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The Glass Festival in Stourbridge in August

Thanks to the person who posted the link to this festival in Stourbridge!!!! I've been doing my calculations and it looks like we'll be able to attend by boat! We've been down through the Birmingham area a number of times by boat on our holidays during the summer but never that particular loop of the canal system. So, after many pages of careful calculations I have proved without a doubt to my husband that if he drives the boat (the hard job, you know...) while I do all the locks, then we can stay for Wednesday and Thursday of the show before heading out on the Friday of that week to get home before school starts.

I'm SO excited about this. My husband is very artistic and I know that if he gets the chance to see all this glassworking in action and the chance to feel some beads and see them being made then he'll get as interested in it as I am. Then we'll win the lottery, buy a second boat to use as a studio and that's all we need to be eternally happy!

Well, I'll need a hot bath each night as I've just committed myself to some serious hard work getting from Birmingham to Yorkshire by boat in a week. It will be worth it though!

When it's closer to the time for the festival, if anyone else from here is attending, I'll post some info on contacting us if you're interested in a quick tour of what it's like to live on water. No, not walk on water, although the canals are pretty shallow. :-)

Thanks for the great welcome to the group and the help in finding info.

-Su

Reply to
Su/Cutworks
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How close to Chesterfield do you get. Shirley

In message , Su/Cutworks writes

Reply to
Shirley Shone

And how about Hereford?

Reply to
Helen Page

Helen wrote:

LOL, the first image that popped into my head was the cattle.

Hereford... umm... 'paging through the canal books and looking at the map'

Closest I can find is the derelict Hereford and Gloucester canal. It is being restored down to Hereford, but it may be a while.

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The closest we'd be is in Stourbridge itself, at the festival. We'll eventually cover the canals as they're restored if they get done while we're still young enough to do locks. Oh yes, locks. Anyone really wanting the full boat experience can join us as we depart from the lovely Stourbridge festival area and face the leisurely ascent along the Stourbridge 16 lock flight. Yup, 16 of them. At an average of 4-5-ish per hour, it will take a while to depart lovely Stourbridge. Feel free to volunteer to watch and shout encouragement! I figure you have about three hours to spend. When I say watch, I really mean help. Normally I do the locks on my own while the husband drives the boat and amuses the son. It looks a lovely site, there are pics of the area on the BW website:
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the canal descends right into the heart of Stourbridge, dropping around 145 feet over the stretch. It looks gorgeous, with a number of glass works along the canal. I've put a call in to the Stourbridge Navigation Trust to sort out some moorings, as a 70' boat isn't something you just show up with and hope for space! Again, the offer's open to anyone who gets in touch with me beforehand to have a look at our home while we're at the festival. I'm sure that while we're there moored up we'll get the usual number of people knocking on the hatch and trying to order a '99' or tea for one please. Oh, yes, if anyone else is curious as to how close I may get to them, have a peek at this page:

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-Su

Reply to
Su/Cutworks

I have booked marked that site and yes Macclesfield would be the nearest to us. About1.1/2 hours ride away. My DH say we have seen the canal there but I do not remember it. Shirley

Reply to
Shirley Shone

That's the problem with derelict sections of canal, they don't look like much. Even in water they're hardly ever more than 4' deep so when they're dry they look like a big ditch.

If we make it up the Macc, I'll be sure to let you know but it's not on the cards for this summer as we're dragging my sister around to see the sights for two weeks. She'll either go back to the US loving the canals or hating me!

-Su

Reply to
Su/Cutworks

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