Retirement with No Problem

Moored Wilden, Staffs & Worcs Canal

I should have taken a couple of pictures yesterday of the new mural underneath St Mary’s Bridge in Kidderminster.

There is a picture on this webpage of what it used to look like, but now it is magnificent with beautiful artwork by Peter Barber showing a young mans face painted many times along the bridge wall depicting the various decades gone past.

I had a comment you see from Tavis asking if I liked it… well I certainly did, and in fact we did stop for a while to admire what had been done.  I didn’t know it was only done last month, and like the article says..

“The canal is one of Kidderminster’s most important assets. It is a key boating and pedestrian route and should be a pleasurable way to enter the town.  However, this tunnel has long become synonymous with anti-social behaviour and with extensive graffiti.  There appears to be a strong fear of crime in the tunnel causing many people to avoid it. It also creates a poor first impression for visitors; which, amongst the boating community, has lead to anecdotal evidence that the town centre is not a place to spend much time.  Clearly, this is not the case and this project will help to correct this idea.”

And it is important that towns create a better image so that boats will stop.. Kidderminster has had a bad reputation in the past and was one of the reasons why we didn’t stop yesterday.  Now they need to get rid of the winos along the canal side.  I wish more towns would put into place a ‘no tolerance to alcohol in this area’.  Now that would help, and would give us boaters more confidence to stop.

But for us today, well we had a dot day… Vic prepared all the roof furniture.. pole planks and the like for some fresh paint, while I did the mundane task of getting ‘animal’ (AKA Dyson) to work on the carpeted walls of No Problem.. so much dog hair where they lay and where they brush through as they pass down the boat..

There was time enough for a long walk though, and I passed through the village of Wilden with a wonderful Post Office and shop…

Just a couple of miles from Stourport, it was great to see this village shop still open for business nestled within a terrace of normal houses.. very unusual.

I’m looking forward to arriving at Stourport tomorrow and having a look around the large basins there and the staircase locks that drop the canal down to the River Severn.