. He was looking forward to seeing our garden at home again and helping Polar to plant seeds for autumn crops.

Back at the boat, it was time to put all our things into our Bear Bag ready for the train journey home. Huddlesford was very excited, as he hadn't seen our house before.