Worcester & Birmingham Canal

The route

Beginning at the Severn

Diglis Basin is the start of the canal next to the Severn. You’ll find the canal’s one swing bridge here and occasionally a lock keeper (although there’s an appeal to find more volunteer lock keepers). There are moorings and a water point just to the north east of the basin before the Mill Street bridge. Of course although this is the start of the canal, you’re more likely to have started in Lowesmoor Wharf if you had decided to hire your narrowboat in Worcester, but don’t worry, we’ll be in Lowesmoor shortly.

The next bridge is where Sidbury (the A44) crosses the canal and coincidentally where you’ll find the English Civil War (and so much more!) museum the Commandery and also Lock No. 3. There’s mooring just north of the bridge, where you could park the boat while touring the Commandery or nearby Fort Royal Park.

Lowesmoor Wharf/Worcester Marina

Continuing north, you’ll travel through several bridges before arriving at the Lowesmoor Wharf where you can find the ABC boat hire and a winding hole. Reasonably convenient to the wharf is either Worcester Foregate Street train station (with a nearby Tesco Express) to the west or Worcester Shrub Hill train station to the east. See this map for walking routes.

Continuing north west, the canal runs next to garden allotments, the back sides of home and a school cricket pitch before turning north east along Barbourne Brook and a golf course. All very pleasant until just before the A449 and a caravan park just south of the canal at Bridge 22. There are also a number of business parks south of the canal but there are also some small nature reserves keeping it from being too bleak. Once past the A449, however, the canal passes through farms and fields divided by hedgerows (although you will go under the M5 motorway). At Dunhampstead Wharf, just before the 236 yard Dunhampstead Tunnel, you’ll find Brook Line narrow boat hire. It’s a small company with just ten boats, so book early if you want to rent from them.

After the tunnel you’ll reach the junction with the Droitwich Canal coming from the west, by which time you’ll have already passed through 34 bridges and have gone through 16 locks.

You can also find the Saltway boat hire here, conveniently located before the Tardebigge flight, especially if you want to do the Droitwich Ring and avoid the flight altogether.

As mentioned earlier, you could make the ring using the lower portion of the Worcs & B’ham, the River Severn and the Droitwich Canal, or you could just take a side trip to Droitwich Spa from the Worcs & B’ham. The difficulty with this scheme, however, is that there are no marked winding holes on the Canal & River Trust maps. Presumably you could moor and turn around at the Droitwich Spa marina for a trip into the town or turn around at another natural if unmarked winding hole near Vines Park. Unfortunately the Droitwich Canal was only made navigable so recently that Google maps still show an unfinished route. Definitely download a current guide from the CRT website.