Marine Cruises narrowboat holiday hire on the Staffs & Worcs Canal

Narrowboat Holiday Hire on the Staffs & Worcs Canal

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal can be cruised as part of the Four Counties Ring, linking the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Shropshire Union Canal, winding its way across the wide open farmland and woods of Cannock Chase. South of Wolverhampton the canal potters down to the River Severn along twisting river valleys and through some remarkable sandstone scenery around Kinver to Stourport. Allow two weeks if you want a leisurely cruise down to Stourport from our Swanley Bridge Marina.

The Staffs and Worcester was a very early ‘contour canal’, meandering up the Stour Valley, cut around large red sandstone cliffs and occasionally through them, but as a rule taking the line of least resistance, with locks scattered when and where required.

At the eastern end the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal meets the Trent and Mersey Canal at Great Haywood. Nearby Tixall wide is a popular mooring spot, the canal was widened to look like a natural lake to make it look nicer for the local gentry living at Tixall Hall, only the fine gatehouse of which remains.

At the Western end Stourport is a fascinating inland port, much of the port area little changed from the eighteenth century. There are four interlinked basins, narrowboat and barge locks, warehouses, clock tower and the Tontine hotel. Goods were transhipped between canal narrowboats and River Severn barges or ‘trows’.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was one of the earliest UK canals, forming part of the plan to link the Rivers Severn, Mersey, Trent and Thames. The canal was still making a profit when it was nationalized in 1948, run from the same Wolverhampton offices for over 170 years!

The Staffs and Worcestershire canal forms part of the popular Four Counties Ring cruising route, with the Trent and Mersey canal and the Shropshire Union Canal.

 

Staffs & Worcs Canal facts…

Runs from near Stafford to Stourbridge
Junctions with the Trent & Mersey Canal at Great Haywood, Shropshire Union Canal at Autherley Junction, Birmingham Canal Navigations at Aldersley Junction, Stourbridge Canal at Stourton Junction, River Severn at Stourport.
Length 46miles
Locks 45