Day Eighteen - Merry Hill to Kinver

We left at eight o’clock as the weather forecast did not look good for the afternoon and we had thirty-one locks to do. We wanted to get as many locks out of the way before any bad weather set in. Straight after leaving Merry Hill we hit the Delph Locks which consists of eight chambers side by side. They carry the canal from 441 feet to 365 feet and also have overflow weirs similar to the Foxton Locks. The instructions on the board at the beginning of the locks were that we had to open the blue paddles in the lock below, come back and open the red paddles in the lock our boat was going into then go back to close blue. This had to be repeated all the way down to the bottom. Bill steered the boat and Lyn, Henk and I got into a good rhythm of opening and closing the locks. We are getting very efficient at it.
After three hours and when we nearly finished the Stourbridge Locks we came across a very large kiln known as Red House Cone which was built in 1790. It was as old as Australia! The cone acted as a huge chimney to draw heat and was originally called Red Glass House and made high quality glass known as Stuart Crystal. The cone is now a monument to the history of glassmaking and is one of only four remaining in the UK. We moored the boat alongside the cone and had an early lunch at their tearoom. It was good to have the break and have a look at the museum.
We went through Stourton Locks which consists of four locks to get to Stourton Junction which is a very pretty junction. Unfortunately by this stage some light rain had come through and we moved on to get to Kinver. Kinver is only a ten minute stroll from the canal and Henk and I walked to the village to get some groceries. We were surprised to see quite a number of small speciality shops along its High Street. It is a pretty little village and attracts many visitors.
We decided to eat in tonight and we dined on some very tasty fried rice.
We now have the majority of the locks behind us and the days ahead will be easier.
Photos: Delph Locks; Red House Cone and the Stourbridge Locks; Very pretty Hyde Lock with Bill on “Gillian” waiting for the lock to be filled; Bill coming out of the lock with Henk and Lyn closing the paddles and gates.