Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Commandery played a central role in the Civil War .
This flight is the longest in the country, dropping through 30 locks in the next 3.4km, with
a further 28 to go down to the River Severn. Some of the locks have hooks at their lower ends
to assist horse towlines.
The top lock is one of the deepest narrow locks in the country with a fall of some 4m. It
was originally built as a lift lock but was converted to a conventional lock in 1815 after it was
found not to work properly in its original guise.
It takes a narrowboat about four hours to lock through the first flight but there can be few
more pleasant places to pass the time if the weather is right. Apart from the odd lock cottage,
an array of radio ham aerials and a distant farm, there is nothing to break the solitude and
beauty of the countryside. The canal drops past hawthorn bushes and fields of hay and barley.
The Queen's Head Inn, on the right, is a public house with a substantial carvery.
The lock cottage at Stoke Pound is hired out by the Landmark Trust, one visitor suggesting
that sitting in the cottage and watching the boats go past was a better activity than jumping
on and off a boat and watching the cottages go past. Hardly has the Tardebigge Flight been
left when the six locks of the Stoke Flight are encountered, leading down to the Navigation
Inn, a large polyethylene-covered boathouse and Black Prince's base.
The Boat & Railway, now offering a carvery instead of its former famous pickled eggs,
draws attention to the high-speed trains running just west of the canal.
Surprisingly few orchards can be seen, considering the part of the country concerned, but
one is passed on the left and it is followed on the right by low ground giving views right
across to the Malvern Hills. The cream block of Hadzor Hall dominates the hill on the right.
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