A towpath journey: Stourbridge Canal Glass and coal
STOURBRIDGE’S canal, running through the heart of the industrial Midlands, might not boast the seductions of others such as the ‘Mon & Brec’ at the heart of a National Park, or the Rochdale gambolling gloriously towards the Pennines, but it leads straight to the soul of Britain’s canals.
The area once thrived on industries around local coal mines and Stourbridge became world-renowned for glassmaking. One glass cone furnace survives and stands like a cathedral of the industry on the landscape. There are only four glass cones left standing in Britain, and Stourbridge can claim the best preserved across Europe, the Red House Glass Cone.
In parts, the Stourbridge Canal acts as an outdoor social club, buzzing with every generation from the local community. It’s a visible reminder of how canals serve as vital outdoor spaces in densely populated zones and the importance of regeneration projects and maintenance. A breach on the canal in 2008 highlighted the continuous battle required to keep canals open.
Beginning near the metropolis of materialism, Merry Hill Shopping Centre, the Stourbridge Canal ironically takes you quietly away from the consumer mayhem that it so successfully created in the 18th-century Industrial Revolution. The towpath trails effortlessly from shopping heaven into industrial landscape, then prettier green pockets humming with wildlife and narrowboats. But it’s always more than a linear park, with its history running riot the whole way.
The Stourbridge Canal starts just below Dudley No.1 Canal’s Delph Locks. Delph Road, running parallel with the canal, is often called the ‘real ales Riviera’ of Dudley, due to the amount and variety of pubs along it.
At first the canal is tree-lined with the odd glimpse of flats appearing through the trees, becoming more industrial up to Bowen’s Bridge as small factories and moored boats line one side of the canal, before returning to leafy dominance. The canal widens as it turns the corner to Leys Junction, where the Stourbridge carries on to the left while the short Fens Branch heads off right, to Fens Pool Nature Reserve.
Stourbridge Sixteen Locks start at the junction, overlooked by striking storage tanks. Greenery conceals the entrance to Buckpool Nature Reserve here. Past the next few locks, the dramatic scene with the Red House Glass Cone in the distance opens out by Dadford's Shed (named after the canal’s engineer, Thomas Dadford), often surrounded by historic working boats.
Former warehouses (which have been transformed into housing) line the banks of the canal below Glasshouse Bridge, then the views open out at the approach to Wordsley Junction, where the canal continues straight ahead and the short Town Arm leads off left towards Stourbridge.
The Town Arm (less used by boats) is lined with warehouses and evidence of the glass industry including signs for Tudor Crystal & Ruskin Glass Centre.
An abundance of water lilies adds a peaceful ambience as it ends near moorings at the Bonded Warehouse, headquarters of the Stourbridge Navigation Trust.
From here to Stourton Junction, the canal becomes surprisingly rural again, with open fields, trees, the odd glimpse of the river Stour below, and evidence of residential areas only reappearing near the four locks leading down to the junction where the Stourbridge meets the Staffs & Worcs.
This canal has a reputation of defiance
and its clear waters don’t give away any secrets of its feisty past.
A small plaque mounted at Stourton Junction marks the 40th anniversary of the reopening of the Stourbridge Canal and reminds us to pay tribute to the plucky people of the famous 1962 IWA Rally (known as the battle of
Stourbridge) who challenged the canal’s closure and pressured the move to reopen it in 1967.
This is a canal with a friendly local feel, oozing with history, alive with Black Country culture and extraordinarily charismatic. Neither rural nor conventionally beautiful, but a canal not to miss.