Narrowboat Holiday - Easter 1996

The Route

• Day 1 (Saturday): Start off from Braunston some time between 2pm and 4pm Travel to Long Itchington - about 10 miles and 13 locks.
• Day 2 (Sunday): Travel from Long Itchington to Kingswood Junction (with the Stratford canal) About 17 miles and 31 locks.
• Day 3 (Monday): Travel from Kingswood into Birmingham, stopping at Gas Street Basin. This is either going to be about 17 miles and 30 locks or 18 miles and 18 locks depending on whether we go up the Grand Union or Stratford into Birmingham, this probably depends on the weather! When we get into Birmingham (hopefully early afternoon) we want to go and have a look at the Science Museum. We may then proceed to the Black Country Museum in the evening and stay there for the night.
• Day 4 (Tuesday): Spent in Birmingham. What we hope to do is a ring of the Dudley and Netherton tunnels, but this is dependent on the height of the chimney on the Great Britain! (the Dudley tunnel is quite low). In any case, we will have a saunter around the BCN and hope to go and have a look at one of the glass works at Stourbridge (probably Stewart Glass). We aim to end up at Gas Street Basin for the night.
• Day 5 (Wednesday): Start off from Gas Street Basin and head up the Birmingham & Fazeley canal to Fazeley, and then down the Coventry canal towards Atherston and Alvecote, hopefully mooring somewhere near these villages. This is quite a long haul of up to 23 miles and 44 locks.
• Day 6 (Thursday): Start off from atherstone (or Alvecote if we don't reach Atherston on day 5) and go down the Coventry canal to Hawkesbury Junction. Possibly continue down the Coventry to Coventry itself and then come back to spend the night at Hawkesbury Junction itself. 24 miles and 7 locks including the detour to Coventry, 12 miles and the same number of locks without.
• Day 7 (Friday): Travel from Hawkesbury Junction along the Oxford canal to somewhere near Braunston, 22 miles and 4 locks.
• Day 8 (Saturday): Return the Great Britain to Union Canal Carriers by 9am.

This route is shown on the two maps below. In each case, the yellow highlighting shows the standard route, and the blue highlighting the route taken if we go via the Stratford Canal into Birmingham rather than via the Grand Union:

The Birmingham Canal Network

The Warwickshire Ring