Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Upper Basin at Stourport and the decorative clocktower
.
Below Dunsley Hall is Dunsley Tunnel, Britain's shortest official canal tunnel at 23m. Be-
fore Kinver Lock there is a large pumping station. The dominant building for the village,
however, is the church high up on a ridge above the canal. The ridge extends westwards and
runs south-west as the gorse- and heather-covered Kinver Edge. On the west side of the vil-
lage is Holy Austin Rock where a series of caves had brick fronts built and were occupied
from the 16th century by up to 12 families, some 80 people, until they were moved out by
health officials in the 1960s. One is again occupied.
The lock cottage at Whittington Lock is also attractive but the most interesting building is
the timbered Whittington Inn, the former manor house of 1300, up the hill on the left. At one
stage it was owned by the grandfather of Dick Whittington, the boy who went to London and
became Lord Mayor after he heard the streets were paved with gold. The resident ghost is
that of Lady Jane Grey, who lived here. There is a 300m hidden tunnel to Whittington Hall
and priestholes are built into it. A final odd building is the wooden shed on stilts on the em-
bankment after the lock, originally fitted with wheels that have not been removed but remain
attached, along with the supporting piles.
Cookley or Debdale Lock has a large cave cut into the sandstone next to the lock chamber.
Probably used as a store or keeper's shelter in the past, it has only a small doorway but could
easily hold a couple of cars inside. The lock is followed by rock cutting with walls up to 6m
high.
From Wolverley Court Lock with its formerly split cantilevered footbridge, the canal
works its way towards Kidderminster - Old English for Cydela's monastery.
One of the better spots is just before Kidderminster Lock where a Perpendicular church
tower stands on top of a bank of cultivated shrubs above a wharf with a hand-operated crane.
