Canal Boat Holiday Base Information - Base 35

Base 35 is south of Birmingham in the heart of the UK canal network. It is run by one of the best boat operators in the UK, with a friendly, professional service. It is easily reached by rail or road, and is near Birmingham Airport.

STRATFORD AND BACK
7 day cruise - about 42 hours and 110 locks.
A magnificent introduction to canal cruising. The Worcester/Birmingham canal takes you into the suburbs of Birmingham but a right turn at Kings Norton onto the Stratford upon Avon canal means that you quickly leave Birmingham behind and head off into the West Midlands 'stockbroker belt'. There is splendid countryside and delightful villages with quaint names. You pass through a canal crossroads with a connection to the Grand Union canal. If time allows you can have a detour along a lock free stretch of the Grand Union to the top of Hatton locks and then take a train the short distance to Warwick and visit its superb castle. Further south on the Stratford canal, you will find Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden's, house close to the canal at Wilmcote as well as the longest aqueduct on the main canal system which allows you to soar across a valley, over a railway and a road. Finally, after a short tunnel under a very busy road, you burst out into Bancroft basin with its manicured grass and colourful flowerbeds, right by the entrance to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the River Avon. A quick walk across the road to the Tourist Information Centre will produce reams of information about the local attractions.

THE STOURPORT RING
7 day cruise about 48 hours and 116 locks. The most popular one-week circular cruise from Alvechurch. Four hours cruising into central Birmingham will reveal why the Worcester/Birmingham canal is known as the green route into the city. Moor amid the splendour of the magnificently re-developed area, by the pubs, clubs and restaurants around Gas Street and Brindley Place and admire the International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall with their delightful waterfront. There is so much to see and do that you will be spoilt for choice. On perhaps to the Black Country Museum at Tipton, well worth at least half a days visit and then through Wolverhampton to join the incredibly scenic and atmospheric Staffs & Worcester canal. Alternatively, avoiding Wolverhampton, take the route down the Stourbridge canal. This is hardly a short cut as your crew are unlikely to resist the delights of the vast Merry Hill shopping centre with its futuristic monorail connection to the canal basin. A little further on the ladies in the crew are also sure to want to visit the Stourbridge Crystal factory. Both routes lead through Kidderminster where steam railway fans can indulge themselves on the Severn Valley Railway. Stourport on Severn gives access to the River Severn. Half a days cruising with a few large, keeper controlled, locks brings you to Worcester and to join the Worcester/Birmingham canal. Don't forget to visit the celebrated porcelain factory & museum as well as the Cathedral before setting off back to Alvechurch along this very rural waterway.

THE AVON RING
10/11 day cruise - about 58 hours and 139 locks An experienced crew can cover this route within a week but it is much better to spend 10/11 days. Two weeks would allow time to also cruise to Gloucester with its historic docks and warehouses (now offices and museums) and on down the lock free Gloucester to Sharpness canal which ends alongside the Severn estuary with, at high tide, the sea lapping just the other side of the canal towpath wall. Leaving Alvechurch you take the very rural Worcester/Birmingham canal to historic Worcester and then join the River Severn to Tewkesbury. On entering the River Avon via Tewkesbury lock, the lock keeper will sell you a licence for this privately maintained river navigation. The river twists and turns to present to you different vistas of the delightful countryside in the Vale of Evesham, through Pershore (thought to be the Borchester in the long running 'Archers' radio serial) and Evesham until finally you leave the River at Stratford upon Avon and return to Alvechurch along the route described in 'Stratford and Back'. At the end of your holiday you will sincerely feel that you have found and experienced the true England.

SHORT BREAK ROUTES
There are a number of routes that can be taken on three or four night short breaks:
TOP OF LAPWORTH FLIGHT AND RETURN
3/4 Night cruise and No locks
WOOTTON WAWEN AND RETURN
4 Night cruise and 74 locks
MINI RING
4 Night cruise 22 hours cruising and 49 locks

The mini ring requires a 4 night mid week break. You start off along the Worcester/Birmingham canal and cruise into Birmingham for the first night's mooring. You then pass through some of Britain finest industrial architecture and along the Grand Union canal to Catherine de Barnes into rural Warwickshire, where the scenery is breathtaking. Three hours further on and you pass over the Stratford-upon-Avon canal and after eight hours join the Worcester/Birmingham canal. A further two hours returns you to Alvechurch.